Reclaiming refugee agency and its implications for shelter design in refugee camps

Abstract: Refugee agency refers to the notion of decision making exercised by forced migrants, and their efforts aimed at improving life in the context of displacement. As such, it has emerged as a useful concept to channel discussions about the challenges of current refugee encampment practices, which we argue encompasses consequences for the design and provision of shelter solutions. Building on the evidence collected in selected refugee camps of Jordan and Ethiopia, we suggest that acknowledging and incorporating the voices of refugees can not only enhance their well-being in climatically, socially and politically challenging environments, but it could also be beneficial to other actors such as humanitarian agencies and host governments. While we recognize the constrains arising in these contexts, we focus on the importance of adaptations and customization of shelters that we found to be the leitmotiv and, more critically, a fundamental humanizing factor of refugee experience in camps. The refugees’ freedom to make choices about their own shelters can then be used to rethink how to deliver better environments in which camp inhabitants can live in dignity. Although engineering design can only facilitate agency, rather than give it, it could help build the consensus about the pre-requisites of what constitutes truly ‘appropriate’ shelters

To fail an asylum seeker: time, space and legal events

Legal geographers have recently highlighted the importance of attending to the interaction of time and space to understand law and its enactment. We build on these efforts to examine the spatiotemporal influences over the processes by which asylum claim determination procedures in Western industrialised countries seek to reconstruct past events for the purposes of deciding refugee claims. Two ‘common-sense’ beliefs underpin this reconstruction: that the occurrences leading to a fear of persecution can be isolated and that the veracity of an asylum claim is objectively independent from the process of uncovering it. We critically interrogate these assumptions by conceptualising the fears of people seeking asylum as Deleuzian ‘events’. Basing our argument on 41 interviews with people who have previously claimed asylum in the United Kingdom and firsthand accounts of asylum appeals, we explore the folding together of asylum ‘truths’ and the spatiotemporal processes by which they are arrived at, arguing that refused asylum claims are not simply detected by the process – they are produced by it

Diagnostic of Habitability of Emergency Temporary Housing in Peru:Diagnóstico de la habitabilidad en las viviendas temporales de emergencia en Perú

In Peru, emergency temporary housing (ETH) is currently facing environmental, social, and economic problems. From an environmental perspective, no studies have explored the habitability and internal comfort of these units or the impacts of the materials used. From a social perspective, this type of housing does not generally consider the population's characteristics and socio-cultural relationships in its settlement patterns or interior design. Finally, ETHs are expensive for the government owing to the lack of planning or the difficulty in adapting the units. This enables us to assert that the current response is insufficient. By conducting a field analysis of three types of ETH units in the three major geographic regions of Peru, a diagnostic methodology is used to identify problems and possible solutions in response to each region's habitability condition. The resulting conclusion contributes to organizing a comprehensive response plan to natural phenomena

Diagnostic of habitability of emergency temporary housing in Peru

In Peru, emergency temporary housing (ETH) is currently facing environmental, social, and economic problems. From an environmental perspective, no studies have explored the habitability and internal comfort of these units or the impacts of the materials used. From a social perspective, this type of housing does not generally consider the population's characteristics and socio-cultural relationships in its settlement patterns or interior design. Finally, ETHs are expensive for the government owing to the lack of planning or the difficulty in adapting the units. This enables us to assert that the current response is insufficient. By conducting a field analysis of three types of ETH units in the three major geographic regions of Peru, a diagnostic methodology is used to identify problems and possible solutions in response to each region's habitability condition. The resulting conclusion contributes to organizing a comprehensive response plan to natural phenomena

Analysing experiences and issues in self-built shelters in Bangladesh using transdisciplinary approach

There are currently 70.8 million forcibly displaced people, globally. Bangladesh hosts the largest refugee camp in the world. Much effort has gone into the research, design and delivery of mass-produced shelters. Yet most refugees live in self-built shelters using simple shelter materials. This paper aims to demonstrate the benefits of using a transdisciplinary approach for holistic data collection in such shelters. A total of 1594 households were surveyed in refugee camps in Bangladesh using diverse methods—e.g. surveys, semi-structured interviews, physical measurements. It was only because of the use of various methods that the reasons behind identified issues were discovered or quantified. For example, household surveys uncovered the issue of poor ventilation, but only the semi-structured interviews exposed the reasons behind it, while physical measurements assessed the implications of this—annual particulate exposure 13 times the recommended limit. Furthermore, several methods pointed to issues with materials, but only the focus groups discussions exposed the need for gender-sensitive technical training tailored for women on the correct use of the materials. This study demonstrates that a diverse team (humanitarian staff, building physicists, and anthropologists) using several approaches to data-gathering and working in a transdisciplinary manner has much to offer the sector, and by including quantitative physical measurements allows costed improvement plans to be developed, targets to be set and general, rather than case specific, knowledge to be generated. The findings of this study have resulted in new shelter interventions by the aid sector that were rolled out in over 70,000 shelters

The tribunal atmosphere: On qualitative barriers to access to justice

Vulnerable groups’ direct experiences and impressions of British courts and tribunals have often been overlooked by politicians and policy makers (JUSTICE, 2019). This paper takes a geographical, empirical approach to access to justice to respond to these concerns, paying attention to the atmosphere of First Tier Immigration and Asylum Tribunal hearings to explore the qualitative aspects of (in)access to justice during asylum appeals. It draws on 41 interviews with former appellants and 390 observations of hearings in the First tier immigration and asylum tribunal to unpack the lived experiences of tribunal users and to identify three ways in which the atmosphere in tribunals can constitute a barrier to access to justice. First, asylum appellants are frequently profoundly disorientated upon arrival at the tribunal. Second, appellants become distrustful of the courtroom when they cannot see it as independent of the state. Third they often experience the courtroom procedures and the interactions that take place as disrespectful, inhibiting their participation. These insights demonstrate how the concept of ‘atmosphere’ can illuminate legal debates in valuable ways. Additionally we argue that legal policy making must find better ways to take vulnerable litigants’ experiences into account

Understanding material and supplier networks in the construction of disaster-relief shelters: the feasibility of using social network analysis as a decision-making tool

Purpose: Understanding the supply network of construction materials used to construct shelters in refugee camps, or during the reconstruction of communities, is important as it can reveal the intricate links between different stakeholders and the volumes and speeds of material flows to the end-user. Using social network analysis (SNA) enables another dimension to be analysed – the role of commonalities. This is likely to be particularly important when attempting to replace vernacular materials with higher-performing alternatives or when encouraging the use of non-vernacular methods. This paper aims to analyse the supply networks of four different disaster-relief situations. Design/methodology/approach: Data were collected from interviews with 272 displaced (or formally displaced) families in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Nepal and Turkey, often in difficult conditions. Findings: The results show that the form of the supply networks was highly influenced by the nature/cause of the initial displacement, the geographical location, the local availability of materials and the degree of support/advice given by aid agencies and or governments. In addition, it was found that SNA could be used to indicate which strategies might work in a particular context and which might not, thereby potentially speeding up the delivery of novel solutions. Research limitations/implications: This study represents the first attempt in theorising and empirically investigating supply networks using SNA in a post-disaster reconstruction context. It is suggested that future studies might map the up-stream supply chain to include manufacturers and higher-order, out of country, suppliers. This would provide a complete picture of the origins of all materials and components in the supply network. Originality/value: This is original research, and it aims to produce new knowledge

Rethinking commonality in refugee status determination in Europe: Legal geographies of asylum appeals

The Common European Asylum System aims to establish common standards for refugee status determination among EU Member States. Combining insights from legal and political geography we bring the depth and scale of this challenge into sharp relief. Drawing on interviews and a detailed ethnography of asylum adjudication involving over 850 in-person asylum appeal observations, we point towards practical differences in the spatio-temporality, materiality and logistics of asylum appeal processes as they are operationalised in seven European countries. Our analysis achieves three things. Firstly, we identify a key zone of differences at the level of concrete, everyday implementation that has largely escaped academic attention, which allows us to critically assess the notion of harmonisation of asylum policies in new ways. Secondly, drawing on legal- and political-geographical concepts, we offer a way to conceptualise this zone by paying attention to the spatio-temporality, materiality and logistics it involves. Thirdly, we offer critical legal logistics as a new direction for scholarship in legal geography and beyond that promises to prise open the previously obscured mechanics of contemporary legal systems