A new home for refugees in Flanders
After receiving protection from the arrival country, refugees can start settling again. Finding appropriate housing is a difficult process, however. To increase the availability of housing for refugees in Flanders several volunteers developed housing initiatives. This project investigated to what extent these initiatives are in line with refugees’ wishes and needs. To grasp the intentions of initiators and the lived experience of refugees semi-structured interviews were conducted, once with initiators of three housing initiatives and twice with nine refugees living there. In the timeframe between the interviews refugees could further document their experiences themselves by using cultural probes.
The research was conducted by Sara Willems under supervision of Ann Heylighen (Research[x]Design) and Henk De Smet (L/A/P).
publications / presentations
- Willems S., De Smet, H., Heylighen, A. (2021). Housing for refugees: A new home in a new cultural context. RC21 Conference - Sensing the City | Place, People, Power.
Willems S., De Smet, H., Heylighen, A. (2020). Seeking a balance between privacy and connectedness in housing for refugees. Journal of Housing and the Built Environment.
Willems S., De Smet H., Heylighen A. (2018) Seeking a balance between privacy and connectivity in housing for refugees. Presented at “Whither Refugees? Restrictionism, Crises and Precarity Writ Large” - International Association for the Study of Forced Migration (IASFM) conference, Thessaloniki, 24-27 July 2018
