The Refugee Influx from Syria and Sudan in Cairo: An Analysis of the Dynamics of Resilience, Hospitality and Hostility
A new report from Queen Mary University of London, sheds light on the challenges and coping mechanisms of Syrian and Sudanese refugees in Egypt’s capital.
With Cairo experiencing a growing influx of refugees from Syria, Sudan, South Sudan, and Palestine, the report examines how these communities navigate an evolving environment of both welcome and exclusion. It explores how local adaptation efforts are increasingly at odds with national policies and shifting public sentiment, influenced by economic pressures and rising anti-immigrant rhetoric.
The report analyses the legal, social, and economic barriers facing refugees in areas such as employment, healthcare, and education. It highlights the resilience strategies employed by refugee communities while also documenting the mounting hostility they face. Key findings suggest that while Cairo has a long history of welcoming displaced populations, negative perceptions of refugees as burdens rather than contributors have grown in recent years.
Recommendations include countering hate speech on social media, supporting refugee-led initiatives, improving data collection, and fostering integration through community-led programmes. The report also calls for stronger collaboration between the Egyptian government, civil society organisations, and international humanitarian groups to improve service provision and refugee rights.
Between Welcome and Walls: a short video introduction to Cairo as a city of refuge
Women of the World and Work in Barcelona
Women of the World: Home and Work in Barcelona is a multi-media project that combines oral and visual testimony from sixteen women immigrants to Barcelona to explore the ways in which they remake home and find work in the city and also to trace the ways in which their work and cultures contribute to the regeneration of the city and its culture.
Women of the World: Home and Work in Barcelona
Three Violins
Three Violins is a short film that explores experiences of undocumented migration, musical dialogues and questions of urban integration through the story of a Moroccan musician living in Barcelona.