Opening of 2 PhD Fellowships FWO Project "Housing for Refugee Inclusion"

Scholarship on urban diversity has emphasized housing’s critical role for the social inclusion and mobility of refugees. However the most common concept and related policy instrument at the nexus of housing and diversity, ‘social mix’, is said to perform poorly in strengthening social inclusion. Moreover, inter-disciplinary frameworks reflecting a multi-dimensional understanding of housing are still lacking. This research project aims to develop innovative housing models for refugees that fill this gap by simultaneously fostering a sense of belonging and becoming pathways for social inclusion. It therefore views the housing of refugees not as a separate question but embeds it in the broader housing question of cities. This objective will be achieved by adopting a double perspective rooted in architectural design and in housing governance, corresponding with two interrelated PhD tracks, and in the context of a double innovation. Firstly, the models in question will be developed in two superdiverse arrival neighbourhoods in Brussels and Ghent. Secondly, they will transcend the current discontinuities in refugees’ accommodation trajectories. Additionally, the project will critically review current housing practices for refugee inclusion in Europe. Supported by a steering committee of well-established scholars from relevant disciplines, it will also work towards the construction of an inter-disciplinary framework to reconceptualize housing as an emancipatory domain for refugees.