Urban refugees in gateway cities: Race, space, place making

• In Event: Evidence-based decision making in education
  In Refereed Round-Table Session: Global migration: biopolitics, interruptions, and trends in theory and method

Proposal

It is estimated that approximately 3 million refugees have settled in the U.S. since Congress passed the Refugee Act of 1980 (Pew Research Center, 2017). Studies show that refugees have often preferred to settle in cities as they are more likely to be diverse with less social stigma, provide work opportunities, connect with co-ethnic network. However, there are limited studies on how "urban" refugees may contribute to changing inter-group relations and how this process may be structured and evolve through different time and space in the U.S. cities. In this paper, I focus on two case studies in New Jersey—Elizabeth and Paterson. Using interviews, GIS mapping, and surveys, we investigate how particularities of these “urban spaces”, as key immigrant gateway cities in NJ with their own distinctive migration histories, local politics, and changing demographics, serve as important sites of interaction and integration of refugee families and their children. Rather than focusing on experiences of one specific ethnic or racial group, we investigate under what urban contexts do “origin-based” categories (i.e. ethnicity and/or race) become salient in changing race relations of different schooling and community contexts. Using urban schools as important spaces of integration and race relations, this study examines how these racial/ethnic categories are used by refugee parents for drawing both practical and symbolic boundaries towards garnering political mobilization and social capital for their children.

Author

• Jamie Lew, Rutgers University