Navigating Belonging Refugee Integration and Social Cohesion in Urban Host Communities

Abstract

The integration of refugees into urban host communities represents one of the most pressing humanitarian and policy challenges of the contemporary era. Despite growing scholarly attention to refugee settlement, the social mechanisms that either facilitate or impede genuine belonging remain undertheorized, particularly in the context of cities in the Global South. This article draws on eighteen months of ethnographic fieldwork and seventy-two in-depth interviews conducted across three urban sites in South Africa, Kenya, and Ghana to examine how refugees and host community members negotiate social boundaries, construct shared identities, and experience cohesion or conflict in everyday life. Findings reveal that belonging is not a static outcome but a dynamic, relational, and often contested process shaped by housing conditions, labor market competition, language barriers, and the attitudes of local authorities. The study identifies four key enabling conditions for integration — institutional support, economic complementarity, spatial mixing, and intercultural dialogue — and argues that urban integration policies must be recalibrated to address structural inequalities rather than focusing narrowly on individual refugee capacities. The article contributes to emerging debates on urban refuge, social cohesion theory, and the governance of forced migration in African cities.