Cities of refuge and resistance: Everyday urban spaces, social inclusion & the hostile environment. The shaping of the urban lives of people seeking a

The research will explore the factors governing the urban
lives of people seeking asylum in London. Using
participatory and visual methods, it will identify significant
urban spaces and understand how they facilitate and inhibit
opportunities for social connectivity, health and wellbeing
against the constraints of legal status and an intentionally
exclusionary asylum system. Focusing on the lived
experiences of refused and current asylum seekers in two
London boroughs, it will explore the spatial dimensions of
urban inclusion and exclusion - from uses of public spaces
such as urban greenspace, squares and the streets to
accessible semi-public spaces such as cafes, libraries and
community centres - and how asylum seekers employ
everyday tactics to subvert and resist the effects of
precarious legal status and exclusionary policy which
manifest psychologically and in the built environment. It
seeks to theorise urban spaces as sites of refuge,
resistance and hostility and conceptualise how socio-legal
constraints manage and regulate the urban lives of asylum
seekers.