Refugees in shrinking cities the role of place and belonging in refugee-led revitalisation

Shrinking cities struggle with the effects of depopulation. Newcomers such as refugee communities are hoped to halt population loss and revigorate local economies. Mainly discussed as strategy through which cities present themselves as welcoming and immigrant-friendly to attract newcomers, how revitalisation processes centred around refugees are presented has received criticism: the debate tends to over-emphasize refugees' role as engines of opportunity, erase their agency, and lack attention for structural problems refugees face. As research on the relationship between refugees and their shrinking places of arrival is only at the beginning, the chapter contributes to the theorisation of arrival and place-making under conditions of urban decline by proposing a holistic framework to study the potential impacts of shrinkage on refugees' inclusion through the lens of place and belonging.