Realigning responses to protracted displacement in an urban world

For decades, the response by the international community to mass movements of people fleeing war or political persecution has been to provide humanitarian assistance in camps. Despite highly-charged debates on the negative impact of maintaining people in often remote regions and dependent on humanitarian assistance, camps remain the default response to new displacement crises. Camps are not, however, the choice of the majority of the world’s displaced people, and estimates suggest that over 60% of refugees and at least half of internally displaced persons (IDPs) now live in towns and cities. This research project is the first large-scale study to compare experiences of protracted displacement in cities and camps – where people have been displaced for at least five years.