Local Community Experiences of Displacement from Syria: Views from Lebanon, Jordan and Turkey
Efforts to bring local faith actors (LFAs) into the wider humanitarian apparatus have been a key aim of the localisation of aid agenda. In this piece, Olivia Wilkinson (Director of Research of Refugee Hosts' research partner, the Joint Learning Initiative on Local Faith Communities) argues that there is a need to ensure that such engagements provide space…
In this article Kieran Taylor reflects upon his research into Glasgow’s response to Belgian refugees within Scotland during the Great War. The article considers the role played by local government and faith groups in assisting refugees, offering a key historical perspective on some of the themes we are exploring through our Refugee Hosts research project.…
In light of the limited hospitality offered to refugees and asylum seekers by European states, local communities, volunteers, faith groups and activists have often acted as key providers of support and solidarity. In this piece, Zareena Grewal (Yale University) demonstrates the important role such local initiatives are playing in Athens and Lesbos, including in spaces such…
Attempts to localise humanitarian responses have resulted in a growing awareness on the part of international actors of the opportunities that come from working with local faith communities (as explored on Refugee Hosts here, here and here). However, as Estella Carpi argues, there is a need to reflect on local contexts to ensure that engagements with…
Local Communities and Contextualising the Localisation of Aid Agenda Series Introduction by Dr Elena Fiddian-Qasmiyeh, Refugee Hosts PI and UCL In recent years, and especially since the 2016 World Humanitarian Summit, the ‘localisation of aid agenda’ has become prominent in discussions about responses to displacement. This agenda starts by recognising that ‘local actors’ play key…
As the formal humanitarian sector works to develop more meaningful partnerships with local organisations and communities, there is a need for international organisations to take a step back. As Eva Svoboda argues in this piece, this is because it is often local organisations and communities that have the access and networks to meet the needs…
How can representations of local communities as particularly ‘hospitable’ and ‘welcoming’ spaces in fact obscure complex realities of exclusion? In this contribution to our Representations of Displacement series, Siobhán McGuirk explores the ways in which NGO and media reports have (mis)represented sexual minority refugees’ arrival in an "inclusive" community in the USA characterised by rainbow flag…
How does UNHCR narrate refugee stories through its official media? In this piece, Leonie Harsch adopts a critical approach, and builds on a number of important arguments put forward by researchers, to argue that the telling of 'refugee stories' by humanitarian organisations can sometimes result in exclusionary outcomes - this is especially the case when individual…
Reflecting on her voluntary/volunteering work with refugees in Greece, in this piece Sarah El Sheikh highlights how people affected by displacement respond to and resist different narratives and policies developed about (and against) refugees. Echoing other contributions to our Representations of Displacement Series [ie. see here and here], Sarah argues that, in response to narratives that demonise…
Call for Submissions: Contextualising the Localisation of Aid Agenda (January 15th-March 25th) This call for submissions invites contributions that add to on-going debates about the ‘localisation of aid agenda’, encouraging in particular pieces that help to conceptualise and contextualise ‘the local’ in the context of responses to displacement in the global South: How is ‘the…
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