physics

Urban refugee

Urban refugee is a physics topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Urban refugee rather than just read about it. In short: An urban refugee is a refugee who decided or was obliged to settle in an urban area rather than in a refugee camp in the country or territory where the person fled to. More than 60% of the world's refugee population and 80% of internally displaced persons (IDP) under UNHCR mandate live in urban environments.

Key takeaways

Urban refugee belongs to physics; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Urban refugee to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Urban refugee from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

An urban refugee is a refugee who decided or was obliged to settle in an urban area rather than in a refugee camp in the country or territory where the person fled to. More than 60% of the world's refugee population and 80% of internally displaced persons (IDP) under UNHCR mandate live in urban environments. In 2009, their number was around 5.5 million people. "Urban refugee" is not a recognized legal term in the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees. However, the UNHCR has adopted a 'Policy on Refugee Protection and Solutions in Urban Areas' in 2009. Urban refugees are among the most vulnerable groups in low income countries. According to UNHCR, the urban refugee population worldwide is very diverse, comprising a large number of women, children, and older people who have particular protection challenges. The urban refugee population face specific protecting needs attendant to urban environments: they may lack access to services, health, education and are often confronted to xenophobic attitudes in their country of asylum. The overwhelming majority of refugees living in urban areas are to be found in the poorest and more conflict-affected regions of the world. Africa and Asia concentrate the highest number of urban refugee populations. Some war-affected countries host a huge number of both urban internally displaced people and refugees in capital cities (such as Kampala or Khartoum). Urban displaced people also live in the main cities of their country of origin: after protracted exile, many returnees prefer settling back as IDPs in cities and towns of their own country upon return. Since around 2017, the UNHCR prioritizes urban refugees for resettlement over those refugees living in refugee camps. In Kenya, for example, only refugees living in Nairobi are submitted for resettlement places, and not those refugees living in the refugee camp site of Kakuma or Dadaab. However, Kenya's national refugee policy requires all refugees to live in camps, though this requirement is not strongly enforced.

Reasons for living in urban areas Reasons for living in urban settings rather than in refugee camps could be specific medical care needs that cannot be provided for in camps, poor and uncertain conditions in camps, or higher than average educational achievements and aspirations, as camps do not provide many higher education opportunities. There is insufficient physical and material security in some camps. Certain groups of refugees, such as LGBTI refugees and women at high risk of gender-based violence, especially cannot be sufficiently protected from other refugees in the camps. Or it could simply be the fact that the state or territory where refugees fled to does not run refugee camps (e.g. Syria or Egypt). Some refugees leave camps in search of better economic opportunities in urban centres and to avoid being dependent on aid rations. Some even move back and forth between urban centres and refugee camps to get the best of both. A disadvantage is that the UNHCR and other aid agencies cannot legally protect and support refugees dispersed in urban settings as much as in camps.

Notable urban refugee settlements Amman, Jordan: 162,061 Bangui, Central African Republic: 496,731 Baku, Azerbaijan: 203,906 Beirut, Lebanon: 26,000 Belgrade, Serbia: 57,542 Cairo, Egypt: around 30,000 Sudanese refugees (also see sudanese refugees in Egypt) Cape Town, South Africa Damascus, Syria: the majority of a total of around 63,000 Iraqi refugees in Syria (also see Iraqis in Syria) Kampala, Uganda: over 57,000 refugees and asylum seekers Kandahar and Kabul, Afghanistan: 55,000 each Kathmandu, Nepal: 500 Rohingya and Sri Lankan refugees as well as Ahmadiyyas from Pakistan Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia: 62,200

Urban refugees by country and population size

References

UN High Commissioner for Refugees, UNHCR Policy on Refugee Protection and Solutions in Urban Areas, September 2009, available at: Refworld | UNHCR Policy on Refugee Protection and Solutions in Urban Areas

External links Urban-refugees.org/ Urban Refugees, Loren B. Landau, 2004 Urban Refugees, UNHCR Urban Refugees "101", Women's Refugee Commission Urban Refugees in Nairobi: Problems of Protection, Mechanisms of Survival, and Possibilities for Integration

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Urban refugee

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Urban refugee claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In physics, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Urban refugee before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Urban refugee ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Urban refugee

In research: Urban refugee appears in physics research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Urban refugee in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Urban refugee is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Forced migration, Human geography, Refugees, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Urban refugee outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Urban refugee in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Urban refugee means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Urban refugee out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Urban refugee in simple terms?

Why does Urban refugee matter?

Because it connects several physics ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Urban refugee?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Urban refugee.