Urban protracted displacement and displacement economies

Abstract

Protracted displacement is one of the most complex and difficult humanitarian problems facing the international community today. This paper argues that urban protracted displacement deserves status as a distinct state of refugeehood, and that better analysis of the structural and individual barriers to economic inclusion of urban refugees and IDPs should underpin both incremental and radical policy response. The paper draws on a study of protracted displacement in four countries, Ethiopia, Jordan, Kenya and Afghanistan, to explore those barriers through application of the Displacement Economies Framework, a theoretical and programming tool developed through the research, to help rethink responses to protracted displacement in cities. The paper thus contributes to literatures on urban protracted displacement and to a gap in the research on displacement economies in cities, demonstrating that addressing structural and individual barriers is key to supporting the economic inclusion of displaced people in cities.