Urban Refugee Research and Social Capital

On November 15, 2012, the IRC and the WRC convened a Roundtable discussion on urban refugee research. Four selected presenters shared their research around protection strategies, profiling, livelihood and advocacy for refugees in urban areas. During the discussions among the practitioners, policymakers and researchers, critical gaps regarding urban refugee programming and research were identified. In brief, seven main themes categorizing the identified challenges and potentials emerged: 1)programming in urban areas; 2) urban mindset; 3) advocacy; 4) data for programming; 5) livelihoods; 6) role of private sector and technology; and 7) communities, social capital and networks.

 

This secondary research focuses on the possibilities and challenges of leveraging social capital and networks within urban refugee communities for improving advocacy, policy and programmatic efforts. It provides, firstly, an analytical discussion on the conceptual, theoretical and content analysis of refugee studies literature on urban refugee communities and social networks in the context of low- and middle-income countries. Secondly, the literature review addresses the issue of policymaking and programming. It examines the questions of how programs with urban refugee communities have been designed and what the main implementation challenges are. Thirdly, the methodological approaches taken in existing studies on urban refugee communities and social networks are discussed and assessed. The overall methodological approaches, city selection, sampling and research designs are examined.