Urban Refugee Research and Social Capital

In November 2012, the International Rescue Committee (IRC) and the Women’s Refugee Commission (WRC) convened a roundtable discussion on urban refugee research. During the roundtable, seven main themes emerged, which are described in the first part of the report: 1) challenges for programming in urban environments; 2) urban mindset; 3) advocacy; 4) data for programming; 5) livelihoods; 6) role of private sector and technology; 7) and communities, social capital and networks.

For the second part of the report, the issue of urban refugee communities and social networks was selected as the theme for a literature review. This analytical part of the report focuses on the possibilities and challenges of leveraging social capital and networks within urban refugee communities for improving advocacy, policy and programmatic efforts.