In 2015 more than a million people, many fleeing the Syrian civil war and conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq, crossed into Europe by sea and land, straining reception systems and reshaping European politics. At the same time, protracted displacement swelled long-standing refugee camps and host cities across the Middle East, Africa and the wider Global South. Reception, emergency housing, schooling and integration became urgent and concrete urban tasks for cities of arrival. Border controls, asylum rules and the distribution of arrivals became fiercely contested.
It made arrival, reception and integration central questions for urban planning and service provision. Long-term refugee camps in particular hardened into de facto cities, even as the influx fuelled a nativist political backlash across Europe.
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