Abstract

VIEGAS, Sílvia Leiria. Refugees from Africa and the Middle East in Portugal: Notes on access to housing and the right to the city. CIDADES [online]. 2022, vol.45, pp.39-54.  Epub Dec 29, 2022. ISSN 2182-3030.  https://doi.org/10.15847/cct.26570.

This article deals with the problem of access to housing for refugees from Africa and the Middle East in Portugal. It refers to the challenging period of the Covid-19 pandemic, in 2020/2021. It also takes as reference the immediately preceding period, including with regard to the impacts of the struggles for the right to housing of a fringe of the urban society, equally impoverished and racialised, living in self-produced neighbourhoods in the Lisbon Metropolitan Area. The work, therefore, aims to raise awareness of this problem as perceived by refugees; to help build a critical counter-narrative about the problem and its meaning, from their disadvantaged positions and perspectives as underprivileged; and, to highlight their participative and collaborative role in building horizons of hope. Methodologically, the concept of the right to the city, participatory action research and collaborative methods are used, so as to grasp knowledge situated in the Refugee Forum Portugal, a network for building new inclusion mechanisms for refugees. It is a space for dialogue, problem solving, epistemological construction and mobilisation strategies, promoted by refugees with academic activists, articulated with decision-makers and institutions amongst other stakeholders. Finally, some conclusions are drawn on access to housing in dialogue with other resources, that is, on the product and the work; on state productivism and the maintenance of the dominant structural system; and, on building social relationships and new ways of life aimed at urban transformation, at the level of space and society, and for long-desired stability.

Keywords : refugees; housing; right to the city; participatory action research; epistemological decolonization.

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