The Refugee Crisis Is a City Crisis

Since the end of August, more than half a million Rohingya, a predominantly Muslim minority in Burma (Myanmar), have fled violence in that country and crossed the border into Bangladesh in what the United Nations is calling the fastest-growing refugee crisis in the world today. Meanwhile, millions of Syrian and Iraqi refugees displaced by civil war continue to be dispersed to towns and cities throughout the region and in Europe.

Against this backdrop, UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi spoke last month during the General Assembly in New York to talk about a new approach for dealing with refugees, one in which those forced to flee their homes are integrated more permanently into urban areas rather than isolated in camps. “Inclusion is the name of the game,” Grandi said. Under this new model, “Cities are frontline players in dealing with refugees.”