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ABSTRACT
How does urban migrant and refugee settlement occur in face of national inaction on immigration policy? This paper focuses on recent migration to Cairo, a Global South megacity that is home to migrants and refugees from across sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East. Using in-depth fieldwork, it examines the informal policies that have developed in the absence of national legislation, and explores the impact these have on: (1) the ability for individual migrants and refugees to participate socially, politically and economically; (2) the ability for civil society organizations to organize, provide social services, or engage in activism; (3) occasions when the Egyptian state will forego its hands-off approach in favour of direct intervention. This informs our understanding of the relationship between national policy, informal urban governance, and migrant and refugee settlement in the context of Global South cities, with potential applications to other urban environments.
Acknowledgements
I would like to thank the Social Science and Humanities Research Council, the Project on Middle East Political Science and the Kelly Day Endowment at Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy for support while researching and writing this article. Thank you also to the Center for Migration and Refugee Studies at the American University in Cairo for hosting me while I was in Egypt. Finally, thank you to the participants at the ‘Cities and the Contentious Politics of Migration’ workshop at ISA 2018 as well as to two anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments and feedback.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1 This anecdote is also relayed in Norman (Citation2019).
2 The distinction between refugees and migrants is not always very clear in practice, as is acknowledged by the literature on mixed migration (Castles & Van Hear, Citation2011). In the Egyptian case in particular, individuals arriving in Egypt may not always be aware that they need to apply for refugee status from the UNHCR, and may reside in Egypt without status – or with the status of ‘irregular migrant’ – until they approach the UNHCR. Conversely, individuals may apply for refugee status from the UNHCR, be classified as an asylum seeker until their refugee status determination (RSD) interview, and then ultimately not receive refugee status (after which they become a ‘closed file’, or irregular migrant). At the time of interviewing for this research in fall 2014, RSD interview dates were being given to asylum seekers for 2019, meaning that would-be refugees had to wait at least five years before going through a determination. As such, it was to any migrant’s benefit, even if they suspected they would ultimately not qualify as a refugee, to apply for refugee status and to receive temporary protection as an asylum-seeker for up to five years. These examples indicate some of the ways in which the distinction between migrant and refugee does not map neatly onto empirical reality. Nonetheless, refugees and migrants fall under two distinct international legal regimes, and Egypt has obligations towards refugees whether they have been accessed and reside on its territory legally or are in an irregular position.
3 This research is covered by livelihoods officer IRB approvals HS# 2012-905, HS# 2014-1407 and HS# 2018-4839.
4 The nationalities of migrants and refugees interviewed for this research included individuals from Syria, Sudan, South Sudan, Eritrea, Somalia, Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Central African Republic. An individual’s nationality or race may be one factor in the treatment that he or she experiences in Egypt, in addition to factors like religion, language, gender, the number of years spent in Egypt, and his or her legal status. For a longer discussion of the impact of these factors on host state outcomes, see Norman (Citation2020).
5 Specifically, Mourad (Citation2017) analyzes how the absence of a coherent, national response to Syrian refugees in Lebanon allowed a number of municipalities to enact discriminatory curfews banning Syrians from movement from evening to early morning.
6 Interview with a deidentified individual at the Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Cairo, November 2014.
7 Interview with a refugee school director, Cairo, September 2014.
8 Specifically, Egypt claimed reservations to Article 12.1, thereby waiving the responsibility of determining the personal status of refugees as well as Articles 20, 23 and 24, which claim that refugees should be afforded equal status to nationals in regards to rationing, public relief and assistance and labor laws/social security, respectively (Zohry & Harrell-Bond, Citation2003).
9 Interview with a livelihoods officer at the UNHCR, Cairo, September 2014.
10 The majority of Egyptian nationals living in Cairo are also employed in the informal economy where they may also experience exploitation to varying degrees, depending on occupation, sector of activity, and gender.
11 Interview with a Sudanese national, Cairo, October 2014.
12 Interview with a livelihoods officer at the UNHCR, Cairo, October 2019.
13 This refers to rent control measures put in place by former President Gamal Abdel Nasser, which put a moratorium on rent increases (Fahmy, Citation2012).
14 Interview with the director of a refugee school, Cairo, September 2014.
15 Interview with a Sudanese national, Cairo, September 2014.
16 Interview with a deidentified IOM representative, Cairo, November 2014.
17 Interview with Sudanese national, Cairo, September 2014.
18 Interview with Sudanese national, Cairo, September 2014.
19 Interview with a US Department of State representative, Cairo, January 2019.
20 Interview with an Eritrean national, Cairo, October 2014.
21 Interview with an NGO director, Cairo, September 2014.
22 Interview with a refugee school director, Cairo, September 2014.
23 Interview with the director of a community-based organization, Cairo, October 2019.
24 A law against protesting came into effect in November 2013 that requires three days notification before protesting. The Egyptian Ministry of the Interior also has the right to cancel, postpone or move any protest.
25 While Syrians are de jure allowed to attend public schools in Egypt, most Syrian school-aged children attend community schools and then sit for exams at Egyptian schools in order to obtain a certificate. According to the representative of a Syrian CBO, Syrian children faced discrimination, had difficulty understanding the Egyptian dialect of public-school teachers, and thought the quality of education was poor (Interview with the director of a community-based organization, Cairo, October 2019).
26 Interview with a livelihoods officer at the UNHCR, Cairo, September 2014.
27 Interview with the director and founder, Egyptian Foundation for Refugee Rights, Cairo, October 2014.
28 Interview with a representative of Catholic Relief Services, Cairo, October 2014.
29 Interview with a livelihoods officer at the UNHCR, Cairo, September 2014.
30 Interview with a deidentified IOM representative, Cairo, November 2014.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Kelsey P. Norman
Dr Kelsey P. Norman is a Fellow for the Middle East and Director of the Women’s Rights, Human Rights, and Refugees programme at Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy. She is the author of Reluctant reception: Refugees, migration and governance in the Middle East and North Africa published by Cambridge University Press in 2020.