Urban Governance and refugees: a systematic literature review

The refugee crisis poses a challenge for the cities receiving them. Governance is a key factor in defining urban agendas and is directly involved in refugee response policies. When it comes to public governance, engagement, diversity and respect for human rights are crucial. This paper aims to understand the state of the art of urban governance studies involving refugee reception policies. Specifically, we focused on identifying the research problems in articles on urban governance and refugees, their methodological choices, the cities studied, and the actors involved in governance. This systematic literature review analyzed 24 articles published between 2017 and 2022 in cities in America, Europe, Africa, and Asia. The studies are qualitative, being mostly case studies or ethnographies. The research results show that governance appears as local or multi-level and the way in which the state is present in governance shapes the strategy for welcoming refugees and the format of governance.