Dear Deeply Readers,
Welcome to the archives of Refugees Deeply. While we paused regular publication of the site on April 1, 2019, we are happy to serve as an ongoing public resource on refugees and migration. We hope you’ll enjoy the reporting and analysis that was produced by our dedicated community of editors and contributors.
We continue to produce events and special projects while we explore where the on-site journalism goes next. If you’d like to reach us with feedback or ideas for collaboration you can do so at [email protected].
Exploring the key policies, players and innovations in refugee integration.
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Refugees are often marginalized in their new countries, so in response, create local “belonging,” writes Lucy Hovil, senior researcher at the International Refugee Rights Initiative, in an extract from her book on Africa’s Great Lakes region.
Many of Delhi’s refugee communities center on an urban village called Khirkee Extension. There, refugees from Afghanistan, Somalia and Iraq try to recreate the tastes of home while adjusting to the flavors of their new life.
Discrimination against foreigners – whether economic migrants or refugees – in Italy’s rental market has been exacerbated by the economic crisis. Refugees Deeply spoke with Syrians living in Bologna who have struggled to find housing despite owning their own businesses.
Lucy Hovil Senior Researcher, International Refugee Rights Initiative
The recent crisis in Burundi has reversed a major effort to repatriate Burundian refugees in the past decade. Lucy Hovil outlines her new research for the International Refugee Rights Initiative showing that the roots of the current displacement lie partly in the failure to reintegrate returning refugees.
Amid the anti-migration rhetoric of the incoming Trump administration, Preethi Nallu meets resettled families in the midwestern city of St. Louis, whose communities have helped resuscitate areas of their new hometown.
Refugees sent to Romania under an E.U. relocation scheme are considering leaving due to a lack of jobs and poor language classes. Their situation demonstrates that European relocation efforts must be backed by resources in order for integration to be successful.
Matthew La Corte Immigration Policy Analyst, Niskanen Center
The Trump administration takes office just as proposals to relaunch private sponsorship of refugees in the U.S. are gaining support. Matthew La Corte from the Niskanen Center argues that it would be wrong to abandon this approach.
Amid a hostile climate for refugees in the U.K., ordinary citizens are plugging gaps in the asylum system. Judith Vonberg reports on Refugees at Home, a volunteer initiative connecting Britons offering spare rooms with asylum seekers desperately in need of a bed.
For many migrants fleeing persecution in their homelands, the U.K. is the promised land. And hiding in the back of a truck is virtually the only way to get there.
Meghan Benton and Alex Glennie Senior Policy Analyst, Migration Policy Institute
The refugee crisis prompted an explosion of apps and digital tools to help displaced people on their journey. Meghan Benton and Alex Glennie, authors of a new Migration Policy Institute report on tech sector assistance to refugees, explain why results have been mixed.
Nujeen Mustafa didn’t realize fleeing from Syria to Europe in a wheelchair would be considered extraordinary. Now in Germany, she has written a book about her journey. Speaking to Refugees Deeply, she says she hopes the attention will demonstrate that refugees are more than numbers.
Much of the responsibility in caring for refugees arriving in Germany has fallen to local authorities. This has brought challenges, but also successful innovations that must be widely shared – and quickly, says Brookings Institution scholar Bruce Katz.
Bruce Katz Centennial Scholar, Brookings Institution
Ahead of the U.N. General Assembly meeting this week, a new discussion paper from the Brookings Institution has one clear message for world leaders: There is an urgent need to focus on the role and actions of cities taking in refugees across Europe.
As Germany struggles to house more than 1 million refugees, some unusual temporary solutions are being found. Meet the residents of Transit, a three-story barge full of transported lives moored near Hamburg.
Syrian refugees sent to a seaside resort were told they were going to the best refugee camp in Greece. Six months on, people’s patience with a holiday no one wanted is wearing thin.
While Germany has made significant progress in providing education for refugee children regardless of their official status, more trained teachers, schools and housing facilities are needed.
Will Jones and Alex Teytelboym Lecturer, the Refugee Studies Centre at the University of Oxford
Matching theory can drastically improve refugee resettlement, argue Will Jones and Alex Teytelboym, who have adapted algorithms used for school choice.
Britain has agreed to private sponsorship of refugees. Tim Finch, one of the architects of the breakthrough, tells Refugees Deeply why it can help countries successfully expand resettlement programs.
In this second part of our investigation into prostitution among child refugees in Athens, we see how lack of shelter and the rising price of people-smuggling are leaving them prey to the drug trade.
Ralph Hancock Sheffield Pensioner and Chairman, Sheffield Conversation Club
In the last of our Brexit Aftermath series, Ralph Hancock explains how he and a team of volunteers turned an English-language conversation club into a living link between refugees and the local community.
The first of a two-part investigation into prostitution among child refugees in Athens. With 57,000 refugees stranded in Greece, we look at what some of the most vulnerable among them are doing to survive.
Sweden has a reputation for championing refugee protection. But recent changes to its asylum policies – especially the repatriation of Afghans to an increasingly chaotic homeland – are undermining its good name.
Clara Sandelind Lecturer in Politics, Huddersfield University
The framing of identity has been left to the populists for too long, argues Clara Sandelind, a Swedish-born British resident. National belonging and community can be fostered without playing to immigration fears.
With cities across Europe continuing to attract the majority of the continent’s refugees, mayors struggling with insufficient budgets are helping each other and calling for increased E.U. funds to integrate new arrivals.
Asha Siad and Roda Siad Documentary Filmmakers
Somali-Canadian filmmakers Asha Siad and Roda Siad, whose short documentary “19 Days” follows several refugee families during their first few weeks in Canada, look at migrants’ experiences in a Calgary resettlement center.
As part of our special coverage for World Refugee Day, we mark the importance of resettlement by gathering first-hand accounts of refugees from Iraq, Syria, Congo, South Sudan and Myanmar on an interactive world map.
In this final part of our World Refugee Day special series on the experiences of men and women from around the world who resettle in America, we speak with Shadi Ismail who fled Syria because of his sexual orientation and feels that his life has finally begun in Idaho.
In this first-person account, photographer Kashif Ali describes the lives of a Rohingya community in Hyderabad as they seek recognition by the Indian government on the one hand, while making peace with the finality of their exodus on the other.
Tabitha McDuffee Recent Graduate, Moody Bible Institute
The U.S. and other countries have a moral obligation to admit refugees regardless of religion, says Tabitha McBain, adding that vulnerable groups such as Yazidis should be resettled as a priority.
Urban ‘ghettoization’ due to host governments housing refugees in shelters in impoverished neighborhoods has further impeded their social integration in European cities. In Germany, private initiatives are finding ways of creating an open-door culture through flat-shares.
As unilateral border closures create riskier conditions for people on the move – and bottlenecks within transit countries – Refugees Deeply provides an overview of the barriers between European states, across the Mediterranean and North Africa and in the Caucasus.
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