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Apologies for cross posting, and thank you for distributing among your networks. The Housing Geographies of Refugees in Western Countries AAG 2019, Washington, DC, April 3-7 2019 Convener: Hala El Moussawi (Vrije Universiteit Brussels, Belgium) Accessing good quality housing and (re)making home are becoming increasingly precarious in Western societies and represent one of the biggest practical challenges for mobile populations. Multi-layered regulations, waiting periods, discrimination, and housing crises, among others, increasingly complicate refugees’ housing trajectories in host countries. Recognized refugees begin their journey for finding individual housing after long periods of movement restrictions and confinement in government reception facilities, or designated localities, which they experience sometimes even after being granted the refugee status. Scholarly works have highlighted the importance of housing in the settlement of newly arrived refugees as a first step for attaining basic needs and a base from which they can address the challenges of settling successfully. In practice, housing and home are relationally engaged with people and places.The documentation of the search for housing can highlight the social relations and interaction refugees have with co-ethnics, other migrant structures, and host communities in time and space. Taking this into account, this session seeks contributions from critical geography and beyond which examine the dynamics of newly arrived refugees’ experiences through the medium of housing and home after receiving their refugee status. It looks for papers engaged in documenting the nuanced struggle for access to housing for recognized refugees after leaving reception centres in Western countries. Considering housing in an era of mobility, and as refugees tend to be highly mobile in search of affordable and appropriate housing, this panel gives special attention to the housing trajectories of refugees in the first years of settlement, looking for longitudinal aspects of studying their experiences as they navigate the housing market. Topics could include, but are not limited to: - Housing trajectories of refugees across/beyond the urban landscape: rental experiences and barriers across the housing market - The transition from state-organised forms of mass accommodation for asylum seekers to refugees' individual housing - The consequences of refugees’ initial residential allocation and/or multiple moves - Coping strategies and tactics developed by refugees to navigate housing markets - The impact of the household composition in the search for housing - The role and impact of the local context, social relations and networks, on the housing experiences of refugees - The role of ethnic and arrival neighbourhoods in the settlement of refugees in host societies - Innovative methodologies for investigating housing and home experiences of refugees Interested participants are invited to send abstracts of no more than 250 words with keywords to [log in to unmask] no later than the 19thof October 2018.They will be notified by the 22ndof October if their paper has been accepted for the session. They will then need to register and submit their abstract through the AAG website and provide their PIN to the organizers by the 25thof October 2018 at the latest to meet the AAG deadline. Hala El Moussawi PhD Researcher Cosmopolis Centre for Urban Research Department of Geography Vrije Universiteit Brussel Building F Room 4.70 Pleinlaan 2, 1050 Brussels www.cosmopolis.be<http://www.cosmopolis.be> tel: +32-2-6292671<tel:+32%202%20629%2026%2071> ######################################################################## To unsubscribe from the CRIT-GEOG-FORUM list, click the following link: https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?SUBED1=CRIT-GEOG-FORUM&A=1