Forced migrants and urban change in the Middle East: Forms of settlement, informality and urban practices
Résumé
Migration is a key issue in most of the Middle Eastern countries affected both by a high rate of emigration and increasing immigration. Due to political instability, the region concentrates one the highest refugee populations (mainly constituted by Palestinians, Syrians and Iraqis) and internally displaced population. Most of the current refugee population settle in urban areas to access resources and develop in certain localities their own social and economic activities contributing to the urban change. My presentation will focus on two different situations: Palestinian refugee camps and Iraqi urban settlement. Palestinian refugee camps have developed specific ties with their local urban environment. On the one hand camps appear to be marginalised and segregated areas due to the special - and often changing - regulation and mode of controls as well as the legal status of their Palestinian residents. On the other hand, refugee camps are strongly connected to their urban environment through the daily mobility of Palestinian refugees, the growing presence of other groups of refugees and migrants (such as foreign workers, asylum seekers and refugees), and the development of commercial activities that blur the boundaries of the refugee camps, making it a part of the city. Post-2003 Iraqi presence in Damascus concentrated in some of the neighbourhoods of the suburb of the city mainly in informal areas where renting prices are lower. Economic activities developed by Iraqis were mostly concentrated in the informal economic sector and the rather flexible urban context in which they were situated has facilitated the adaptation of the newcomers.
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