Geographies of Refugee Resettlement and Post-industrial Urban Renewal in Rust Belt Cities
Refugees are active agents of urban change. According to the United Nations, 60 percent of the world’s refugees are in cities and as such, cities of today are uniquely positioned to seek solutions that address refugee concerns alongside interrelated urban social justice and sustainability issues. Much of the scholarly and policy analyses on refugees in cities have rightfully focused on issues of exclusion, violence, and encampments in host cities. While such is important, there is much to be learned about the multiple resettlement trajectories involving refugee communities across the globe. In the United States, thousands of refugees are resettled into cities. Among the major recipients of refugees in the United States are cities in the Rust Belt, a region that struggled with economic stagnation and population loss due to deindustrialization.
Focusing on the cities of Buffalo, New York and Cleveland, Ohio in the United States, this study will examine how refugee resettlement has reconfigured post-industrial urban renewal and revitalization. Through a mixed method approach that combines secondary analysis of quantitative data, policy documents and community resources, semi-structured interviews with community leaders, organization heads, and city officials, and focus group discussions of refugee residents, this project has three objectives. First, it will assess the multi-scalar policy shifts concerning refugee resettlement, refugee integration, and urban renewal. Second, the study will analyze the changes in the local housing market due to refugee resettlement, tracing both formal and informal networks that interlink refugee resettlement with the real estate market. Third, the study will examine the emergence of refugee communities in selected city neighborhoods, detailing the local dynamics that sustain the lives and livelihood of communities, including community initiatives that promote the economic, cultural, and social interests of the community. Findings from this project will help develop a framework that integrates refugee resettlement and urban revitalization, one which can guide urban policies and planning practices and that advocates for socially just and sustainable futures.
Thank you to the Regional Science Association for supporting this project. It is an honor to receive this grant. As an immigrant faculty here in the United States, working on refugee and immigration issues as they pertain to urban transformation is at the core of my scholarship. I expect this study to blossom into future community-engaged projects that will advocate for refugee concerns.
Principal Investigator: Arnisson Andre Ortega
Arnisson Andre C. Ortega is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Geography and the Environment in Syracuse University. He is a critical geographer focusing on (1) community-engaged work; (2) spatial politics of urban transformations; (3) transnational urbanism; and (4) critical demography. He is an affiliate faculty of the Community Geography program at Syracuse University.