A Place for Integration: Refugee Experiences in Two English Cities

Abstract

This paper seeks to inject an appreciation of place into analysis of refugee integration. A framework of integration sensitive to interactions between people and places is operationalised to facilitate the systematic comparison of the refugee integration process in different places. In particular, this paper explores variations in key indicators of integration within a cohort of refugees arriving into the UK from the same country of origin (Iraq), at the same time, granted the same legal status and afforded a similar package of support and assistance but settled in two different cities in England (Hull and Sheffield). Distinct differences in the integration experiences of refugees in the two cities are spotlighted and related to the contextual, compositional and collective aspects of the places into which they were settled. The findings highlight the importance of recognising that refugee integration is grounded and embodied in space and place and that despite proceeding under the same general operative processes can evolve differently in different places. IntroductionRelatively large numbers of asylum seekers and refugees have arrived into the UK over the last 20 years. The number of people seeking asylum in the UK rose from around 4,000 in 1987 to a peak of over 80,000 per year in 2002, before falling back to about 20,000 per year from 2005 onwards (Blinder, 2013). A major body of literature has emerged documenting the integration experiences of these refugees. Building on conceptualisations of integration as a two-way process involving change for migrants and host societies, research has set about revealing different settlement processes and experiences and establishing the conditions or relationships necessary for integration to occur. Different individuals and groups have been revealed to be integrating in different ways, at different velocities along different trajectories and with variable outcomes (Favell, 2001).Factors informing the integration process have been recognised as including prevailing notions of nationhood and citizenship (Ager and Strang, 2008), which shape legal status frameworks, the institutional environment of the receiving society and the rights and opportunities granted to refugees (Da Lomba, 2010; Johnson et al., 2009;Korac, 2003;Mulvey, 2010;Valenta and Bunar, 2010). The demographic characteristics, cultures and capacities of the settling population have also been identified as important determinants of the integration process (Castles et al., 2002;Threadgold and Court, 2005;Phillimore, 2011;Cebulla et al., 2010). Social connections and relations and, in particular, bonding relationships between refugees, have been spotlighted as key to the experiences of many refugees (Atfield et al., 2007;Cheung and Phillimore, 2013;Losi and Strang, 2008;Spicer, 2008;Valtonen, 2004;Vrecer, 2010).Despite these insights, understanding of the factors informing the integration experiences of refugees and their interconnectiveness remains relatively weak (Phillimore, 2011). Rutter (2013) sugg...

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