Accessing Services in the City: The Significance of Urban Refugee-Host Relations in Cameroon, Indonesia and Pakistan

This report considers how relationships between urban refugees and more established local communities affect refugee access to key services and resources. According to the estimates of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the majority of the world’s refugees now reside in cities or towns. In contrast to camps, where refugees are relatively isolated from local host communities and more dependent on assistance from humanitarian agencies to meet their basic needs, refugees in urban areas typically depend more on social networks, relationships and individual agency to re-establish their livelihoods. This study explores the conditions under which refugee-host relations may either promote or inhibit refugee access to local services and other resources. It also considers how positive impacts of these evolving relationships may be nurtured and developed to improve humanitarian outcomes for refugees. In 2009, UNHCR updated its policy on refugees in urban areas, highlighting the challenges of providing protection and assistance in spatially and socially complex environments. This initiative has encouraged the broader humanitarian community to explore more innovative approaches to understanding and programming related to refugees in urban areas. One of the effects of this development has been to highlight the role of the host community and the importance of considering their needs and perspectives. The present report contributes to this broader evolving discussion by exploring the significance of what are termed “refugee-host relations” in determining access to a range of resources and entitlements in the city, referred to here collectively as “services”.

The report is drawn from a field study conducted in 2012, which compares the experiences of urban refugees in Yaoundé (Cameroon), Jakarta (Indonesia), and Karachi and Peshawar (Pakistan). The results of the study suggest that factors that improve refugee-host relationships may also enhance the capacity of urban refugees to access services in the city. Importantly, the results also suggest that the opposite may be true, namely that improved refugee access to services strengthens refugee-host relations.