The Forgotten Urban Refugees: A Review of the Demographic and Socio-Economic Dimension of Refugees in Nairobi City

Gloria Chepngeno, African Population and Health Research Center (APHRC)
Charlotte Lang’at, GOAL Kenya

Traditionally refugees fleeing from war or political persecution have been concentrated in camps, which are mainly situated in rural areas. Their migration patterns have, therefore, always been rural to rural or urban to rural. Increasingly, however, a substantial proportion of refugees are moving into urban areas. Could such increasing migration of refugees into urban areas as opposed to settling in designated camps where most of the services and organizations providing assistance to refugees are located be due to the poor services or in search of economic opportunities--economic migrants as they are referred to in the developed world or both? Do such refugees differ from those that remain in the designated camps? We use the UNHCR data base supplemented by primary data collection to explore these issues.