Sara Sakhi and Lyn Hariri write about how the Intisar Foundation’s Drama Therapy program promotes psychological wellbeing for woman refugees in Shatila, and suggest that Drama Therapy has the capacity to unlock resilience and healing—not only for refugee women, but for the locals and practitioners who work with them and share their common sisterhood in a country that so often silences women’s voices.

Amidst rhetorical headlines about refugees and borders in the United States, this report takes a step back to take the long view of how immigrants in a suburb of Chicago have adapted to American society, and adapted the neighborhood of Albany Park, introducing new medical centers, shops, and a university over the course of generations. The author was born in Syria, but as a long-time resident of Chicago and volunteer at a refugee resettlement agency, offers her own perspectives on the neighborhood’s successes integrating generations of new Americans.

Pakistan has experienced several waves of refugees due to recurring conflict in neighboring Afghanistan, as well as repeated internal displacement caused by complex emergencies within the country. This case report looks at the integration experiences of Afghan refugees in Islamabad’s “refugee villages,” paying special attention to education, which the author argues plays a central role in the integration of young people and their families to the city.

When the American auto industry took a downturn in the 1990s and 2000s, it left numerous neighborhoods in and around Detroit impoverished and neglected. This case report looks at the way Syrian and other Arab and Muslim refugees and migrants are renovating these aged neighborhoods with their own cultural heritage. The author is a migrant from Iran who spent years living in Detroit.

The Kyiv case report looks at the ways internally displaced persons (IDPs) from eastern Ukraine both struggle with integration to the capital, but also become agents of change to transfer the culture and economy of the city. The report is written by a former resident of east Ukraine who has herself become integrated to Kyiv over several years.

The Johannesburg case report looks at Malawian migrants in one of South Africa’s largest cities. It explores the ways value transfer and financial obligations back home both obstruct integration to their new neighborhood and maintain integration with their old villages. It also describes the ways the costly and risky route from Malawi to South Africa obstructs integration once migrants arrive in Johannesburg. The author is from Mangochi, Malawi and has lived in Johannesburg for several years.

This case report explores what happened when a coastal Mediterranean city in Turkey was transformed from a smuggling transit hub to Greece and the EU into a home for tens of thousands of Syrian refugees after the closing the Balkans Route in 2015. It shows how several of the city’s low to middle-income neighborhoods, especially the neighborhood of Basmane, have undergone increased demand for affordable housing and a revival of Syrian-owned small businesses. However, the city’s already limited healthcare and education systems have been further stressed by the increase in population.

The Makhanda case report compares the experiences of migrants integrating to a small African town named Makhanda (formerly Grahamstown) to the experiences of those living in South Africa’s major urban centers like Johannesburg, Cape Town, and Durban. It explores how perceptions of insecurity from xenophobic, racist attacks vary from major cities to small towns; migrants’ economic and social impact on the town of Makhanda; and how the limited presence of migration management offices in small towns can both benefit and make difficult the integration attempts of migrants. It draws from the experiences of the author, a Zimbabwean migrant who has lived both in Cape Town and Makhanda, South Africa.

The Concord report looks from the eyes of a lifelong resident on a city that has worked to make itself a local bastion of inclusiveness against anti-immigrant rhetoric at the national level. The report focuses on experiences of high school students, who in many cases have set the tone for the city when outbursts of xenophobia have occurred. Despite the intentions of many Concord residents to make the city welcoming and inclusive, however, the report identifies some obstacles to integration of refugees in Concord, especially the clustering of migrants in low income housing census tracts of the city.