Description
This paper contributes to the ongoing discussion of ‘the everyday’ in International Relations. It examines the lived experiences of refugee housing in England. Refugee housing is a particularly useful way of interrogating the relationship between the local and the national. Refugee arrival and dispersal policies are enacted at the national level. They are practiced at the local level. In this article we report on the findings of our study of refugee housing in Birmingham, UK. We adopt a mixed methodology, interdisciplinary in nature, that situates the lived experience of refugee communities, and those that support them, alongside empirical quantitative data that examines austerity cuts and the impacts this has on the local provision of housing. The data reveals the negative impact of national government policy at the site of the everyday. Our study revealed the personal toll that this relationship can have, on people and their communities.
