good evening everyone so work with me
here I want you to close your eyes and
imagine a refugee okay for two three
seconds and then think about a couple of
things the first one is where does he or
she live and what sorts of facilities do
you think they use okay so hold that
thought and now open your eyes
so if that is what you saw hold up your
hands the reality is that of the total
registered refugee population in the
world which is twenty two point five
million 66% of those two-thirds live in
cities they do not live in camps okay so
gonna try and work through what does
this mean for those places and spaces
and cities where these with these
refugees live no global migration
patterns have been with us for a long
time you know people move for all sorts
of reasons they move because they want a
big house they move because they might
fear persecution they might move because
of famine they might not because of
disease they might because they seek a
better quality of life so all of those
are valid reasons and these reasons
change from country to country so if we
take Kampala for example the capital of
Uganda a small city now has a refugee
population of about a hundred million a
hundred hundred thousand I do apologize
and that city is projected to grow to 20
million people by the year 2040 and if
you look historically people have moved
again there for all sorts of reasons
some live incomes but the majority of
those a hundred thousand people actually
live in the city and the same is true in
in Colombia you know and now we’re in a
terrific position
we’re talking about technology earlier
and you know we could use technology to
help us visualize where people move and
how they move across across towns and
cities within the space of a country you
know whether they’re internally
displaced or whether they move out of
their own out of their own will and this
gives us a great idea of the sorts of
things that people seek as they move
around countries and within the same
country so we go back to the point of
where refugees live and I want you the
reason I said is not a camp is because I
want you to think open and this is
something that a whole lot of people out
there have been working on including
those working in the humanitarian sector
so those individuals and organizations
that work with refugees are urging us to
think urban because again they recognize
that most of the refugee population the
registered refugee population is an
urban population okay and we can look at
we’ll talk a bit later on about the the
Syrian refugee population in Jordan
which is which is the country I come
from and you know out of that population
the registered population eighty percent
of which lives in the capital city and
that has huge implications forced for
the cities for the services that the
cities has to offer it’s its residents
and inhabitants of all shapes and sizes
so cities are unique and and why are why
our cities unique you know I’m an urban
planner and I can’t recognize that to me
it makes perfect sense you know cities
are places where lots of people live
it’s where there is a lot of diversity
there are different systems of
government there are formal markets and
informal markets and then there are all
sorts of services that need coordination
you know there’s the police there’s a
fire service there’s you know all sorts
of things that make cities take you know
there’s the transport system all of
these need coordination and in that
sense cities are our unique are unique
places but then this opens up a
different a different kettle of fish so
to speak to work with you know the idea
of urban displacement and urban
migration coming together in cities
means we could do a lot of things
differently the way with the way we work
with that with our cities at least and
and why is that it’s because cities
normally have a have a trajectory you
know they they do plans they plan for
the year 2030 2040 2050 but then
suddenly you know they have to work with
say an influx of I don’t know you know
five hundred thousand refugees coming
into the city
so that trajectory is then derailed or
at least it has to adapt okay and this
is where the concept of resilience comes
in so we’re a city has to adapt in order
to make sure that it continues to offer
the services and the coordination with
citizens is they if you like the innate
capacity of urban of urban resilience so
urban resilience as as you know we who
work with it to define it we talk about
the capacity of not only cities but we
talk about the capacities of individuals
of communities of institutions of
businesses and of governments okay and
state institutions because they have to
survive adapt and grow again no matter
what chronic shocks and acute stresses
come come their way you know we do not
want them to be derailed off of their
trajectory because we need to make sure
that cities continue to offer all of
those services so if we take the example
of Jordan you know one of the countries
with if you like the highest refugee to
host ratio we talked about Syrian
refugees there’s about six hundred and
fifty seven thousand registered refugees
by UNHCR in the country and eighty
percent of those live in the city of
Amman now that means a lot in terms of
the capacity of the city in order to be
able to take in as a city those are few
geez and for the systems in the city to
then be able to offer
if you like the services that those
residents because they have become
residents of the city can expect a man
if we just look at the statistics was
the city of 2 million people 10 years
ago this year it’s a city of 4.4 million
population part of that is the refugee
influx and part of it is natural growth
the issue is across the Middle East is
that we have a very young population you
know I think these stats will tell you
that probably under 60% of the
population of Jordan is below the age of
of 25 you know so that means huge
investments coming in over the next few
years and what that means is that
investment also needs to take in to
account and work with the refugee
population so any investment that
benefits the the the Jordanian
population has to also work for Refugees
it has to cater for women it has to
cater for young people and this means
that the City apparatuses the city
government has to work with development
bodies has to work with the humanitarian
sector and has to work with
international donors and for cities this
is a new way of working cities are not
used to work within this within this
context but cities recognize that then
they are melting pots you know they
recognize that unless they put in all of
this investment social tensions will
will blow over the surface and then that
creates a different kind of crisis that
cities and central governments have have
to work with so anyway it’s in the best
interest of cities and it’s something
that the humanitarian sector absolutely
recognizes because ultimately because
all of these things happen in cities
because refugees are part of the
community in the city you know for us
they are our neighbors they are our
co-workers and perhaps you know perhaps
they can also be our friends in the city
thank you you
here I want you to close your eyes and
imagine a refugee okay for two three
seconds and then think about a couple of
things the first one is where does he or
she live and what sorts of facilities do
you think they use okay so hold that
thought and now open your eyes
so if that is what you saw hold up your
hands the reality is that of the total
registered refugee population in the
world which is twenty two point five
million 66% of those two-thirds live in
cities they do not live in camps okay so
gonna try and work through what does
this mean for those places and spaces
and cities where these with these
refugees live no global migration
patterns have been with us for a long
time you know people move for all sorts
of reasons they move because they want a
big house they move because they might
fear persecution they might move because
of famine they might not because of
disease they might because they seek a
better quality of life so all of those
are valid reasons and these reasons
change from country to country so if we
take Kampala for example the capital of
Uganda a small city now has a refugee
population of about a hundred million a
hundred hundred thousand I do apologize
and that city is projected to grow to 20
million people by the year 2040 and if
you look historically people have moved
again there for all sorts of reasons
some live incomes but the majority of
those a hundred thousand people actually
live in the city and the same is true in
in Colombia you know and now we’re in a
terrific position
we’re talking about technology earlier
and you know we could use technology to
help us visualize where people move and
how they move across across towns and
cities within the space of a country you
know whether they’re internally
displaced or whether they move out of
their own out of their own will and this
gives us a great idea of the sorts of
things that people seek as they move
around countries and within the same
country so we go back to the point of
where refugees live and I want you the
reason I said is not a camp is because I
want you to think open and this is
something that a whole lot of people out
there have been working on including
those working in the humanitarian sector
so those individuals and organizations
that work with refugees are urging us to
think urban because again they recognize
that most of the refugee population the
registered refugee population is an
urban population okay and we can look at
we’ll talk a bit later on about the the
Syrian refugee population in Jordan
which is which is the country I come
from and you know out of that population
the registered population eighty percent
of which lives in the capital city and
that has huge implications forced for
the cities for the services that the
cities has to offer it’s its residents
and inhabitants of all shapes and sizes
so cities are unique and and why are why
our cities unique you know I’m an urban
planner and I can’t recognize that to me
it makes perfect sense you know cities
are places where lots of people live
it’s where there is a lot of diversity
there are different systems of
government there are formal markets and
informal markets and then there are all
sorts of services that need coordination
you know there’s the police there’s a
fire service there’s you know all sorts
of things that make cities take you know
there’s the transport system all of
these need coordination and in that
sense cities are our unique are unique
places but then this opens up a
different a different kettle of fish so
to speak to work with you know the idea
of urban displacement and urban
migration coming together in cities
means we could do a lot of things
differently the way with the way we work
with that with our cities at least and
and why is that it’s because cities
normally have a have a trajectory you
know they they do plans they plan for
the year 2030 2040 2050 but then
suddenly you know they have to work with
say an influx of I don’t know you know
five hundred thousand refugees coming
into the city
so that trajectory is then derailed or
at least it has to adapt okay and this
is where the concept of resilience comes
in so we’re a city has to adapt in order
to make sure that it continues to offer
the services and the coordination with
citizens is they if you like the innate
capacity of urban of urban resilience so
urban resilience as as you know we who
work with it to define it we talk about
the capacity of not only cities but we
talk about the capacities of individuals
of communities of institutions of
businesses and of governments okay and
state institutions because they have to
survive adapt and grow again no matter
what chronic shocks and acute stresses
come come their way you know we do not
want them to be derailed off of their
trajectory because we need to make sure
that cities continue to offer all of
those services so if we take the example
of Jordan you know one of the countries
with if you like the highest refugee to
host ratio we talked about Syrian
refugees there’s about six hundred and
fifty seven thousand registered refugees
by UNHCR in the country and eighty
percent of those live in the city of
Amman now that means a lot in terms of
the capacity of the city in order to be
able to take in as a city those are few
geez and for the systems in the city to
then be able to offer
if you like the services that those
residents because they have become
residents of the city can expect a man
if we just look at the statistics was
the city of 2 million people 10 years
ago this year it’s a city of 4.4 million
population part of that is the refugee
influx and part of it is natural growth
the issue is across the Middle East is
that we have a very young population you
know I think these stats will tell you
that probably under 60% of the
population of Jordan is below the age of
of 25 you know so that means huge
investments coming in over the next few
years and what that means is that
investment also needs to take in to
account and work with the refugee
population so any investment that
benefits the the the Jordanian
population has to also work for Refugees
it has to cater for women it has to
cater for young people and this means
that the City apparatuses the city
government has to work with development
bodies has to work with the humanitarian
sector and has to work with
international donors and for cities this
is a new way of working cities are not
used to work within this within this
context but cities recognize that then
they are melting pots you know they
recognize that unless they put in all of
this investment social tensions will
will blow over the surface and then that
creates a different kind of crisis that
cities and central governments have have
to work with so anyway it’s in the best
interest of cities and it’s something
that the humanitarian sector absolutely
recognizes because ultimately because
all of these things happen in cities
because refugees are part of the
community in the city you know for us
they are our neighbors they are our
co-workers and perhaps you know perhaps
they can also be our friends in the city
thank you you
Please follow and like us: