Urban Refugees and the Right to the City: Negotiating Social Rights and Integration

abstract: This study explores how refugees navigate the challenges in accessing social support within the Global South's urban centers. This research, based on interviews with Congolese refugees in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa, reveals unique challenges faced by this population—compared to urban-based refugees in other regions, particularly the Global North. Notwithstanding the salience of tensions with host communities, the findings reveal how urban-based refugees in the area of the case study develop networks of shared identity (homophily) and other unique strategies as mechanisms for self-reliance and advocacy. The empirical findings also show the urban-based refugees' agency in accessing non-economic Rights to the City (RTC), such as sustainable growth, upward social mobility, and self-directed integration. The findings also highlight the dual role of the said networks of homophily in not only mitigating collective disadvantages but also potentially reinforcing in-group biases and inequalities. While offering counterarguments to the traditional models of assimilation, the findings also contribute nuanced perspectives on refugee integration and social protection within urban settings. By focusing on the non-economic aspects of urban life, this research moves beyond econometric models of refugee well-being and emphasizes the multidimensional nature of urban poverty. In deepening our contemporary understanding of refugee experiences across diverse urban environments—recommendations are proffered for further comparative research on sustainable social mobility and integration within urban settings.