Invisible Networks - Understanding the City through the journeys of female asylum seekers by Elena Giral

Invisible Networks

UNDERSTANDING THE CITY THROUGH THE JOURNEYS OF FEMALE ASYLUM SEEKERS ELENA GIRAL ALONSO Master of Human Settlements 2020-2021 Master of Science · Faculty of Engineering · Department of Architecture · KU Leuven Supervisors: Viviana d’Auria & Jeroen Stevens

Elena Giral – Master of Human Settlements – KU Leuven 2020-21

Invisible networks. Understanding the city through the journeys of female asylum seekers

© Copyright KU Leuven Without written permission of the thesis supervisor and the authors it is forbidden to reproduce or adapt in any form or by any means any part of this publication. Requests for obtaining the right to reproduce or utilize parts of this publication should be addressed to Faculteit Ingenieurswetenschappen, Kasteelpark Arenberg 1 bus 2200, B-3001 Heverlee, +3216-321350. A written permission of the thesis supervisor is also required to use the methods, products, schematics and programs described in this work for industrial or commercial use, and for submitting this publication in scientific contests. Zonder voorafgaande schriftelijke toestemming van zowel de promotor als de auteurs is overnemen, kopiëren, gebruiken of realiseren van deze uitgave of gedeelten ervan verboden. Voor aanvragen tot of informatie i.v.m. het overnemen en/of gebruik en/of rea- lisatie van gedeelten uit deze publicatie, wend u tot Faculteit Ingenieurswetenschappen, Kasteelpark Arenberg 1 bus 2200, B-3001 Heverlee, +32-16-321350. Voorafgaande schriftelijke toestemming van de promotor is eveneens vereist voor het aanwenden van de in deze masterproef beschreven (originele) methoden, producten, schakelingen en programma’s voor industrieel of commercieel nut en voor de inzending van deze publicatie ter deelname aan wetenschappelijke prijzen of wedstrijden. Contact: Elena Giral elena_giral@hotmail.com Viviana d’Auria Viviana.dauria@kuleuven.be Jeroen Stevens Jeroen.stevens@kuleuven.be

Elena Giral – Master of Human Settlements – KU Leuven 2020-21

Invisible networks. Understanding the city through the journeys of female asylum seekers

Acknowledgments First, and foremost, I would like to thank the women whose invaluable testimonies made this study possible. I am grateful for the time and experiences they shared allowing me to learn so much and understand the city and the world a bit better. I would like to thank my supervisors Viviana d’Auria and Jeroen Stevens for their time, their patience, their feedback and ideas that guided this study through its very short and rather intense lifespan, and making it a really interesting and enriching learning experience. Finally, I would like to thank all the personnel from the Belgian Red Cross that supported this research with their inputs, their time, and by welcoming me with open arms into their centre. It was a privilege to have such unrestricted access to the space and the daily work of the organisation. A particular thanks to Chloè Michelet and Pauline Leclef for their dedication and interest for the study, as well as for their availability and kindness.

Elena Giral – Master of Human Settlements – KU Leuven 2020-21

Invisible networks. Understanding the city through the journeys of female asylum seekers

Invisible networks.

Understanding the city through the journeys of female asylum seekers. Asylum seekers live in a complex situation while they wait for their request for International Protection to be recognised. Particularly those hosted in temporary reception centres in urban areas exist in a limbo of temporality and spatiality where they struggle between the possibility to stay and the constant fear of having to leave, while their personal living space is reduced to the scale and quality of a bunkbed. Asylum seekers move around the city finding their own means, appropriating the spaces where they feel welcome while avoiding others completely. Finding their place in the city is particularly complex in the case of isolated women in reception centres. In an urban context not yet planned for inclusion, gender barriers add up to those set by race, culture, and religion. This thesis looks at the city through the eyes of female asylum seekers hosted in a Red Cross reception centre in Brussels and understands it as a relational space - as a network of relations that unfold over space and time. Through formal interviews, informal conversations and a series of urban walks, this study is centred around cartographic urban analysis which reproduces a network of journeys. It interrogates the relation between the asylum system and the city, relating complex global problems to the everyday life of women to question prevalent power dynamics ingrained in space. The fieldwork was carried in collaboration with the Belgian Red Cross centre for women asylum seekers in Jette, Brussels. Keywords: Asylum, urban integration, gender, cartography

Elena Giral – Master of Human Settlements – KU Leuven 2020-21

‘’I tried to denounce it to the badiénou gokh, and when my family and husband found out, I was secluded because I was not sumise’’. ‘’ That is when I knew I was in true danger and decided to go far away. So, my friend found a smuggler who gave me a plane ticket and a fake passport. That is how I arrived here’’. […]’’ Then, I simply read in my bed, watch a series, or play with my phone. That’s what I do most of the time, while I wait’’ ‘’ I grew up very fast.. I was abused when I was 5 […] at that time there was a lot of violence. One day someone rang on my door, and they had placed the heads of three of my relatives by my entry. I still clearly remember that day.’’ ’They beat me and forced me, and I had to sleep on the street so many times...It was not easy because when you are a Latina and you have tattoos people always assume you are a thief’’ ‘’I knew there was a bump in the road, and he was driving really fast. So, I held my backpack and waited until we crashed to jump out of the car and cross the avenue to the other side. I almost broke my arm, but I managed to get away alive’’. ’then I left Nairobi, and I thought I was traveling to the UK. When I landed I discovered it was Belgium.. but the woman told me it was ok, and I should stay here. ‘’ ‘’one day when I was 12 or 13 years old, I was walking to school and 3 men tried to stop me […] My father convinced me to go to school changing my route every day, and I started wearing a full long hijab where you could only see my eyes… these were no normal people...they were the Taliban’’. ‘’The administration doesn’t understand how a negative response can affect a person mentally and physically. ‘’ ‘’they were very conservative.. they didn’t want me to study and they said I should stay at home.. I really don’t want to go back’’. Excerpts from interviews with female asylum seekers living in the Red Cross Reception Centre in Jette, Brussels. 8

Invisible networks. Understanding the city through the journeys of female asylum seekers

[Introduction] Background

Objective Note on methodology

[Reading guide - booklet & map]

An ever-unfinished work Informal definitions

Stories of Global migration and local adaptation Mariama, 37, Senegal Milena, 24, Colombia Laura, 58, Mexico Sandra, 36, Venezuela Fortune, 24, Cameroon Aamiina, 17, Somalia Fatoumata, 19, Guinea Rasika, 18, Afghanistan Lamyae, 19, Morocco

[Conclusions] [Annexes] [Literature] [Folding maps]

34 38

42 42 46 48

[Understanding the city of asylum]

The system The reception journey The official procedure The formal network linked to the centre

[Of time and space: Analysing the urban life of asylum seekers ]

Temporality and Spatiality Systems Location and environment Places

57 58 62

Elena Giral – Master of Human Settlements – KU Leuven 2020-21

Invisible networks. Understanding the city through the journeys of female asylum seekers

[ Introduction ]

Background Every year, more than 20.000 people are hosted in the different centres of the Federal Network of Asylum Seekers (FEDASIL) in Belgium while they await a response to their request for International Protection. Around 6% are single women and 8% unaccompanied minors (amongst the minors, 1 out of 10 is a girl) (Fedasil 2021). A final determination on their status can take up to several years, during which the person lives (in most cases) in reception centres with a variable degree of freedom of movement and spatial agency. The Red Cross is one of the main partners of FEDASIL, and manages 24 out of the 81 centres of the network. Integration1 in a city is a complex issue when living in a temporary condition, and women and migrants are subject to additional barriers when it comes to using or appropriating public space. Women are often subject to discrimination in the public milieu, as cities are not generally planned with a gendered lens (Chant 2013), in a way that includes the needs and perspectives of women. Violence (physical, verbal), fear and neglect are just some of the issues that affect millions of women in cities on a daily basis and often impact the way they use (public) space. Similarly, migrants, and particularly asylum seekers are subject to a complex integration process that influences very much the way they are allowed to exist in the city. This condition is linked to barriers like cultural differences, language, etc as well as to the temporary nature of their inhabitation of the space. The case of Belgium shows how there are barriers to socio-economic integration of migrants across the country but with significant disparities between regions. Brussels, particularly due to its diversity shows less ethnic disparity and a relatively easier process for migrants to be accepted by ‘’host societies’’ (Phalet and Swyngedouw 2003). Objective This thesis studies the integration of female asylum seekers in Brussels. It tries to look at the city from a different point of view, away from ‘’conventional’’ urban analysis and ‘’traditional ‘’cartographic representation. By mapping the journeys of 9 women living in a temporary reception centre of the Red Cross, this work tries to represent the complex network of interconnected relations they create, as a means to understand the city otherwise, moving away from a ‘’static representation of place‘’ (Massey 1994). The premise is that only by understanding the everyday use of the city by individuals or the ‘’practice of everyday life ‘’(de Certeau 1984) we can understand its urban complexity and subsequently how to better plan for the integration of its inhabitants. The movements and relations of individuals are understood as embodied practice (Low 2003) that lead to the social construction of space (Low 2014) For the context of this study, this is understood as the ‘’making of their own city’’ by these women with their movements, choices and physical presence. Within their existence as asylum seekers, their choices to go (or not) to certain places, together with the social relations they build, create an alternative ‘’city of asylum’’. 1 Integration of migrants is a very contested term while no official definition exists. Following the line of the International Organisation of Migration, it can be defined as ‘’The process by which migrants become accepted into society, both as individuals and as groups’’ See point 2 - informal definitions.

Elena Giral – Master of Human Settlements – KU Leuven 2020-21

I look specifically at asylum seekers because of the particular nature of their urban existence (waiting on an administrative procedure) and at women, because of the specific perception and complexities they face in their everyday lives in the city. My intention is to give visibility and voice to those who normally lack it, by highlighting the individuality of a few stories that would usually get lost in the vast and convoluted ‘’machinery’’ of national asylum administrations. In the words of Nishat Awan (2011, 3): ‘’ The everyday geographies of people’s lives can easily lose themselves in the enormity of the questions and the complexities of the issues surrounding migration’’. In contraposition with the simplified description of the asylum procedure by the institutions involved in the process (see point 3), and mainstream representations of the city (Awan 2011), this thesis critically and reflexively explores the actual complexity of the urban lives of individuals requesting International Protection. This thesis studies the spatial manifestation of their lives, through the reproduction of their journeys. At the local scale, these urban journeys represent their appropriation of the city, understanding movement as spatial agency (Awan 2011). At a global scale, these peculiar migration experiences help to contextualise their situation and understanding of place. Seeing the city through the eyes of female asylum seekers allows to create an alternative cartography of the city of Brussels, understanding how temporary inhabitants reflect upon their lives, movements, and appropriation of urban space. Note on Methodology In order to understand the relation between female asylum seekers and the urban space they inhabit I develop a cartography that represents the city of Brussels through their experiences and individual daily practices and also looks at their global migration journeys. Creating a cartography to better understand the needs and claims of people comes from the idea that ‘’if not included in the representation of a place, these are left unacknowledged’’(De Carli and Awan 2018). I have worked with 9 women and girls that have requested International Protection and reside in the Red Cross Centre in the municipality of Jette23. Even though these women all share a living space and a time-bound condition of waiting a verdict, their urban experiences are different. Through individual interviews and walking together in the city, this study aims to understand their particular perceptions of the spaces they inhabit. Prior to conducting interviews, I first engaged with several organisations working on the relation between women and public space (see annex 3). I apply feminist theories of urban practice and methodologies like social cartographies and exploratory walks (Garance 2009) to understand the particular case of migrant integration because these look at addressing the excluded or marginalised from the mainstream discourse and traditional practice of the city, specifically by looking at everyday life problems of the individual. Thus, the approach to understanding their lives in the city through the asylum procedure consists mostly on talking to the women, the workers of the centre where they reside and to the local representatives. Then, 2 Jette is one of the 19 municipalities that compose the City of Brussels, situated in the north-west of the metropolitan area. 3 Centre ADA (accueil de demandeurs d’Asile) Jette. The Red Cross has recently opened an expansion of the centre in a nearby building to host families. The scope of this research focuses on the centre for women exclusively.

Invisible networks. Understanding the city through the journeys of female asylum seekers

the analysis is based in the anthropological understanding of spatialised culture and embodied spaces from Setha Low (Low 2003; Taplin, Scheld, and Low 2002; S. Low 2014). I tried to contextualise their stories with a broader understanding of the complex life of refugees both in Europe and abroad, through my professional experiences as well as through readings such as The City of Thorns (Rawlence 2016), or Strangers at our door (Bauman 2016) and The Jungle (Agier 2018) as well as the positioning of official organisation such as the UNESCO’s Cities Welcoming Refugees and Migrants report (Taran, Neves de Lima, and Kadysheva 2016). This analysis aims at understanding the value of ‘’everyday practices of resistance’’ (Sharif 2009) and at reflecting on the role of architects looking at conflict and giving visibility to those who don’t have it. It also refers to local feminist activism groups like ‘’Precarias a la deriva’’ (Precarias 2004) or ‘’Garance’’4 who use collective walking as a method to map and denounce inequalities for women such as precarious working conditions or insecurity in the urban spaces. Finally, mapping as a tool to understand a certain community looks at the concepts of ‘’diasporic urbanism’’ and ‘’mapping otherwise’’ of Nishat Awan (Awan 2011; Awan and Langley 2013; De Carli and Awan 2018) and the graphic analyses of the dialectograms of Mitch Miller (2021) and the Larissa Fassler, that explore the ‘’symbiotic relationships between people and places’’ (Fassler n.d.) The mapping of these journeys is both an objective in itself and an excuse to access their life stories and discover the city, and the world, through their eyes. This cartography becomes part and parcel of the thinking process, where maps are a canvas for the discussion and narrative, at times accompanied by drawings when words are simply not enough to explain. The aim is not to represent the city as it looks, but to deliberately study it through its relations and social entities, with their needs, desires and practices (Simone 2019).

See Garance ASBL http://www.garance.be

Elena Giral – Master of Human Settlements – KU Leuven 2020-21

Invisible networks. Understanding the city through the journeys of female asylum seekers

[ Reading Guide]

This study is composed by a written and a cartographic analysis that are complementary to each other. The folding map presents a sequence of information that guides the analysis from global to local, superposing scales and times, forcing the reader to plunge into detail to grasp the complexity entangled in the existence of subjects around which this study orbits.

worldwide regardless of the reasons. It isCONNECTIONS: not a legally recognised or ‘‘ I come here defined often with status. friends I met at the

84 22 nationalities

left their country without possibility to return because

house shop.

‘‘On Friday I go all the way to Zaventem to clean in a company’’. ‘‘I went to

of abecause threat RELIGION: ‘’I go to the cemetery it to their lives or is the only place where I feel I can practice She It migrated to NY interm 2018, freedom. is a legal Santeria, for which I need toprotected be surrounded bysheinternational whereby was exploited the dead. I cannot keep a skull in my working room in Lawyer and school teacher. conventionsillegally as a nanny. the centre’’.

or for

simplified version the reception of

of the ‘‘official asylum asylum seekers, FEDASIL.

NURSE: Asylum seekers are Deputy Director entitled to health assistance.women An Isolated with children in-house nurse carries routine Director or female minors chekups and facilitates medical appointments with other centres and hospitals. 0 LAUNDRY: It is not possible to do your own laundry. It is collected at certain times and done by somev of the residents, as part of the in-house working opportunities. MATERIAL ASSISTANCE: Some products used to be given ‘‘in kind’’ (hygiene, cleaning..). However this has been subsistuted first, by a -1 system of ‘‘tokens’’ to use the in-

FOOTBALL: In kraainem there is a team of asylum seekers and they play also with locals. The She requested asylum in the Netherlands centre in 2019,provides transport and equipment passing through 8 different centres.

centre for minors. It’s a nice REFUGEE Is a person that has place to take selfies’’.

Laura,58

literacy classes for those mothers who cannot leave the centre at the moment. It is also used as a meeting room, storage residents This image represents an idealised facility, procedure and general backup withh the room. Federal agency

ALLOWANCES: Now they receive cash in their credit card to use in any regular shop.

GARDEN

This step implies entering the system, in most cases a temporary accomodation while a place in an asylum center is being found according to each profile. Can take hours or up to a couple of months in some cases.

2-4[SECOND RECEPTION LEVEL] 1-24 m

‘’They touched my things. You shouldn’t touch my things’’.

INVISIBLE NETWORKS

AGENCY refers to the capacity of asylum seekers to use and appropriate EXIT PERMIT: A daily check-in is CURFEW: Residents must be back in the [THIRD RECEPTION LEVEL] spaces. It can also refer to the city through the journeys of female asylum seekers compulsoryUnderstanding and they have to request before 10pm. Once centre the person has received the status authorisaton of Elena Alonso - Master of Human Settlements and giveGiral a warning if personal agency regarding refugee or a subsidiary protection status, they they will not spend some nights in the the autonomy or free will in RECEPTION: [9:30-11] process & [19:30-23:30] will exit the ‘‘asylum’’ and Women be chanelled TEMPORALITY centre. They lose their bed represents if they Thiswillcartography the global migration journeys their daily lives and actions. arrive and structures depart from here. All appointments into the social available in the country. leave for and more the than urban 3 nightsmovements without it. of 9 female asylum seekers cuAsylum seekers are waiting are made from here (medical, community KEY: Every room is locked. Residents have rrently residing in the Red Cross Reception Centre for Asylum services, activities..) It is also the central point to get a response to their the key to their own rooms. However Red Seekers in Jette. to borrow things, from a stapler to the key Cross workers have a master key, so there asylum claim. It can take to the TV room and where they can receive is not a truly ‘‘owned’’ space by the women. several years, which makes The intention is to raise a reflection on their urban lives and transportation tickets. integration in the city of Brussels through their spatial agenit very hard to project cy and appropiation of space while understanding a complex themselves in the future. This ADMINISTRATION: Each woman has an assigned social asylum system from Residents a territorial COMMUNITY SERVICE: can perspective. affects their ability to find worker who oversees their files and advices them suscribe to different activities such as individually. jobs, study or rent their own cleaning, laundry, food service.. in order to accomodation. earn a small amount of money for their personal spendings. AGENCY refers to the EATING: [6:30-8:45] & [11:45-12:45] & [17:30-18:30] capacity of asylum seekers Residents receive food 3 times a day at specific times. ASYLUM SEEKER Is a The menu is fixed but adapted to dietary restrictions. to use and appropriate person that has requested Only certain people get an afternoon snack like spaces. It can also refer to International Protection in minors or people with some health problems. personal agency regarding a third country, and is in the autonomy or free will in the process of waiting for a The centre tried to create COOKING: Residents cannot cook their daily lives and actions. response. partnerships with ‘‘community their own food, which is a significant barrier to expressing their cultural behaviour as well as a loss of autonomy.

‘‘THey didn’t give me much THE PARK: It serves as a place for food so I was hungry. I the children to play and for the women entered a shop where DETOUR: At night, women avoid to spend some time outdoors. However, I was followed around. A crossing the park. some women never spend time here, woman accused me of as parks are not a part of their ‘‘I didn’t feel safe so I started runnning’’ stealing the money I had, She won a scholarship for an arts culture. so they kicked me out and course in Portugal. ‘‘The day I went to I coldn’t eat that day’’ the airport was the happiest day of my life. We went at 3am so nobody would -2nd phase RECEPTION stop us, I was completely covered in the Afghanistan [38M] taxi’’ >>5.85M · 44.9% RELAX: ‘‘On Wednesdays I go watch kids play at 4pm. For me it is the most important appointment of the week,like going to watch a movie. I sit there sometimes, I even swing a bit. it brings me ‘‘I thought I was going to the UK and it joy. I Go back at 7pm for the prayer’’ turned out to be Belgium’’

♀

kitchens’’ where the women could cook but it was not very successful.

Once registered as an asylum seeker, the person can be hosted in a center and receive support while the process is being developped. During this time elligibility for asylum, and later the request itself will be evaluated. TERRACE: It remains closed after neighbours complainedLEVEL] that the women would hang their clothes to [THIRD RECEPTION dry here Once the person has received the status of

‘’I cannot practice my religion here. The space is very limitating’’.

4.2M worldwide

CONNECTIONS: ‘‘ I come here often with friends I met at the centre for minors. It’s a nice REFUGEE Is a person that has place to take selfies’’.

left their country without possibility to return because

of abecause threat RELIGION: ‘’I go to the cemetery it to their lives or is the only place where I feel I can practice freedom. It is a legal term Santeria, for which I need toprotected be surrounded by by international the dead. I cannot keep a skull in my room in conventions the centre’’.

FOOTBALL: In kraainem there is a team of asylum seekers and they play also with locals. The centre provides transport and equipment

‘‘On Friday I go all the way to Zaventem to clean in a company’’.

THE THE RED OFFICIAL CROSS RECEPTION ASYLUM PROCEDURE CENTRE IN JETTE Source: Belgian Red Cross

84 residents 22 nationalities

This image represents an idealised procedure withh the Federal agency

or for

simplified version the reception of

of the ‘‘official asylum asylum seekers, FEDASIL.

refugee or a subsidiary protection TV ROOM: Residents need tostatus, book the they use of the will exit the ‘‘asylum’’ andat be room leavingprocess their badge the chanelled reception to get the into the social structures thewillcountry. key. the one available who gets it infirst decide what to see

Isolated women with children or female minors MENA Room: minor girls have this space specificately dedicated to them. They can read or watch movies.

LUDOTHEQUE: Here mother and babies can find a safe space to play and create bonds while developing basic motor skills

LEARNING: This room Red holdsCross language and Source: Belgian literacy classes for those mothers who cannot leave the centre at the moment. It is also used as a meeting room, storage facility, and general backup room.

NURSE: Asylum seekers are Deputy Director entitled to health assistance. An in-house nurse carries routine Director chekups and facilitates medical appointments with other centres and hospitals. LAUNDRY: It is not possible to do your own is collectedforat an certain Shelaundry. won a Itscholarship arts times and doneinbyPortugal. somev of the day residents, course ‘‘The I went as to part the in-house the ofairport was the working happiestopportunities. day of my Some would life.MATERIAL We wentASSISTANCE: at 3am so nobody products usedcompletely to be given ‘‘in kind’’ stop us, I was covered in the (hygiene, cleaning..). However this taxi’’ has been subsistuted first, by a system of ‘‘tokens’’ to use the inhouse shop. ALLOWANCES: Now ‘‘I thought I was going to the UK and it they receive cash in turned out to be Belgium’’ their credit card to use in any regular shop.

Image by the author. Data source MYRIA - Centre Federal de Migration

4.2M

Once registered as an asylum seeker, the INDIVIDUAL ACCOMPANIMENT: Each resident has an person can be hosted in a center and receive assigned worker who is in charge of overseeing their support while the process is being developped. files and helping them throughtout their reception and During this time elligibility for asylum, and stay in the centre. They meet once a month. later the request itself will be evaluated.

Image by the author. Data source MYRIA - Centre Federal de Migration

26M

kitchens’’ where the womeniscould MIGRANT a person who cook but it was not left very their successful. has place of origin,

2-4[SECOND RECEPTION LEVEL] 1-24 m

During the process of requesting International Protection, asylum seekers in Belgium are entitled to Reception, which consists on ‘’material support’’, medical and social assistance and to be hosted in a reception centre.

1[FIRST RECEPTION LEVEL] 1-3weeks

This step implies entering the system, in most cases a temporary accomodation while a placeLUDOTHEQUE: in an asylum center is being Here mother and babies can findfound a according to each profile. takedeveloping hours safe space to play and create Can bonds while or up to couple basicamotor skills of months in some cases.

THE RED CROSS RECEPTION CENTRE JETTE LEARNING: This room Red holdsIN language and Source: Belgian Cross

Image by the author. Data source: https://www.fedasil.be/fr/les-centres-daccueil

Source: UNHCR 2020 https://www.unhcr.org/figures-at-a-glance.html

women avoid

fe so I started runnning’’

Source: UNHCR 2020 https://www.unhcr.org/figures-at-a-glance.html

4.2M

1[FIRST RECEPTION LEVEL] 1-3weeks

THE RIGHT TO RECEPTION

INDIVIDUAL ACCOMPANIMENT: Each resident has an assigned worker who is in charge of overseeing their files and helping them throughtout their reception and stay in the centre. They meet once a month.

CURFEW: Residents must be back in the centre before 10pm.

RECEPTION: [9:30-11] & [19:30-23:30] Women arrive and depart from here. All appointments are made from here (medical, community services, activities..) It is also the central point to borrow things, from a stapler to the key to the TV room and where they can receive transportation tickets.

‘‘THey didn’t give me much food so I was hungry. I entered a shop where I was followed around. A 0 woman accused me of stealing the money I had, so they kicked me out and I coldn’t eat that day’’

ADMINISTRATION: Each woman has an assigned social worker who oversees their files and advices them individually.

Afghanistan [38M]

♀

‘’I can limitatin

EXIT PERMIT: A daily check-in is compulsory and they have to request authorisaton and give a warning if they will not spend some nights in the centre. They will lose their bed if they leave for more than 3 nights without it.

Image by the author. Data source MYRIA - Centre Federal de Migration

INVISIBLE NETWORKS

AGENCY refers to the capacity of asylum seekers ASYLUM SEEKER Is a to use and appropriate EXIT PERMIT: A daily check-in person that has isrequested Residents must be back in the spaces. It can also refer to Understanding the cityinthrough the journeys of female asylum seekers compulsory and they have toProtection request International fore 10pm. Alonso -isMaster of Human Settlements authorisatonElena and giveGiral a warning if personal agency regarding a third country, and in they will not spend some nights in the the autonomy or free will in N: [9:30-11] & [19:30-23:30] Women process a global migration journeys TEMPORALITY centre. the They lose theirofbedwaiting if they for the Thiswillcartography represents their daily lives and actions. depart from here. All appointments response. leave for more the than urban 3 nightsmovements without it. and of 9 female asylum seekers cuAsylum seekers are waiting from here (medical, community KEY: Every room is locked. Residents have rrently residing in the Red Cross Reception Centre for Asylum activities..) It is also the central point to get a response to their the key to their own rooms. However Red Seekers in Jette. things, from a stapler to the key Cross workers have a master key, so there asylum claim. It can take room and where they can receive worldwide is not a truly ‘‘owned’’ space by the women. several years, which makes The intention is to raise a reflection on their urban lives and tion tickets. integration in the city of Brussels through their spatial agenit very hard to project cy and appropiation of space while understanding a complex themselves in the future. This TRATION: Each woman has an assigned social asylum system from Residents a territorial COMMUNITY SERVICE: can perspective. affects their ability to find who oversees their files and advices them suscribe toIsdifferent activitiesthat such has as REFUGEE a person jobs, study or rent their own food service.. in order to leftcleaning, theirlaundry, country without accomodation. earn a small amount of money for their possibility to return because personal spendings. [6:30-8:45] & [11:45-12:45] & [17:30-18:30] of a threat to their lives or receive food 3 times a day at specific times. freedom. It is a legal term ASYLUM SEEKER Is a nu is fixed but adapted to dietary restrictions. protected by international person that has requested ain people get an afternoon snack like conventions International Protection in people with some health problems. a third country, and is in worldwide the process of waiting for a The centre tried to create Residents cannot cook partnerships with ‘‘community response. food, which is a significant

expressing their cultural as well as a loss of

MENA Room: minor girls have this space specificately dedicated to them. They can read or watch movies.

jobs, study or rent their own

‘’I cannot practice my religion here. The space is very accomodation. limitating’’.

THE OFFICIAL ASYLUM PROCEDURE

‘‘I found a job in Antwerp because I learnt Dutch in school. I work there in the weekends and holidays’’.

key. the one who gets it first will decide what to see

Isolated women with children or female minors

QUE: Here mother and babies can find a several years, which makes The intention is to raise a reflection on their urban lives and ce to play and create bonds while developing integration in the city of Brussels through their spatial agenit very hard to project or skills cy and appropiation of space while understanding a complex themselves in the future. This asylum system from a territorial perspective. affects their ability to find ‘’They touched my things. You shouldn’t touch my things’’.

AL ACCOMPANIMENT: Each resident has an worker who is in charge of overseeing their helping them throughtout their reception and he centre. They meet once a month.

It remainsofclosed after neighbours DuringTERRACE: the process requesting International complainedasylum that the women would hang their clothes are to Protection, seekers in Belgium dry to here entitled Reception, which consists on ‘’material support’’, medical andneed social assistance TV ROOM: Residents to book the use ofand the to be hosted a reception centre. roominleaving their badge at the reception to get the

Image by the author. Data source: https://www.fedasil.be/fr/les-centres-daccueil

Asylum seekers are waiting to get a response to their asylum claim. It can take

THE RIGHT TO RECEPTION

Source: UNHCR 2020 https://www.unhcr.org/figures-at-a-glance.html

84 residents 22 nationalities

Image by the author. Data source: https://www.fedasil.be/fr/les-centres-daccueil

NETWORKS NETWORKS

THE THE RED OFFICIAL CROSS RECEPTION ASYLUM PROCEDURE CENTRE IN JETTE

‘‘I found a job in Antwerp because I learnt Dutch in school. I work there in the weekends and holidays’’. TEMPORALITY

Understanding the city through the journeys of female asylum seekers Elena Giral Alonso - Master of Human Settlements

GLOBAL JOURNEYS JOURNEYS

GGL LOOBBA AL L JOURNEYS NETWORKS

N V II N V I I N V I I N V B L ES I B L E S I B L E S I B L E TN E T N E T N E ORKSWORKS WORKSWOR INVISIBLE NETWORKS

t remains closed after neighbours that the women would hang their clothes to

Residents need to book the use of the their badge at the reception to get the This cartography represents the global migration journeys e who gets it first will decide what to see and the urban movements of 9 female asylum seekers currently residing in the Red Cross Reception Centre for Asylum Seekers in Jette.

EATING: [6:30-8:45] & [11:45-12:45] & [17:30-18:30] Residents receive food 3 times a day at specific times. The menu is fixed but adapted to dietary restrictions. Only certain people get an afternoon snack like minors or people with some health problems.

COMMUNITY SERVICE: Reside suscribe to different activitie cleaning, laundry, food service earn a small amount of mone personal spendings.

France with Ayssatou spent 7 months in a RC >>5.85M · 44.9% a tourist visa Centre in Ceuta and 1 month in Bilbao -1 and then WORK: came As soonto as they WORK: As soon as they ‘‘The last day of the course I jumped on a train and dissapeared. ‘‘ worldwide worldwide left infirst ERRANDS: She ‘‘I walk theher city and ERRANDS: ‘‘I walk in the receive Belgium’’ the Orange Card, receive the Orange Card, GARDEN thensupermarket. the cvountry after The centre tried to create COOKING: Residents cannot cook shops or the shops or the supermarket. ‘‘We were 50 Morocco [36.9M] asylum seekers can work.. asylum seekers can work.. death threats linked to her partnerships with ‘‘community their own food, which is a significant Even if I don’t buy anything Even if I don’t buy anything in the boat’’ Mexico [128.9M] They must pay tax and They must pay tax and >>3.26M ·47.7% denounce irregularities in kitchens’’ where the women could barrier to expressing their cultural MIGRANT is a person who it helps me forget aof bit it helps me forget a bit MIGRANT is a person who declare it to Fedasil, who declare it to Fedasil, who >>11.2M · 46,8% the school, in relation drug their cook but it was not very successful. behaviour as well as a loss of about my life’’. about my life’’. hasto left place of origin, has left their place of origin, Senegal [16.7] Student. Works in a logistics centre in Antwerp. Student. Works in a logistics centre in Antwerp. autonomy. will discount their housing will discount their housing cartels and corrupt polititians. DEPARTURE: Here is DEPARTURE: Here is She left morocco to run away many DEBIT CARD: Asylum seekers THE PARK: It serves as a place for Michelle was trafficked to South Korea, Michelle was trafficked to South Korea, ‘‘Myoffear wasreasons. not to be killed. regardless the It Its what they >>693.700 ·38% regardless of the reasons. It expenses. However, expenses. However, many where buses leave for where buses leave for Somalia [15.4M] Somalia [15.4M] BELFIUS: This is the bank of from an abusive family where the children to play and for the women where prostitution is punished with where prostitution is punished with do to you’’ recognised or She had to flee due to the threats of the Taliban She had to flee due to the threats of the Taliban don’t do it and have to are entitled to certain allowances don’t do it and have to ARRIVAL: Most people ARRIVAL: Most people is not legally is not legally inrecognised or otheradestinations in Belgium otheradestinations Belgium their accounts, so it conditions CONNECTIONS: ‘‘ I come here DETOUR: death At night, women she was forced stay atwhen they depending >>2.34M · 47.7% >>2.34M · 47.7% to spend timewho outdoors. death penalty at age 18. penalty at avoid age 18. against her father who worked for an American against hersome father workedHowever, for an American pay bigto sums pay big sums when they ‘‘In Dakar, a smuggler come here when they come here when they on their situation and SLEEP: Often newly arrived, including SLEEP: Often newly arrived, including defined status. defined status. andShe internationally, Including and internationally, Including Venezuela [28.4M] escaped being their movements significantly often with friends I met at the She requested asylum Netherlands She requested asylum in theget Netherlands the park. homeinto the clean and cook. in 2019, some women never they spendtried timeto here, company and afther they tried to kidnap her to company and afther kidnap hercrossing to get regularised regularisedin 2019, first arrive, as this point other reception centres first arrive, as this point other reception centres needs. They receive them in cash minors, spend 2-3 nights sleeping at gave me a fake identity minors, spend 2-3 nights sleeping at kidnapped jumping on in order to avoid commissions. centre for minors. It’s a nice passing through 8 different centres. passing through 8 different centres. as parks are not a part of their prevent her from going to school. prevent her from going to school. appears in most stories appears in most stories in aCameroon bank account opened for this · 51.9% the station before finding their way to and a plane ticket’’ the station before finding their way to ‘‘I didn’t feel safe so I started runnning’’ [25.5M] Cameroon [25.5M] a speed bump and >>5.4M place to take selfies’’. culture. purpose. the registration points or heading to a the registration points or heading to a ‘‘I got lost on my way to ‘‘I got lost on my way to crossing the road >>441.000 · 50.3% >>441.000 · 50.3% ‘‘They hit me with a metal bar’’ ‘‘They hit me with a metal bar’’ police office. police office. the centre, I was really the centre, I was really scared and I spent all scared and I spent all Colombia [50.8M] Linguist.Women’s health ‘‘Onfortuesdays morning I do ‘‘On tuesdays morning I do ‘‘I would only go out when it was dark, and I missed a the money I had in a ‘‘I would only go out when it was dark, and I missed a ‘‘I traveled 10 weeks, RELIGION: ‘’I go to the cemetery because it the money I had in a activist against female >> 3M · 54.5% cleaning service here’’. a cleaning service here’’. EXAMINATION OF THE FILE AFTER EXAMINATION OF THE FILE AFTER phasevery RECEPTION - I decided to lot of class because I was very scared. I decided to taxi’’. lot of class because-2nd I was scared. the groupa would change is the only place where I feel I can practice technician. ‘‘I went to taxi’’. She migrated toAudiovisiual NY in 2018, She migrated to NY in 2018, APPEALS APPEALS genital mutilation. Student and caregiver. Student and caregiver. wear a full hijab so nobody could recognise me ‘‘ wear a full hijab so nobody could recognise me ‘‘ all the time. I crossed to Santeria, for which I need to be surrounded by France with Ayssatou spent 7 months in a RC where she was exploited where she was exploited Student of pre-nurse training of pre-nurse training the dead. I cannot keep a skull in my room in in 2018 due to the She fled death threats Mali, then Algeria, Morocco a tourist Student visa Centre in Ceuta and 1 month in Bilbao working illegally Left as a Venezuela nanny. working illegally as a nanny. UNACOMPANIED MINORS UNACOMPANIED MINORS RELAX: ‘‘On Wednesdays She suffered violence in her She suffered violence in her I go watch kids play at Lawyer school teacher. Lawyer school teacher. BUY: Many and residents come here to BUY: Many and residents come here to CAN BE TAKEN TO AN CAN BE TAKEN TO AN the centre’’. socioeconomic situation and political by a religious leader and and Spain. I traveled by and then For me it is the most important appointment ‘‘ORIENTATION AND ‘‘ORIENTATION AND original Somalia. original4pm. Somalia. Beautician. Runs a foundation for children with buy products at low prices, often buy products at low prices, often OBSERVATION CENTRE FOR OBSERVATION CENTRE FOR threats, leaving her son behind came to of the week,like going to watch a movie. I sit ‘‘The last day of the course I jumped on a train and dissapeared. ‘‘ family after denouncing a road and sometimes also left first city and left first city and SOME WEEKSlow resources. SOME WEEKS ‘‘My mother helped her flee soldShe directly in theherstreet soldShe directly in theherstreet ERRANDS: ‘‘I walk in the Belgium’’ ‘‘My mother helped her flee there sometimes, I even swing a bit. it brings me case of FGM that led to walked. I was 16 at the then the cvountry after then the cvountry after to Kenya paying a smuggler to Kenya paying a smuggler shops or the supermarket. ‘‘We were 50 time.’’ ‘‘I travelled 5 days Morocco [36.9M] Morocco [36.9M] joy. I Go back at 7pm for the prayer’’ the death of a girl. death threats linked toinher death threats linked to her who gave me a passport who gave me a passport As a child suffered dire violence her family,Mexico Even if I don’t buy anything in the boat’’ by bus to get to the [128.9M] Mexico [128.9M] >>3.26M ·47.7% >>3.26M ·47.7% denounce of irregularities in are denounce of irregularities in and a plane ticket’’. I lived 4 and a plane ticket’’. I lived 4 living in a region where guerrilla conflicts it helps me forget a bit ‘‘I felt like a fellon’’. It Peruvian where >>11.2M · Jungle, 46,8% >>11.2M · 46,8% the school, in relation to drug months with his wife, helping months with his wife, helping still active. the school, in relation to drug about my life’’. Guinea [13.1M] was a tiny space with I sold icecream for a Senegal [16.7] Senegal [16.7] Student. Works in a logistics centre in Antwerp. NORMALLY WITHIN 30 DAYS NORMALLY WITHIN 30 DAYS cartels and corrupt polititians. cartels and corrupt polititians. DEPARTURE: Here is at his house. I was 15 years at his house. I was 15 years She was forced to prostitute herself since -1st phase RECEPTION -1st phase RECEPTION no room to move or store AFTER NOTIFICATION She AFTER NOTIFICATION She left morocco to run away left morocco to run away living’’. Michelle was trafficked to South Korea, >>550.790 ·43.3% ‘‘My fear was not to be killed. Its what they >>693.700 ·38% DEBIT CARD: Asylum seekers >>693.700 ·38% REGISTRY FORM REGISTRY FORM where buses leave fo old’’. old’’. BELFIUS: This is the bank of the age of 13 Dublin III (EC 604/2013): Dublin III (EC 604/2013): my things. There are 9 from an abusive family where from an abusive family where FINGERPRINTS EU DATABASE FINGERPRINTS EU DATABASE where prostitution is punished with do to you’’ She had to flee due to the threats of the Taliban ‘‘They locked me in ARRIVAL: Most people other destinations in B are entitled to certain allowances Determine which country is responsible to examine Determine which country is responsible to examine TRANSITIONAL SHELTER WHILE TRANSITIONAL SHELTER WHILE their accounts, so it conditions cubicles per room with a the request.soInmany generalhours it is the first countrya of the request. In general it is the first country of she was forced to stay at she was forced to stay at death penalty at age 18. ‘‘I spent against her father who worked for an American ‘‘In Dakar, a smuggler small room with no come here when they and internationally, Incl BEING ASSIGNED A PLACE IN A BEING ASSIGNED A PLACE IN A depending on their situation and arrival. However,[28.4M] there are other criteria: family arrival. However,[28.4M] there are other criteria: family Venezuela Venezuela She escaped being She escaped being their movements significantly RECEPTION CENTRE RECEPTION CENTRE curtain instead of a door. home to clean and cook. home to clean and cook. in the streetrecent underpossession of a visawindows company and afther they tried to kidnap her to considerations, or considerations, recent possession of a visa or gave me a fake identity and a dirty first arrive, as this point other reception centr needs. They receive them in cash -1st INTERVIEW - kidnapped jumping on -1st INTERVIEW - kidnapped jumping on in order to avoid commissions. residence permit of a member state, and whether residence permit of a member state, and whether It was cold, and the food EXAMINATION OF DUBLIN PROCEDURE EXAMINATION OF DUBLIN PROCEDURE the sun and it was so prevent her from going to school. and a plane ticket’’ mattress on the ground. ‘‘ appears in most stories in aCameroon bank account opened for this · 51.9% · 51.9% an applicant has entered the EU legally or illegally. an applicant has entered the EU legally or illegally. [25.5M] a speed bump and >>5.4M a speed bump and >>5.4M ELIGIBILITY FOR REQUEST TO BE ELIGIBILITY FOR REQUEST TO BE is horrible, my stomach hot. I suffered a lot of EXAMINED BY BELGIUM EXAMINED BY BELGIUM purpose. ‘‘I got lost on my way to If the process determines it is not Belgium’s If the process determines it is not Belgium’s crossing the road crossing the road hurt for a week’’. >>441.000 · 50.3% ‘‘Mondays I do a baby ‘‘Mondays I do a baby xenophobia inthenPeru’’ ‘‘They hit me with a metal bar’’ responsibility, the corresponding country responsibility, then the corresponding country the centre, I was really will be requested to receive the applicant, who will be requested to receive the applicant, who sitting here. I do take sitting here. I do take will be put in a temporary centre waiting to will be put in a temporary centre waiting to scared and I spent all Colombia [50.8M] Colombia [50.8M] Linguist.Women’s health Linguist.Women’s health be repatriated. This can take up to 2 months. be repatriated. This can take up to 2 months. the metro because it is for 10 weeks, the metro because it is for 10 weeks, ‘‘I would only go out when it was dark, and I missed a the money I had in a ‘‘I like to go to the Grand ‘‘I like to go to the Grand ‘‘I traveled ‘‘I traveled WAITING IN THE COLD: ‘‘You have to wait in a activist against activist against EXAMINATION reallyfemale far’’. reallyfemale far’’. lot ofINTERNAL class because IDISPLACEMENT. was very scared. I decided to taxi’’. INTERNAL DISPLACEMENT. Place because they >> have 3M · 54.5% Place because they >> have 3M · 54.5% the group would change the group would change Audiovisiual technician. Audiovisiual technician. long queue in the street’’ APPEALS genital mutilation. genital mutilation. Student and caregiver. wear a full hijab so nobody could recognise me ‘‘ nice chocolate’’. nice chocolate’’. all the time. I crossed to all the time. I crossed to Student of pre-nurse training Left Venezuela in 2018 due to the She fled death threats Mali, then Algeria, Morocco‘‘I was living with this man.. but one day he Left Venezuela in 2018 due to the She fled death threats Mali, then Algeria, Morocco UNACOMPANIED MINORS people are ‘‘I felt very welcome, they gave us tea and people are She suffered violence in her BUY: Many residents come here t CAN BE TAKEN TO AN socioeconomic‘‘I situation socioeconomic situation and political by a religious leader and and Spain. I traveled by escaped and one political night while family leader and and Spain. I traveled by got really drunk and threw me out to the biscuits’’ by the a religious ‘‘ORIENTATION AND original Somalia. displaced within their own displaced within their own Beautician. Runs a foundation children Beautician. Runs a foundation for children with buy products at low prices, often She grew up in for a very bad with OBSERVATION CENTRE FOR road and sometimes also road and sometimes also threats, leaving son behind threats, leaving her son behind was inher a religious ceremony. I tricked street in the middle of the night. I spent family after denouncing a family after denouncing a SOME WEEKS country due to violence, country due to violence, low resources. low resources. sold directly in the street neighbourhood, surrounded by drug the guards and ran through or DISPLACEMENT or DISPLACEMENT and the following day I casethe of FGM that led to walked. I was 16 at the the night outside case of FGM that led to walked. I was 16 at the kitchens. conflict or poverty conflict or poverty time.’’ time.’’ ‘‘I travelled 5 days smallest gate of the compound, ‘‘I travelled 5 days towards went to petit chateau’’. the death of a girl. the death of a girl. IDENTITY:‘’I to finddireother IDENTITY:‘’I to finddireother -2nd INTERVIEW As acome childhere suffered violence in her family, As acome childhere suffered violence in her family, of the world population of the world population by bus to get to the by bus to get to the the highaway, hoping somebody would pic DEEP BACKGROUND CHECK Senegalese, like how the guerrilla conflicts are Senegalese, like how the guerrilla conflicts are livingI really in a region where livingI really in a region where LEADS TO DECISION ON ‘‘My house was almost falling appart ‘‘I felt like a fellon’’. It Peruvian Jungle, where Peruvian Jungle, where me up. ‘‘ is displaced. is displaced. INTERNATIONAL PROTECTION street feels, how people have taken street feels, how people have taken still active. still active. Guinea [13.1M] Guinea [13.1M] and my mother was sick, so I took I sold icecream for a I sold icecream for a Displacement includes internal Displacement includes internal was a tiny space with CARING FOR OTHERS: ‘‘ I CARING FOR OTHERS: ‘‘ I the space. buy products from herself since the space. buy products from herself since She[..]we was forced She[..]we was forced to prostitute -1st phase RECEPTION controlto ofprostitute the house at a very young no room to move or store ‘‘I go a lot to Tervuren ‘‘I go a lot to Tervuren living’’. living’’. >>550.790 ·43.3% >>550.790 ·43.3% am a volunteer in a care am a volunteer in a care our country, from our our country, REGISTRY FORM movements in the country movements in the country the and age get of age. 13support the and age get of 13support from our The building gets regularly my things. There are 9 because that is where because that is where FINGERPRINTS EU DATABASE ‘‘They locked me in centre, and afterwards centre, and afterwards compatriots, we feel a bit at home, compatriots, we feel a bit at home, TRANSITIONAL SHELTER WHILE of origin due to violence or of origin due to violence or raided. ‘‘ cubicles per room with a my Tutor lives. She is 3rd phase RECEPTION -3rd phase RECEPTION ‘‘I spent many hours a small room with my no Tutor lives. She is BEING ASSIGNED A PLACE IN A I go help some children I go help some sochildren before I go back to the centre.’’. before I go back to the centre.’’. ERVICES FOR INTEGRATION SOCIAL SERVICES FOR INTEGRATION RECEPTION CENTRE curtain instead of a door. insecurity. insecurity. no longer my guardian in the street windows and a dirtyno longer my guardian obtaining refugee After obtaining refugee with homework in an with homework in anunder -1st INTERVIEW It was cold, and the food s, individuals have the status, individuals have the because i am not a minor because‘‘ i am not a minor EXAMINATION OF DUBLIN PROCEDURE the sun and it was so mattress on the ground. afterschool centre’’ afterschool centre’’ to reside in Belgium right to reside in Belgium ELIGIBILITY FOR REQUEST TO BE CURFEW: After 10pm, the narco is horrible, my stomach but she still helps me a but she still helps me a period of five years, for a period of five years, hot. I suffered a lot of WOMEN. of all EXAMINED BY BELGIUM ng from the day they starting from the day they groups do ‘‘clean ups’’. They hand in hurt for a week’’. lot ’’. lot ’’. xenophobia in Peru’’ ed for asylum. After applied for asylum. After internationally displaced panphlets with ‘‘rules’’..they will kill period of five years, this period of five years, will be given permanent they will be given permanent population are female.38% of anybody that is still in the street at ence. residence. ‘‘I like to go to the Grand WAITING IN THE COLD: ‘‘You have to wait in a night after 10pm. the total are minors. INTERNAL DISPLACEMENT. Place because they have ON, activities & support services 19 - Secondary School don Bosco- Avenue du Val d’Or 90D, 1150 HEALTH EDUCATION, activities & support services 19 - Secondary School don Bosco- Avenue du Val d’Or 90D, 1150 long queue in the street’’ nice chocolate’’. Rue Bonaventure 100, 1090 - Theater association/ homework school 20 - Institut Dominique Pire - Rue De Lenglentier 6/14, 1000 1-PLOEF! Rue Bonaventure 100, 1090 - Theater association/ homework school 20 - Institut Dominique Pire - Rue De Lenglentier 6/14, 1000 Arbre de vie Rue Camille Simoens 9, 1030 21 - Institut Sint Guidon - Place de Sainte-Adresse 12, 1070 1-Hopital Brugmann - Place A.Van Gehuchten, 1020 -medical follow up, psychiatry 2-Creche Arbre de vie Rue Camille Simoens 9, 1030 21 - Institut Sint Guidon - Place de Sainte-Adresse 12, 1070 ‘‘I was living with this man.. but one day he ‘‘I felt very welcome, they gave us tea and people are ‘‘I escaped one night while the family - Rue Léon Theodor 108, 1090 trainings and job search 2-Emergency room Place A.Van Gehuchten, 1020 Bruxelles 3-Actiris - Rue Léon Theodor 108, 1090 trainings and job search got really drunk and threw me out to the biscuits’’ displaced within their own She grew up in a very bad She grew up in a very bad was in a religious ceremony. I tricked cademy - Rue du Saule 1, 1090 3-Queen Fabiola Children’s hospital - Avenue Jean Joseph Crocq 15, 1020 4-Music Academy - Rue du Saule 1, 1090 street in the middle of the night. I spent country due to violence, neighbourhood, surrounded by drug neighbourhood, surrounded by drug the guards and ran through the é ASBL 26, rue Esseghem - activities for kids 0-3years old ADMINISTRATION 4-Hopital UZ - Avenue du Laerbeek 101, 1090 5-La recré ASBL 26, rue Esseghem - activities for kids 0-3years old ADMINISTRATION DISPLACEMENT or the night outside and the following day I ‘‘I feel good in this city kitchens. kitchens. conflict or poverty gate -ofOrange the compound, m Rue Auguste Hainaut 48/C, 1090 - specialLEGEND access for MENA 1- Commune Jette – Chaussée de Wemmel 100, 1090 - Orange card / 3 months 5-ONE Brugmann - Place A.Van Gehuchten 4, 1020 Bruxelles service for pregnant 6-Fire Gym Rue Auguste Hainaut 48/C, 1090 - special access for MENA 1- Commune Jette – Chaussée de Wemmelsmallest 100, 1090 card / 3towards months went to petit chateau’’. - INDIVIDUAL JOURNEYS IDENTITY:‘’I come here to find other -2nd INTERVIEW because it’s calm. I also of the world population theprocedures highaway, hoping somebodymail would pic Population chap integratie en inburgering – BON - multiple adresses - integration 2- La poste - Rue Ferdinand Lenoir 29, 1090 procedures and certified mail women and new mothers 7-Agentschap integratie en inburgering – BON - multiple adresses - integration 2- La poste - Rue Ferdinand Lenoir 29, 1090 and certified DEEP BACKGROUND CHECK Senegalese, I really like how the like it because there are Country LEADS TO DECISION ON ‘‘My house was almost falling appart de Smet de Naeyer 2/a, 1090 ‘‘My house was almost falling appart de Smet de Naeyer 2/a, me up. ‘‘ - assigned bank rseas-Rue du Progrès 231, 1030 activities for refugees – Boulevard - assigned bank 6-ONE – Jette - Rue Léopold I 337, 1090 Jette 8-SB Overseas-Rue du Progrès 231, 1030 activities for refugees 3-Belfius – Boulevard 1090 is displaced. INTERNATIONAL PROTECTION Place of origin: Journeys start in the place they3-Belfius had to flee street feels, how people have taken many migrants, and they and my mother was sick, sostation I took - Place Cardinal Mercier 11, 1090 and my mother was sick, sostation I took - Place Cardinal Mercier 11, 1090 e Promotion social Erasme Chaussée de Mons 700, 1070 - alphabetiza4 -Police 7-Planning Familial Leon Theodor 108. (contraception, youth 9-Cours de Promotion social Erasme Chaussée de Mons 700, 1070 - alphabetiza4 -Police Displacement includes internal the space. [..]we buy products from help eachother’’. MIGRATION MIGRATION Place on the migration journey:control Most of journeys aren’t line, and they require several stops the house at a straight very young control of the house at a very young ch classes 8-GAMS – Rue Gabrielle Petit 6, 1080 Follow up for Female Genital Mutilation tion, French classes our country, and get support from our movements in the country Colombia [50.8M] age. The building gets regularly age. The building gets regularly HAPPENS AMONGST HAPPENS AMONGST Waversesteenweg 1649, 1160 - Social Promoton school 9-Constats Rue Jules Vieujant 9, 1080 - certification of scars due to violence 10-IAPS - Waversesteenweg 1649, 1160 - Social Promoton school Individual migration route: Some women took days to arrive, some took several years compatriots, we feel a bit at home, of origin due to violence or -3rd phase RECEPTION NEIGHBOURING COUNTRIES. NEIGHBOURING COUNTRIES. es métiers - Avenue de l’Astronomie 14, 1210 - training and orientation raided. ‘‘ 10-Cemavie - Rue Haute 320, 1000 - certification & follow up FGM 11-Cité >> 3M · 54.5%‘‘On tuesdays I go to ‘‘LAMINATED COPY’’: If des métiers - Avenue de l’Astronomie 14, 1210 - training and orientation raided. ‘‘ ‘‘On tuesdays I go to before I go back to the centre.’’. SOCIAL SERVICES FOR INTEGRATION City journeys: movements that create their own vision of the city insecurity. les formation - network of centres 11-Ulysse – Rue de l’Ermitage 52, 1050 mental health – workshops mother child 12-Bruxelles formation network of centres I lost my orange card it Overijse in the afternoon Overijse in the afternoon After obtaining refugee status, individuals have the y school La Sagesse Philomene Rue Potagère*Name 74, 1210 13-Primary school La Sagesse Philomene Rue Potagère 74, 1210 Population out of to clean in aof house, it 12-EXIL - Avenue de la Couronne 282 - Psychological follow up exile and migration would be a nightmeare. to clean in a house, it Percentage has been changed at the request of the person right to reside in Belgium After 10pm, the narco After 10pm, the narco F - Rue Gatti de Gamond 95, 1180 - School for French CURFEW: after A1 level 14-IEPSCF - Rue Gatti de Gamond 95, 1180 - School for French CURFEW: after A1 level for a period of five years, the SEND MONEY BACK WOMEN. of country all of all WOMEN. takes migrants me almost 2h to 13-Woman do – Drève de La Brise 28, 1170 body reappropiation takes me almost 2h to female starting from the day they groups do ‘‘clean groups do ‘‘clean ups’’. They hand in vial Rue du Charroi 33, 1190 support to housing material, clothing, pro-ups’’. They hand in 14–Women Now galeries agora 103 -Social support for women 15-Convivial Rue du Charroi 33, 1190 support to housing material, clothing, proHOME: ‘‘I come here once get there after my get there after my applied for asylum. After internationally displaced internationally displaced panphlets with ‘‘rules’’..they will kill panphlets with ‘‘rules’’..they will kill this period of five years, Source: United Nations Population Division 2020 guidance, equivalence diploma, integration on French Belgium 15 – Red Oasis- rue de la mongagne 54, 1000 - social support fessional guidance, equivalence diploma, integration on French Belgium a week. It takes me over morning job’’. morning job’’. they will be given permanent https://www.un.org/development/desa/pd/content/international-migrant-stock population are female.38% of population are female.38% of that is still i that is still in the street at boutique - RC Schaerbeek – Rue Anatole France, 1030 anybody - clothing 16 CSD Central Services Domicile -Babyzen Rue St.Bernard 43, 1060 an hour to avoid taking 16-Vestiboutique - RC Schaerbeek – Rue Anatole France, 1030 anybody - clothing residence. the total are minors. the total are minors. us C.E.R.I.A - Avenue Emile Gryson 1, 1070 - Training 17- Campus C.E.R.I.A - Avenue Emile Gryson 1, 1070 - Training night after 10pm. the metro, but it is the HEALTH EDUCATION, activities & support services ‘‘I work as a caregiver in Liedekerke’’. ol Victor Horta - Avenue des Anciens Combattants 200, 1140 18- School Victor Horta - Avenue des Anciens Combattants 200, 1140 best rate to send money

26M

The sequence introduces us first to the concepts of this reRasika,18 Lamyae,19 search as well as a contextualisation into asylum in the world Mariama,37 Fatoumata,18 and in Belgium. Sandra, 36 Aamiina, 17 ♀

♀

Mariama,37

79.5M

♀

46%

♀

46%

73%

It continues through global journeys; a description of time and place that relates reasons and means to flee. These are contextualised with statistics of migration in their countries of origin, particularly women. LEGEND - INDIVIDUAL JOURNEYS

Country

Place of origin: Journeys start in the place they had to flee

Population

to Venezuela’’.

♀

Fatoumata,18

45.7M

♀

Milena,24

Vincent Rif, Asile et Migration, 2015 in À la rencontre de l’autre, Croix Rouge de Belgique, 2015.

Sandra, 36

LEGEND - INDIVIDUAL JOURNEYS

Sandra, 36

Mariama,37

46%

Source: United Nations Population Division 2020

https://www.un.org/development/desa/pd/content/international-migrant-stock

City journeys: movements that create their own vision of the city

*Name has been changed at the request of the person

Population

Country

Place of origin: Journeys start in the place they had to flee

Individual migration route: Some women took days to arrive, some took several years

Percentage of female migrants

♀

Aamiina, 17

79.5M

45.7M

♀

Place on the migration journey: Most journeys aren’t a straight line, and they require several stops

Population out of the country

Fatoumata,18

Individual migration route: Some women took days to arrive, some took several years

*Name has been changed at the request of the person

Rasika,18

Lamyae,19

Fortune,24

Place on the migration journey: Most journeys aren’t a straight line, and they require several stops City journeys: movements that create their own vision of the city

Aamiina, 17

Fortune,24

Laura,58

Lamyae,19

♀

Milena,24

♀

Colombia [50.8M] >> 3M · 54.5%

Population out of the country

♀

Percentage of female migrants

Source: United Nations Population Division 2020

https://www.un.org/development/desa/pd/content/international-migrant-stock

79.5M

45.7M

73%

Vincent Rif, Asile et Migration, 2015 in À la rencontre de l’autre, Croix Rouge de Belgique, 2015.

Fortune,24

♀

Source: UNHCR 2020 https://www.unhcr.org/figures-at-a-glance.html

♀

Laura,58 Milena,24

Rasika,18

Vincent Rif, Asile et Migration, 2015 in À la rencontre de l’autre, Croix Rouge de Belgique, 2015.

♀

1-PLOEF! Rue Bonaventure 100, 1090 - Theater association/ homework school 1-Hopital Brugmann - Place A.Van Gehuchten, 1020 -medical follow up, psychiatry 2-Creche Arbre de vie Rue Camille Simoens 9, 1030 2-Emergency room Place A.Van Gehuchten, 1020 Bruxelles 3-Actiris - Rue Léon Theodor 108, 1090 trainings and job search 3-Queen Fabiola Children’s hospital - Avenue Jean Joseph Crocq 15, 1020 4-Music Academy - Rue du Saule 1, 1090 4-Hopital UZ - Avenue du Laerbeek 101, 1090 5-La recré ASBL 26, rue Esseghem - activities for kids 0-3years old ‘‘I feel good in this city 5-ONE Brugmann - Place A.Van Gehuchten 4, 1020 Bruxelles service for pregnant 6-Fire Gym Rue Auguste Hainaut 48/C, 1090 - special access for MENA because it’s calm. I also women and new mothers 7-Agentschap integratie en inburgering – BON - multiple adresses - integration like it because there are 6-ONE – Jette - Rue Léopold I 337, 1090 Jette 8-SB Overseas-Rue du Progrès 231, 1030 activities for refugees many migrants, and they 7-Planning Familial Leon Theodor 108. (contraception, youth 9-Cours de Promotion social Erasme Chaussée de Mons 700, 1070 - alphabetizahelp eachother’’. MIGRATION 8-GAMS – Rue Gabrielle Petit 6, 1080 Follow up for Female Genital Mutilation tion, French classes HAPPENS AMONGST 9-Constats Rue Jules Vieujant 9, 1080 - certification of scars due to violence 10-IAPS - Waversesteenweg 1649, 1160 - Social Promoton school NEIGHBOURING COUNTRIES. 10-Cemavie - Rue Haute 320, 1000 - certification & follow up FGM 11-Cité ‘‘LAMINATED COPY’’: If des métiers - Avenue de l’Astronomie 14, 1210 - training and orientation 11-Ulysse – Rue de l’Ermitage 52, 1050 - mental health – workshops mother child formation - network of centres I lost my orange12-Bruxelles card it 12-EXIL - Avenue de la Couronne 282 - Psychological follow up exile and migration would be a nightmeare. 13-Primary school La Sagesse Philomene Rue Potagère 74, 1210 13-Woman do – Drève de La Brise 28, 1170 body reappropiation 14-IEPSCF - Rue Gatti de Gamond 95, 1180 - School for French after A1 level SEND MONEY BACK 14–Women Now - galeries agora 103 -Social support for women 15-Convivial Rue du Charroi 33, 1190 support to housing material, clothing, proHOME: ‘‘I come here once 15 – Red Oasis- rue de la mongagne 54, 1000 - social support fessional guidance, equivalence diploma, integration on French Belgium a week. It takes me over 16 CSD Central Services Domicile -Babyzen Rue St.Bernard 43, 1060 an hour to avoid taking 16-Vestiboutique - RC Schaerbeek – Rue Anatole France, 1030 - clothing 17- Campus C.E.R.I.A - Avenue Emile Gryson 1, 1070 - Training the metro, but it is the ‘‘I work as a caregiver in Liedekerke’’. 18- School Victor Horta - Avenue des Anciens Combattants 200, 1140 best rate to send money Source: UNHCR 2020 https://www.unhcr.org/figures-at-a-glance.html

♀

Source: UNHCR 2020 https://www.unhcr.org/figures-at-a-glance.html

26M

73%

to Venezuela’’.

Elena Giral – Master of Human Settlements – KU Leuven 2020-21

Finally, it zooms into the city of Brussels. Here, three layers are superposed: the official asylum procedure; the network of places in relation to the Red Cross Centre in Jette; and the ‘’invisible’’ network that arises when studying the movements of the women in the city.

MIGRANT is a person who has left their place of origin, regardless of the reasons. It is not a legally recognised or defined status.

‘‘The last day of the course I jumped on a train and dissapeared. ‘‘

Mexico [128.9M] >>11.2M · 46,8%

♀

Morocco [36.9M] >>3.26M ·47.7%

‘‘My fear was not to be killed. Its what they do to you’’

Milena,24

Beautician. Runs a foundation for children with low resources. As a child suffered dire violence in her family, living in a region where guerrilla conflicts are still active. She was forced to prostitute herself since the age of 13

♀

>>693.700 ·38%

♀

‘‘We were 50 in the boat’’

Senegal [16.7]

She escaped being Venezuela [28.4M] kidnapped jumping on a speed bump and >>5.4M · 51.9% crossing the road

>> 3M · 54.5%

‘‘I went to France with a tourist visa and then came to Belgium’’

Ayssatou spent 7 months in a RC Centre in Ceuta and 1 month in Bilbao

Sandra, 36

♀

‘‘In Dakar, a smuggler gave me a fake identity and a plane ticket’’

Mariama,37

Lamyae,19

She left morocco to run away from an abusive family where she was forced to stay at home to clean and cook.

Fatoumata,18

Linguist.Women’s health ‘‘I traveled for 10 weeks, activist against female the group would change genital mutilation. all the time. I crossed to Left Venezuela in 2018 due to the She fled death threats Mali, then Algeria, Morocco socioeconomic situation and political by a religious leader and and Spain. I traveled by threats, leaving her son behind family after denouncing a road and sometimes also case of FGM that led to walked. I was 16 at the time.’’ ‘‘I travelled 5 days the death of a girl. by bus to get to the Peruvian Jungle, where Guinea [13.1M] I sold icecream for a living’’. >>550.790 ·43.3% ‘‘They locked me in ‘‘I spent so many hours a small room with no in the street under windows and a dirty the sun and it was so mattress on the ground. ‘‘ hot. I suffered a lot of xenophobia in Peru’’ Audiovisiual technician.

‘‘My house was almost falling appart and my mother was sick, so I took control of the house at a very young age. The building gets regularly raided. ‘‘

CURFEW: After 10pm, the narco groups do ‘‘clean ups’’. They hand in panphlets with ‘‘rules’’..they will kill anybody that is still in the street at night after 10pm.

LEGEND - INDIVIDUAL JOURNEYS

46%

Individual migration route: Some women took days to arrive, some took several years City journeys: movements that create their own vision of the city

Population

Colombia [50.8M] >> 3M · 54.5%

Population out of the country

♀

Percentage of female migrants

Source: United Nations Population Division 2020

https://www.un.org/development/desa/pd/content/international-migrant-stock

‘’I cannot practice my religion here. The space is very limitating’’.

ADMINISTRATION: Each woman has an assigned social worker who oversees their files and advices them individually.

-1

GARDEN

THE PARK: It serves as a place for the children to play and for the women to spend some time outdoors. However, some women never spend time here, as parks are not a part of their culture.

KEY: Every room is locked. Residents have the key to their own rooms. However Red Cross workers have a master key, so there is not a truly ‘‘owned’’ space by the women.

The centre tried to create partnerships with ‘‘community kitchens’’ where the women could cook but it was not very successful.

COOKING: Residents cannot cook their own food, which is a significant barrier to expressing their cultural behaviour as well as a loss of autonomy.

‘‘I didn’t feel safe so I started runnning’’

WORK: As soon as they receive the Orange Card, asylum seekers can work.. They must pay tax and declare it to Fedasil, who will discount their housing expenses. However, many don’t do it and have to pay big sums when they get regularised

ERRANDS: ‘‘I walk in the shops or the supermarket. Even if I don’t buy anything it helps me forget a bit about my life’’.

‘‘I got lost on my way to the centre, I was really scared and I spent all the money I had in a taxi’’.

DEPARTURE: Here is where buses leave for ARRIVAL: Most people other destinations in Belgium come here when they and internationally, Including first arrive, as this point other reception centres appears in most stories

-1st phase RECEPTION REGISTRY FORM FINGERPRINTS EU DATABASE TRANSITIONAL SHELTER WHILE BEING ASSIGNED A PLACE IN A RECEPTION CENTRE

‘‘On tuesdays morning I do a cleaning service here’’.

BUY: Many residents come here to buy products at low prices, often sold directly in the street

Dublin III (EC 604/2013):

-1st INTERVIEW EXAMINATION OF DUBLIN PROCEDURE ELIGIBILITY FOR REQUEST TO BE EXAMINED BY BELGIUM

‘‘I like to go to the Grand Place because they have nice chocolate’’.

WAITING IN THE COLD: ‘‘You have to wait in a long queue in the street’’

SLEEP: Often newly arrived, including minors, spend 2-3 nights sleeping at the station before finding their way to the registration points or heading to a police office.

EXAMINATION OF THE FILE AFTER APPEALS

UNACOMPANIED MINORS CAN BE TAKEN TO AN ‘‘ORIENTATION AND OBSERVATION CENTRE FOR SOME WEEKS

‘‘I felt like a fellon’’. It was a tiny space with no room to move or store my things. There are 9 cubicles per room with a curtain instead of a door. It was cold, and the food is horrible, my stomach hurt for a week’’.

NORMALLY WITHIN 30 DAYS AFTER NOTIFICATION

Determine which country is responsible to examine the request. In general it is the first country of arrival. However, there are other criteria: family considerations, recent possession of a visa or residence permit of a member state, and whether an applicant has entered the EU legally or illegally. If the process determines it is not Belgium’s responsibility, then the corresponding country will be requested to receive the applicant, who will be put in a temporary centre waiting to be repatriated. This can take up to 2 months.

-3rd phase RECEPTION SOCIAL SERVICES FOR INTEGRATION After obtaining refugee status, individuals have the right to reside in Belgium for a period of five years, starting from the day they applied for asylum. After this period of five years, they will be given permanent residence.

IDENTITY:‘’I come here to find other Senegalese, I really like how the street feels, how people have taken the space. [..]we buy products from our country, and get support from our compatriots, we feel a bit at home, before I go back to the centre.’’.

EDUCATION, activities & support services 1-PLOEF! Rue Bonaventure 100, 1090 - Theater association/ homework school 1-Hopital Brugmann - Place A.Van Gehuchten, 1020 -medical follow up, psychiatry 2-Creche Arbre de vie Rue Camille Simoens 9, 1030 2-Emergency room Place A.Van Gehuchten, 1020 Bruxelles 3-Actiris - Rue Léon Theodor 108, 1090 trainings and job search 3-Queen Fabiola Children’s hospital - Avenue Jean Joseph Crocq 15, 1020 4-Music Academy - Rue du Saule 1, 1090 4-Hopital UZ - Avenue du Laerbeek 101, 1090 5-La recré ASBL 26, rue Esseghem - activities for kids 0-3years old ‘‘I feel good in this city 5-ONE Brugmann - Place A.Van Gehuchten 4, 1020 Bruxelles service for pregnant 6-Fire Gym Rue Auguste Hainaut 48/C, 1090 - special access for MENA because it’s calm. I also women and new mothers 7-Agentschap integratie en inburgering – BON - multiple adresses - integration like it because there are 6-ONE – Jette - Rue Léopold I 337, 1090 Jette 8-SB Overseas-Rue du Progrès 231, 1030 activities for refugees many migrants, and they 7-Planning Familial Leon Theodor 108. (contraception, youth 9-Cours de Promotion social Erasme Chaussée de Mons 700, 1070 - alphabetizahelp eachother’’. 8-GAMS – Rue Gabrielle Petit 6, 1080 Follow up for Female Genital Mutilation tion, French classes 9-Constats Rue Jules Vieujant 9, 1080 - certification of scars due to violence 10-IAPS - Waversesteenweg 1649, 1160 - Social Promoton school 10-Cemavie - Rue Haute 320, 1000 - certification & follow up FGM 11-Cité ‘‘LAMINATED COPY’’: If des métiers - Avenue de l’Astronomie 14, 1210 - training and orientation 11-Ulysse – Rue de l’Ermitage 52, 1050 - mental health – workshops mother child formation - network of centres I lost my orange12-Bruxelles card it 12-EXIL - Avenue de la Couronne 282 - Psychological follow up exile and migration would be a nightmeare. 13-Primary school La Sagesse Philomene Rue Potagère 74, 1210 13-Woman do – Drève de La Brise 28, 1170 body reappropiation 14-IEPSCF - Rue Gatti de Gamond 95, 1180 - School for French after A1 level SEND MONEY BACK 14–Women Now - galeries agora 103 -Social support for women 15-Convivial Rue du Charroi 33, 1190 support to housing material, clothing, proHOME: ‘‘I come here once 15 – Red Oasis- rue de la mongagne 54, 1000 - social support fessional guidance, equivalence diploma, integration on French Belgium a week. It takes me over 16 CSD Central Services Domicile -Babyzen Rue St.Bernard 43, 1060 an hour to avoid taking 16-Vestiboutique - RC Schaerbeek – Rue Anatole France, 1030 - clothing 17- Campus C.E.R.I.A - Avenue Emile Gryson 1, 1070 - Training the metro, but it is the ‘‘I work as a caregiver in Liedekerke’’. 18- School Victor Horta - Avenue des Anciens Combattants 200, 1140 best rate to send money

to Venezuela’’.

[THIRD RECEPTION LEVEL]

This image represents an idealised procedure withh the Federal agency

or for

simplified version the reception of

of the ‘‘official asylum asylum seekers, FEDASIL.

She won a scholarship for an arts course in Portugal. ‘‘The day I went to the airport was the happiest day of my life. We went at 3am so nobody would stop us, I was completely covered in the taxi’’

‘‘I thought I was going to the UK and it turned out to be Belgium’’

♀

Cameroon [25.5M] >>441.000 · 50.3%

♀

Fortune,24

Student and caregiver.

Student of pre-nurse training ‘‘My mother helped her flee to Kenya paying a smuggler who gave me a passport and a plane ticket’’. I lived 4 months with his wife, helping at his house. I was 15 years old’’.

Afghanistan [38M] >>5.85M · 44.9%

CARING FOR OTHERS: ‘‘ I am a volunteer in a care centre, and afterwards I go help some children with homework in an afterschool centre’’

19 - Secondary School don Bosco- Avenue du Val d’Or 90D, 1150 20 - Institut Dominique Pire - Rue De Lenglentier 6/14, 1000 21 - Institut Sint Guidon - Place de Sainte-Adresse 12, 1070

Aamiina, 17

She had to flee due to the threats of the Taliban against her father who worked for an American company and afther they tried to kidnap her to prevent her from going to school.

‘‘On tuesdays I go to Overijse in the afternoon to clean in a house, it takes me almost 2h to get there after my morning job’’.

Michelle was trafficked to South Korea, where prostitution is punished with death penalty at age 18.

‘‘They hit me with a metal bar’’

‘‘I would only go out when it was dark, and I missed a lot of class because I was very scared. I decided to wear a full hijab so nobody could recognise me ‘‘

She suffered violence in her original Somalia.

INTERNAL DISPLACEMENT.

DISPLACEMENT

79.5M or

1% of the world population is displaced. Displacement includes internal movements in the country of origin due to violence or insecurity.

‘‘I go a lot to Tervuren because that is where my Tutor lives. She is no longer my guardian because i am not a minor but she still helps me a lot ’’.

ADMINISTRATION 1- Commune Jette – Chaussée de Wemmel 100, 1090 - Orange card / 3 months 2- La poste - Rue Ferdinand Lenoir 29, 1090 procedures and certified mail 3-Belfius – Boulevard de Smet de Naeyer 2/a, 1090 - assigned bank 4 -Police station - Place Cardinal Mercier 11, 1090

♀

Rasika,18

Student. Works in a logistics centre in Antwerp.

Somalia [15.4M] >>2.34M · 47.7%

Once the person has received the status of refugee or a subsidiary protection status, they will exit the ‘‘asylum’’ process and be chanelled into the social structures available in the country.

‘‘THey didn’t give me much food so I was hungry. I entered a shop where I was followed around. A woman accused me of stealing the money I had, so they kicked me out and I coldn’t eat that day’’

‘‘Mondays I do a baby sitting here. I do take the metro because it is really far’’.

‘‘I felt very welcome, they gave us tea and biscuits’’

-2nd INTERVIEW DEEP BACKGROUND CHECK LEADS TO DECISION ON INTERNATIONAL PROTECTION

Source: Belgian Red Cross

‘‘On Friday I go all the way to Zaventem to clean in a company’’.

RELIGION: ‘’I go to the cemetery because it is the only place where I feel I can practice Santeria, for which I need to be surrounded by the dead. I cannot keep a skull in my room in the centre’’.

BELFIUS: This is the bank of their accounts, so it conditions their movements significantly in order to avoid commissions.

2-4[SECOND RECEPTION LEVEL] 1-24 m

FOOTBALL: In kraainem there is a team of asylum seekers and they play also with locals. The centre provides transport and equipment

CONNECTIONS: ‘‘ I come here often with friends I met at the centre for minors. It’s a nice place to take selfies’’.

DETOUR: At night, women avoid crossing the park.

AGENCY refers to the capacity of asylum seekers to use and appropriate spaces. It can also refer to personal agency regarding the autonomy or free will in their daily lives and actions.

COMMUNITY SERVICE: Residents can suscribe to different activities such as cleaning, laundry, food service.. in order to earn a small amount of money for their personal spendings.

HEALTH

Country

Place on the migration journey: Most journeys aren’t a straight line, and they require several stops

-2nd phase RECEPTION -

‘‘I was living with this man.. but one day he got really drunk and threw me out to the street in the middle of the night. I spent the night outside and the following day I went to petit chateau’’.

of all WOMEN. internationally displaced population are female.38% of the total are minors.

Place of origin: Journeys start in the place they had to flee

*Name has been changed at the request of the person

♀

‘‘I escaped one night while the family was in a religious ceremony. I tricked the guards and ran through the smallest gate of the compound, towards the highaway, hoping somebody would pic me up. ‘‘

She grew up in a very bad neighbourhood, surrounded by drug kitchens.

CURFEW: Residents must be back in the centre before 10pm.

RELAX: ‘‘On Wednesdays I go watch kids play at 4pm. For me it is the most important appointment of the week,like going to watch a movie. I sit there sometimes, I even swing a bit. it brings me joy. I Go back at 7pm for the prayer’’

DEBIT CARD: Asylum seekers are entitled to certain allowances depending on their situation and needs. They receive them in cash in a bank account opened for this purpose.

‘’They touched my things. You shouldn’t touch my things’’.

INDIVIDUAL ACCOMPANIMENT: Each resident has an assigned worker who is in charge of overseeing their files and helping them throughtout their reception and stay in the centre. They meet once a month.

NURSE: Asylum seekers are Deputy Director entitled to health assistance. An in-house nurse carries routine Director chekups and facilitates medical appointments with other centres and hospitals. LAUNDRY: It is not possible to do your own laundry. It is collected at certain times and done by somev of the residents, as part of the in-house working opportunities. MATERIAL ASSISTANCE: Some products used to be given ‘‘in kind’’ (hygiene, cleaning..). However this has been subsistuted first, by a system of ‘‘tokens’’ to use the inhouse shop. ALLOWANCES: Now they receive cash in their credit card to use in any regular shop.

She requested asylum in the Netherlands in 2019, passing through 8 different centres.

She migrated to NY in 2018, where she was exploited working illegally as a nanny.

Colombia [50.8M]

1[FIRST RECEPTION LEVEL] 1-3weeks

Image by the author. Data source MYRIA - Centre Federal de Migration

worldwide

LUDOTHEQUE: Here mother and babies can find a safe space to play and create bonds while developing basic motor skills

THE RIGHT TO RECEPTION

73%

MIGRATION HAPPENS AMONGST NEIGHBOURING COUNTRIES.

45.7M

people are displaced within their own country due to violence, conflict or poverty

Vincent Rif, Asile et Migration, 2015 in À la rencontre de l’autre, Croix Rouge de Belgique, 2015.

26M

She left first her city and then the cvountry after death threats linked to her denounce of irregularities in the school, in relation to drug cartels and corrupt polititians.

MENA Room: minor girls have this space specificately dedicated to them. They can read or watch movies.

Image by the author. Data source: https://www.fedasil.be/fr/les-centres-daccueil

Source: UNHCR 2020 https://www.unhcr.org/figures-at-a-glance.html

worldwide

REFUGEE Is a person that has left their country without possibility to return because of a threat to their lives or freedom. It is a legal term protected by international conventions

Lawyer and school teacher.

THE OFFICIAL ASYLUM PROCEDURE

‘‘I found a job in Antwerp because I learnt Dutch in school. I work there in the weekends and holidays’’.

TV ROOM: Residents need to book the use of the room leaving their badge at the reception to get the key. the one who gets it first will decide what to see

Isolated women with children or female minors

LEARNING: This room holds language and literacy classes for those mothers who cannot leave the centre at the moment. It is also used as a meeting room, storage facility, and general backup room.

4.2M

TERRACE: It remains closed after neighbours complained that the women would hang their clothes to dry here

JOURNEYS

Asylum seekers are waiting to get a response to their asylum claim. It can take several years, which makes it very hard to project themselves in the future. This affects their ability to find jobs, study or rent their own accomodation.

The intention is to raise a reflection on their urban lives and integration in the city of Brussels through their spatial agency and appropiation of space while understanding a complex asylum system from a territorial perspective.

Laura,58

84 residents 22 nationalities

TEMPORALITY

Source: UNHCR 2020 https://www.unhcr.org/figures-at-a-glance.html

THE RED CROSS RECEPTION CENTRE IN JETTE

Understanding the city through the journeys of female asylum seekers Elena Giral Alonso - Master of Human Settlements

This cartography represents the global migration journeys and the urban movements of 9 female asylum seekers currently residing in the Red Cross Reception Centre for Asylum Seekers in Jette.

ASYLUM SEEKER Is a person that has requested International Protection in a third country, and is in the process of waiting for a response.

I N V I SIBLE N E T WORKS

GLOBAL

NETWORKS

INVISIBLE NETWORKS

This map must not be understood only as a product in itself but a part of the process. It gathers information from interviews with experts and research carried out, but also the stories and discussions with the women interviewed. As explained below, it is intended as a tool for further discussion and particularly as a support to facilitate the exchanges with newly arrived in the centre that will be therefore in a constant process of change and alteration. 16

Invisible networks. Understanding the city through the journeys of female asylum seekers

An ever-unfinished multidisciplinary work The objective of this research is to produce an outcome that links academic reflection with applied research, aiming for a tangible use that will help improve the way asylum seekers find their way in the city, and potentially support their integration. THE RED CROSS RECEPTION CENTRE IN JETTE

TV ROOM

2-4[SECOND RECEPTION LEVEL] 1-24 m

INDIVIDUAL ACCOMPANIMENT

CURFEW: 10/11vpm

CLASSROOM

Source: Belgian Red Cross

RECEPTION: [9:30-11] & [19:30-23:30]

26M

worldwide

MIGRANT is a person who has left their place of origin, regardless of the reasons. It is not a legally recognised or defined status.

Director NURSE

Image by the author. Data source MYRIA - Centre Federal de Migration

worldwide

REFUGEE Is a person that has left their country without possibility to return because of a threat to their lives or freedom. It is a legal term protected by international conventions.

[THIRD RECEPTION LEVEL]

Deputy Director

Image by the author. Data source: https://www.fedasil.be/fr/les-centres-daccueil

Source: UNHCR 2020 https://www.unhcr.org/figures-at-a-glance.html

LUDOTHEQUE

MENA Room

4.2M

THE RIGHT TO RECEPTION

1[FIRST RECEPTION LEVEL] 1-3weeks

Isolated women with children or female minors

ASYLUM SEEKER Is a person that has requested International Protection in a third country, and is in the process of waiting for a response.

THE OFFICIAL ASYLUM PROCEDURE

TERRACE

95 residents 22 nationalities

ADMINISTRATION

EATING: [7:00-8:45] & [11:45-12:45] & [17:45-18:30] STORAGE

GARDEN

-2nd phase RECEPTION -

EXAMINATION OF THE FILE AFTER APPEALS

UNACOMPANIED MINORS CAN BE TAKEN TO AN ‘‘ORIENTATION AND OBSERVATION CENTRE FOR SOME WEEKS

-1st phase RECEPTION REGISTRY FORM FINGERPRINTS EU DATABASE TRANSITIONAL SHELTER WHILE BEING ASSIGNED A PLACE IN A RECEPTION CENTRE

Dublin III (EC 604/2013): -1st INTERVIEW EXAMINATION OF DUBLIN PROCEDURE ELIGIBILITY FOR REQUEST TO BE EXAMINED BY BELGIUM

NORMALLY WITHIN 30 DAYS AFTER NOTIFICATION

-3rd phase RECEPTION SOCIAL SERVICES FOR INTEGRATION

46%

WOMEN. of all internationally displaced population are female.38% of the total are minors.

MY NOTES

After obtaining refugee status, individuals have the right to reside in Belgium for a period of five years, starting from the day they applied for asylum. After this period of five years, they will be given permanent residence.

HEALTH 1-Hopital Brugmann - Place A.Van Gehuchten, 1020 -medical follow up, psychiatry 2-Emergency room Place A.Van Gehuchten, 1020 Bruxelles 3-Queen Fabiola Children’s hospital - Avenue Jean Joseph Crocq 15, 1020 4-Hopital UZ - Avenue du Laerbeek 101, 1090 5-ONE Brugmann - Place A.Van Gehuchten 4, 1020 Bruxelles service for pregnant women and new mothers 6-ONE – Jette - Rue Léopold I 337, 1090 Jette 7-Planning Familial Leon Theodor 108. (contraception, youth 8-GAMS – Rue Gabrielle Petit 6, 1080 Follow up for Female Genital Mutilation 9-Constats Rue Jules Vieujant 9, 1080 - certification of scars due to violence 10-Cemavie - Rue Haute 320, 1000 - certification & follow up FGM 11-Ulysse – Rue de l’Ermitage 52, 1050 - mental health – workshops mother child 12-EXIL - Avenue de la Couronne 282 - Psychological follow up exile and migration 13-Woman do – Drève de La Brise 28, 1170 body reappropiation 14–Women Now - galeries agora 103 -Social support for women 15 – Red Oasis- rue de la mongagne 54, 1000 - social support 16 CSD Central Services Domicile -Babyzen Rue St.Bernard 43, 1060

EDUCATION, activities & support services 1-PLOEF! Rue Bonaventure 100, 1090 - Theater association/ homework school 2-Creche Arbre de vie Rue Camille Simoens 9, 1030 3-Actiris - Rue Léon Theodor 108, 1090 trainings and job search 4-Music Academy - Rue du Saule 1, 1090 5-La recré ASBL 26, rue Esseghem - activities for kids 0-3years old 6-Fire Gym Rue Auguste Hainaut 48/C, 1090 - special access for MENA 7-Agentschap integratie en inburgering – BON - multiple adresses - integration 8-SB Overseas-Rue du Progrès 231, 1030 activities for refugees 9-Cours de Promotion social Erasme Chaussée de Mons 700, 1070 - alphabetization, French classes 10-IAPS - Waversesteenweg 1649, 1160 - Social Promoton school 11-Cité des métiers - Avenue de l’Astronomie 14, 1210 - training and orientation 12-Bruxelles formation - network of centres 13-Primary school La Sagesse Philomene Rue Potagère 74, 1210 14-IEPSCF - Rue Gatti de Gamond 95, 1180 - School for French after A1 level 15-Convivial Rue du Charroi 33, 1190 support to housing material, clothing, professional guidance, equivalence diploma, integration on French Belgium 16-Vestiboutique - RC Schaerbeek – Rue Anatole France, 1030 - clothing 17- Campus C.E.R.I.A - Avenue Emile Gryson 1, 1070 - Training 18- School Victor Horta - Avenue des Anciens Combattants 200, 1140

19 - Secondary School don Bosco- Avenue du Val d’Or 90D, 1150 20 - Institut Dominique Pire - Rue De Lenglentier 6/14, 1000 21 - Institut Sint Guidon - Place de Sainte-Adresse 12, 1070 ADMINISTRATION 1- Commune Jette – Chaussée de Wemmel 100, 1090 - Orange card / 3 months 2- La poste - Rue Ferdinand Lenoir 29, 1090 procedures and certified mail 3-Belfius – Boulevard de Smet de Naeyer 2/a, 1090 - assigned bank 4 -Police station - Place Cardinal Mercier 11, 1090

Vincent Rif, Asile et Migration, 2015 in À la rencontre de l’autre, Croix Rouge de Belgique, 2015.

-2nd INTERVIEW DEEP BACKGROUND CHECK LEADS TO DECISION ON INTERNATIONAL PROTECTION

The research has been developed in collaboration with the Belgian Red Cross, and particularly the centre for female asylum seekers in Jette, while looking at methodologies and engaging with practitioners from international organisations such as UN Habitat, Cities Alliance or Plan International. 17

Elena Giral – Master of Human Settlements – KU Leuven 2020-21

This study has therefore not only been an interesting learning experience for me as an urban practitioner but aims to serve also as a base for discussion for the management of the Red Cross centre. Understanding the individual experiences of the residents from a situated point of view becomes a relevant starting point to reflect on the provision of humanitarian assistance. Ultimately, the cartography around which this thesis revolves seeks to serve as a tool to facilitate discussions with the residents. Therefore, two versions have been developed: one reproduces the process of inquiry, overlapping individual stories, global journeys and the urban network created by the women interviewed, resulting in a complex visualization that integrates different times and scales, so as to contrast the idea of an oversimplified procedure as epitomised by diagrams synthesising the system’s main steps. The second version presents an open canvas to be filled. By removing the more detailed individual stories, this map becomes a support to the conversations between the social assistants and the newly arrived, a means to tell their story and a means to find their way in the city, tailored to their needs and the perspective of the centre. I consider this thesis an ever-unfinished work because the city cannot be represented as a static object (moreover when understood through movement) and on the other hand because there will always be more stories, more lives, that change it and, when drawn out, will constitute new layers on the map.

Invisible networks. Understanding the city through the journeys of female asylum seekers

Informal definitions These short and informal definitions are by no means exhaustive, nor are they legally bounded definitions. Rather, they summarise concepts that are key to this study and that the reader should become acquainted with.

ASYLUM SEEKER Is a person that has requested International Protection in a third country and is waiting for a response to their claim. The subjects from this study are asylum seekers. MIGRANT is a person who has left their usual place of residence, often across borders, for a variety of reasons. The term can scope both regular and irregular migrants. It is not a legally recognised or defined status. REFUGEE Is a person that has left their country because of a threat to their lives or freedom without possibility to return and has a recognised status that grants International Protection. This is a legal term protected by international conventions. 1 AGENCY can be defined in the context of sociology as the capacity of an individual to act independently and make free choices. In the scope of this study it is used as spatial agency or agency of space in relation to the city and built environment and it refers to the capacity of asylum seekers to use and appropriate spaces. It can also refer to personal agency regarding the autonomy or free will in their daily lives and actions. RIGHT TO THE CITY emerges from the conceptualisation of Henri Lefebvre (1968) of the citizen as ‘’protagonist of the city’’ and to understand urban space as a place to ‘’build collective life’’. With few exceptions, it is not formally acknowledged as a right. It has been used and reinterpreted by several organisations and academics like David Harvey and James Holston. In this study, this right is ‘’claimed’’ by seeing female asylum seekers as the protagonists who have the freedom to make and take part in the city life and imagine or ‘’reconstruct’’ their own vision of the city. For extended terminology and specific to the Belgian context the reader can refer to the lexicon prepared by the local NGO CIRE (Coordination et initiatives pour réfugiés et étrangers) https://www.cire.be/publication/refugie-demandeur-dasile-migrant-lexique-et-definitions/ For extended international terminology, the reader can refer to the glossary on migration by the International Organisation of Migration (IOM 2019) https:// publications.iom.int/system/files/pdf/iml_34_glossary.pdf 1 Note: Under international refugee law, recognition as a refugee is declaratory and not constitutive. “A person is a refugee within the meaning of the 1951 Convention as soon as he fulfils the criteria contained in the definition. This would necessarily occur prior to the time at which his refugee status is formally determined. Recognition of his refugee status does not therefore make him a refugee but declares him to be one. He does not become a refugee because of recognition, but is recognized because he is a refugee” (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Handbook and Guidelines on Procedures and Criteria for Determining Refugee Status (2011) HCR/1P/4/enG/Rev. 3, para. 9). The second part of the definition also covers stateless persons who are outside their country of habitual residence.

Elena Giral – Master of Human Settlements – KU Leuven 2020-21

Stories of global migration and local adaptation What follows is a reproduction of 9 conversations with the women of the Red Cross Centre. Due to the intimacy of these conversations and the complexity for the stories, they were not recorded. These transcripts are therefore not exhaustive, and some parts have been left out at the request of the respondents. Some stories are very rich in details and some remain deliberately vague. Others were too painful to be told. Each story, and each journey is different. Names have been changed to protect their identity.

Invisible networks. Understanding the city through the journeys of female asylum seekers

[ Understanding the city of asylum]

The system. The right to request asylum and reception Foreign individuals arriving in an EU member state have the right to request International Protection. The country will evaluate if the person meets the criteria to be recognised as a refugee on the basis of the Geneva Convention1. The procedure to request International Protection consists of several steps and can take up to several years.

Figure 1: Belgian Red Cross. Asylum procedure in Belgium in 2011. Displayed in the Centre for Asylum Seekers of the Red Cross in Jette. Picture by the author

A simplified representation The asylum system in Belgium is represented in this image (figure 1)2 in a graphically simplified way. The intention is undoubtedly to clearly communicate the “steps” that an asylum seeker must follow in an easy way, which can be understood 1

The Geneva Convention defines a refugee as any person:

"Who, owing to well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion, is outside the country of his nationality and is unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself of the protection of that country; or who, not having a nationality and being outside the country of his former habitual residence as a result of such events, is unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to return to it." Source: www.fedasil.be 2 The image represents the asylum system in 2011. The procedure has slightly changed since then but no updated image appears to have been produced. The ‘’spatial’’ representation of this cartography has been adapted to the current procedure and complemented through discussions with a social assistant from the Red Cross.

Elena Giral – Master of Human Settlements – KU Leuven 2020-21

Mariama, 37, Senegal Mariama arrived in Belgium in February 2021. She explains how she was a good student, with a degree in linguistics of modern languages and pursuing a Master in comparative linguistics, focused on local minoritarian languages like Serer and Mandigo, as opposed to official Wolof and French. She comes from a small village but she was studying in the capital, Dakar, where she also found her first husband. Mariama, like many other women in Senegal, suffered Female Genital Mutilation, excision, which had severe implications in her physical and mental health as well as in her marital relationships. She suffered physical abuse from her husband and health problems, which led her to leave her studies and the capital, as her family arranged a new marriage in her hometown. Mariama became the second wife of a man who was an important religious authority, nephew of the general Khalifa, and moved to live in a sort of religious citadel, together with the first wife and their 7 kids. She has no kids of herself but treated them like her own. She recounts how she took up an advocacy role in the community, trying to create awareness of the terrible consequences of FGM. ‘’ One of the five girls had not been excised, as she was born with a

disease. She was 9 years old, and I felt like I was her mother. Then one day, her mother told me they were going away to visit her grandparents. When they came back, I found out that the girl had been excised. She died three days later’’. Mariama explains how she felt powerless and frustrated: ‘’all my efforts had been in vain, she 22

Invisible networks. Understanding the city through the journeys of female asylum seekers

by any interlocutor with few notions of the local language. However, by representing this complex journey in this manner, it also almost ‘’dehumanises’’ the process, not displaying the importance and difficulty of each and every step while not considering the urban spaces attached to the enactment of this procedure, nor its territorial manifestation. Even though there is a clear purpose, intention and use in this kind of representation, it raises the question on its spatial implications. These steps are milestones in the lives of the people that go through them, each time closer to the objective of receiving a response to their request for International Protection. The time that runs between them is variable, and the places in which they take place have strong connotations. What happens between these numbers and arrows is indeed the life of each asylum seeker, a life that takes place in a city where they simultaneously exist and don’t. The right to reception During the process of requesting International Protection, asylum seekers in Belgium are entitled to reception, which consists of ‘’material support’’, medical and social assistance and to be hosted in a reception centre (even though it is not compulsory. The reception system is managed by Fedasil (the Federal Agency for the reception of Asylum Seekers) and consists of a network of 81 collective centres (managed by Fedasil, the Red Cross and other partners) and individual housing units (managed by the Belgian social welfare system) with total of 28.000 places. In the Brussels-Capital Region, there are around 2.000 places distributed between the arrival centre (Petit Chateau [1]), seven ‘’Second phase centres’’ and two centres for minors. Currently around 1300 asylum seekers are hosted in one of these facilities in Brussels (Fedasil 2021). The reception journey Before reception – Informal arrival The official reception procedure starts in the Petit Chateau [1], as the first contact with the authorities and reception network. Nevertheless, it is very important to acknowledge that there is another type of reception, a sort of informal arrival system. When asylum seekers enter the country, many migrants do not know their rights in terms of requesting International Protection neither where they have to go to start this process. However, most of them have one clear reference, namely the ‘’Gare du Nord’’ (Brussels North Station). It is the point of entry for most, either arriving by bus from any international route or with the train from the airport. Many spend a few nights here, including women and children, receiving indications and information from other migrants, almost as if this was the unofficial first point of the reception system. This station becomes a very relevant reference in the city and will remain such throughout their asylum request, as it was highlighted by the workers of the centre, as well as by being repeatedly mentioned by the women. ARRIVAL – First Phase Reception - Officially entering the System. In Belgium, the official journey of reception starts in the arrival centre, better known as the Petit Chateau[1] (literally, ‘’the Little Castle’’). This point serves as a first registration with the Immigration Office as well as a medical check and security 23

Elena Giral – Master of Human Settlements – KU Leuven 2020-21

was dead in the name of an absurd tradition, in name of the religion..’’. The family tried to hide the fact and instructed everyone to tell the girl had died naturally because of her disease. ‘’I

tried to denounce it to the badiénou gokh1, and when my family and husband found out, I was secluded because I was not sumise’’. They locked her in a building in the compound, with an old mattress on the floor and little food portions delivered to the door, like a prisoner. ‘’I knew it was

a matter of time before they killed me, so I had to flee’’. With the help of a maid, she got some of her cash and jewellery that she had hidden and prepared her escape. ‘’I waited for Friday

after the prayer, when all the family was out. I wore a traditional robe, a Jalab, and convinced the guards that I needed menstrual products urgently, knowing they wouldn’t feel comfortable with the idea and would let me go buy them myself.’’. Mariama went to the shop, where she removed the Jalab under which she had regular clothes, hidden cash and jewels, and took off. ‘’I

went out the smallest gate and took the more discreet streets. This was my only chance, and all my obsession was to make it to the main road, and hope somebody would pick me up.’’ She made it to the house of her former university roommate in the capital, where she was hiding for days. She was hoping to go to Mali, where she had an aunt. ‘’I only went out right

before sunrise, or after dark. I knew they would be looking for me’’. One day she walked the beach early morning and a man started following. She managed to get the attention of people shouting he was a thief, and some helped her get home. ‘’ That is when I knew I was in true

danger and decided to go far away. So, my friend found a smuggler who gave me a plane ticket 1 Badiénou gokh is the wolof term for the ‘’community godmothers’’. They work home by home with pregnant and lactating women, oversee children’s health, and provide advice on sexual topics and diseases.

Invisible networks. Understanding the city through the journeys of female asylum seekers

screening. Applicants who need accommodation will be hosted here temporarily, which is known as ‘’first phase reception’’ (generally 1-2 weeks, but up to 2 months in some cases) while an adapted solution is found. Each profile is evaluated individually to determine the person’s needs and send them to a specific reception centre (isolated women, minors, families, ...). During their stay in this temporary centre, with a capacity of 800 beds, asylum seekers are hosted in collective rooms of around 9 people, segregated by sex. Each person has a small cell with a single bed and a small storage, separated by a curtain. Once a vacant place in a suitable centre has been identified, the asylum seeker will be sent to the selected facility, generally by public transport (for which a ticket and some brief explanations are provided) (Figure 2). This process can be a very stressful encounter with the city. For the newly arrived, finding the way through the complex network of metro, bus, tram, etc. is tricky business, and not knowing the language in many cases represents a great obstacle to overcome. In the best of cases, the person receives a rough scheme of the route to follow. During the interviews conducted some of the women described this step as very scary, as some of them got lost and feared being harassed or abused in the street.

Figure 2. Belgian Red Cross. The route to the Centre for Asylum Seekers of the Red Cross in Jette. Picture by the author

Elena Giral – Master of Human Settlements – KU Leuven 2020-21

and a fake passport. That is how I arrived here’’. Mariama says she feels good here but arriving was not easy. ‘’I slept for two nights in Gare du

Nord, with some strangers that made room for me. But I felt good when I arrived to Petit Chateau, I felt again like a human. They gave me biscuits, tea and respect. ’’. But she says the time there she couldn’t sleep, imagining where would they take her, how would the centre look like. About Brussels she says it’s a city that she likes. ‘’it’s the calm, the nature, the park, the trees..

I really like to go out if its sunny’’. However, she marks how she still doesn’t feel totally safe, and if its dark she takes a big detour to avoid crossing the park at night. She remains in the close surroundings in the neighbourhood where she feels safe. ‘’I like going to the supermarket

or the second hand shops, even if I can’t buy much, it helps me forget a little bit.. I often go to Carrefour just to walk’ around’. Her favourite spot is the Roi Baudouin Park near the centre: ‘’On Wednesdays, I go watch kids play at 4pm, for me it is the most important appointment of

the week, like going to watch a movie. I sit there, sometimes I even swing a bit, it brings me joy. I go back at 7pm for the prayer’’. The city centre becomes a place for administrative appointments, like the foreign office in Botanique. But there is one place where she likes to go: the small African neighbourhood of Matonge. ‘’I go there to find other Senegalese, I really like how the street feels, how people

have taken the space. I go there with a friend I made in Petit Chateau, and we buy products from our country, and get support from our compatriots, we feel a bit at home, before I go back to the centre. Then, I simply read in my bed, watch a series or play with my phone. That’s what I do most of the time, while I wait’’ 26

Invisible networks. Understanding the city through the journeys of female asylum seekers

ACCOMODATION – Second Phase Reception - The Red Cross Centre for Asylum Seekers in Jette The Reception Centre for Asylum Seekers of the Red Cross in Jette is one of the 24 centres of the Red Cross in Belgium, hosting currently over 6400 individuals across the country.3 It is located in the north-west of Brussels, and has a capacity of around 90 people, restricted to isolated women, women with children or unaccompanied girls (minors). Each individual living here is entitled to what Fedasil calls “material assistance”. They are provided with meals, clothing, and access to healthcare facilities. They also receive social, medical, and psychological support and other services like lawyers, interpreters, and access to a range of trainings and integration activities. Even though they are not officially entitled to ‘’financial’’ assistance, the ‘’in kind’’ provision of daily products (hygiene, personal items...) has shifted to a much more efficient ‘’cash’’ allocation. Several studies have demonstrated how providing this type of support is much more effective and efficient because it addresses the actual needs of the person and removes the burden of material logistics while providing with the dignity of choice and even having a positive impact on the local market (European Commission 2021). So, what does this imply particularly in the daily life of an asylum seeker? What is their use, appropriation, or agency in space? Even though this support is extremely helpful, and in many cases the only means of survival for these women, living in a reception centre can be significantly alienating (as both workers and women mention together with the numerous positive aspects of living there). The building of the Red Cross reception centre in Jette counts 5 floors. Ground floor and -1 are dedicated to communal uses, administration, and the garden, while the top 3 floors host the dormitories and some shared rooms that however can’t be accessed freely by everyone. Architecturally the centre has that look and feeling of the scarcity of ‘’institutional buildings’’ with a very basic layout that repeats on every floor, with narrow windowless corridors with doors on both sides. Everything is built to last and withstand the passage and the use of a lot of people through the years. The floors are made of grey tiles and the walls are painted white, though often covered in institutional posters about health awareness, promoting activities or reminding schedules. The space is rather limited, so each room calls for a multi-purpose objective. The classroom doubles as a meeting room for the staff or as a storage for the high number of strollers that the centre needs to keep. The TV room has a hairdressing corner. Residents often call their families from the dining hall. The centre does however not lack ‘’personal touches’’. Pictures of current and former residents are hanging in almost every room, remembering games at the park or a trip to the beach. There are drawings from the kids on the walls, sometimes depicting their favourite social worker, always with a big smile. What draws attention when spending time in this space, and more than the ‘’limitations’’ or ‘’restrictions’’ that will be analysed in this text, is the welcoming, almost familiar atmosphe3 Here Belgian Red Cross refers to the French speaking branch of the organisation, ‘’Croix Rouge de Belgique’’. The Flemish branch, Rode Kruis Vlaanderen, functions as a separate organisation, and is responsible for hosting around 4.000 people in the country. Source: Fedasil Statistics April 2021.

Elena Giral – Master of Human Settlements – KU Leuven 2020-21

Milena, 24, Colombia Milena lived through terrible experiences and she still suffers daily the consequences of ongoing conflict in Colombia. During the interview, Milena kept on nervously texting and sending audios to her mother back in her hometown. She had been informed that her building block was under attack as we spoke. But she kept going, as she explained this was ‘’almost a daily thing’’. She stays almost constantly on her phone, the only way to reach out to her mother and her child, whom she has not seen in over 5 years. Milena suffered and witnessed extreme violence, and she was forced to prostitute herself as the only way to survive. She explains however that ‘’whatever you have, you should share it’’. This is why before leaving her native town in the department of Caldas, she managed a small foundation for children with low resources where they organised games and also gave food to their families or people with problems, as well as drug addicts. ‘’I had to learn very early to take

care of others, first my mother and my sister, then I had to raise my child and my husband..’’. -She makes a pause to remind her mother to keep the gun under the bed-. ‘’I started working

very early, when I was 7 years old, selling candy and other things by the road. I grew up very fast.. I was abused when I was 5..at that time there was a lot of violence. One day someone rang on my door, and they had placed the heads of three of my relatives by my entry. I still clearly remember that day.’’ Milena explains that her house is more like a shack, water coming in and the roof about to collapse any day. She made a little sketch to explain how the house is surrounded by ‘’drug 28

Invisible networks. Understanding the city through the journeys of female asylum seekers

re amongst most of the staff and the residents. Within the undeniable complexity of living in a ‘’controlled’’ environment, and the strict budgetary restrictions these type of centre suffers, there is a visible will to make the lives of the residents as pleasant as possible, with a very close/affectionate personal treatment and projects to improve the space and make these women feel at home, within the obvious limits to this word. Even though each opinion and experience differs, there is a generally more positive feeling towards the ‘’personal ‘’ approach that the women experience in this reception centre than at the arrival centres or the ‘’procedural’’ nature of administrative buildings. Nevertheless, a number of aspects limit or condition the lives, movements and use of space of these women living in a reception centre. Time, Space and Access The limitations to spatial agency start already at the door. It is locked for security reasons, and residents must ring to walk in, every time. They can come and go freely, but there is a curfew at 10pm that they must respect. They also must request an ‘’exit permission’’ to sleep outside of the centre for a few days. If they do not check-in for more than 3 nights in a row without a signed permission, they will lose their bed which will be given to somebody else (even though the workers indicated how they try to be flexible in most cases). The space and uses of the reception have a very strong power to determine the lives and movements of the women residing here. Open for a couple of hours in the morning and four in the evening, this is the only time when residents can access their paperwork, mail, sign up for any of the services offered by the centre (activities, medical appointments...) or simply request the keys to the TV room. The women explained how ‘’whoever gets the key first, will decide what to watch’’, and this can become a point for disagreement. Schedules significantly mark the movements and routine of the women. Most notably the three times a day when food is served condition the time frames when they must be back at the centre or done with their activities if they want to access that meal. Food provision is also one of the biggest points of discord in the centre. Not being able to cook (and plan, and clean, and shop, and everything that comes with it) has a strong impact on the feeling of independence of those residing there. Moreover, food is culturally-laden, and connects to individuals’ backgrounds, memories and culture in different ways. Coming in many cases from countries where cooking is a central part of their lives and an activity especially conducted by women, depriving them of such an activity can be seen as a barrier to their personal development. The only alternative option to the set eating times is to store food in a communal fridge to be eaten later by warming it up in a microwave in the dining hall. In a place with such a degree of cultural diversity (22 nationalities for 84 residents at the time of this study) it comes as no surprise that complaints about the food provided are recurrent, and many of them complained about it during the interviews. The centre tried to create a partnership with a local community kitchen to allow the women to cook as an activity, but this was however not a successful initiative according to the deputy Director of the centre. The other schedule that conditions the lives and routines of the residents is ‘’community work’’. Tasks related to the centre’s daily maintenance, such as cleaning and laundry, are as much as possible covered in shifts. On the one hand, this allows residents to maintain a certain level of agency and control and avoid being fully ‘’catered for’’. It also serves as a remunera29

Elena Giral – Master of Human Settlements – KU Leuven 2020-21

kitchens’’ and prostitution. ‘’human beings are enemies’’. -She tells her mother to let the dog loose- ‘’At night you cannot be in the street, they do cleanings, they kill everyone left outside.

Normally they distribute pamphlets with the rules of the gang in control.’’ ‘’My mum got sick and couldn’t sustain us, so I took control of the house when I was 13. I started working as a prostitute… People say it is easy money, but I can tell you it is really not easy. I had to do things with 6 or 7 dudes a day’’ […] ‘’how do you want me to believe in governments taking care of people? This is why I don’t vote. To hell with my rights’’. Milena explains how hard the world of prostitution is, and how it is taken over by the drug cartels. ‘’You have to do as they say’’. They ‘’offered her a contract in South Korea’’ in 2015, just as she had turned 18. ‘’they said if I made at least 3000$/month I didn’t have to pay for the

ticket. It was really hard, especially because prostitution is illegal in that country and punished with the death penalty, so I couldn’t denounce either’’. She explains the terrible conditions under which she was kept, with barely any food and sleeping on a beach hammock. ‘’They beat me

and forced me, and I had to sleep on the street so many times... It was not easy because when you are a Latina and you have tattoos people always assume you are a thief’’. ‘’I was accused of stealing money from a woman once in a grocery store. They took my bill and they kicked me out, so that day I couldn’t eat’’. When she denounced to the Colombian embassy, the only possible option they’d offer was to send her back to Colombia. ‘’these people clearly didn’t understand

what they’d do to me if I go back’’. ‘’I met a Peruvian guy who lived in Belgium, and he offered me to come with him. I didn’t trust men very much, the father of my child had burnt me with boiling water... but it was my only 30

Invisible networks. Understanding the city through the journeys of female asylum seekers

ted job for which the women get a small remuneration. It works in rotation so everyone that wishes can participate. The spatial layout of the asylum centre sets significant limitations to the everyday life of the residents. They sleep in rooms of 4-6 people of around 25-30m2 where there are two to three bunkbeds and a shared toilet. Their personal space, and the consequential allocation of ownership within the spatial layout of the centre is thus somehow limited almost to a bunkbed and a small storage unit. A couple of pictures stuck on the wall, a colourful bed cover or a teddy bear belonging to a child they left back home and have in many cases not seen in years are the minimal objects and decorations that establish signs of spatial appropriation inside the room. The workers of the centre often try to include images, drawings, and pictures of the residents to help them feel more spaces as theirs, but however time and budget restrictions make this task complicated. Some of the residents indicate how they barely leave their rooms, spending most of their days laying on ‘’their spot’’, reading, watching movies on their phones or calling back home. Others however say they try to spend as little time as possible in the centre, roaming the city to intentionally ‘’get away’’. Most women say it is really hard to get used to shared community life, and particularly the lack of privacy and personal space, with a curtain to ‘’isolate’’ one’s spatial unit and a door and a key to preserve the ‘’safety’’ of belongings. Several refer to small objects being ‘’touched’’ or ‘’stolen’’ by other residents, and how this doesn’t make them feel comfortable in their rooms. Workers from the centre have a master key that opens every door in the building, including the rooms. Although they always knock and try not to be invasive, they are capable of entering the room at any time, which impacts the actual feeling of privacy and ‘’ownership’’. Residents are not able to enter the communal rooms (classroom, TV room, ludothèque, minors’ room, etc...) unless they request the key. For this, they have to anticipate their needs and ask for it during the opening times of the reception. They must leave their badges behind until they return it. Even for a mundane activity such as watching television, their access is thus limited in time and space, and highly controlled.

Inside the Centre Besides accommodation and food, the women of the RC Centre receive a range of services in-house. On arrival, they are assigned an individual worker that follows their file to support them in their asylum procedure and tailor services and activities to their needs. They conduct an interview once a month to clarify the most important questions regarding the procedure. They will also be advised in regards to activities like language courses or several trainings. The centre also counts with an in-house nurse. She provides basic healthcare assistance and advice and oversees particularly the needs of children and pregnant women, which are numerous at the centre. These women also have access to specific activities like language training in the centre, because they cannot easily move around the city.

Elena Giral – Master of Human Settlements – KU Leuven 2020-21

choice’’. Milena lived with this man and his mother while she tried to find a job, but she didn’t manage so she had to work in the street again. She moved with another man, who violently kicked her to the street in the middle of the night, while being under the influence of alcohol and drugs. She didn’t know where to go and she was very scared to be deported back to Colombia. Through the association Women Now she had access to a psychologist who helped her, and she learnt she had to go to Petit Chateau. ‘’I felt like a felon and the food was horrible, you barely had any

space to move and no privacy at all’ – she shows me the pictures she took with her phone of the room, and the cumulated dirt on the very old windows of the building. ‘’It was very cold at

night, and my stomach hurt for days’’. Arriving to the Red Cross centre was a very scary experience for Michelle. She received a ticket and a map, but she got lost and was very scared. ‘’I got really nervous, and nobody would

help me, so I stopped a cab and I spent all the money I had. It was a very short ride but I wouldn’t have found it alone’’. She complains about the noise in the centre, and she repeatedly mentions how she does not feel sufficient freedom to practice her religion. ‘’in my area we

practice Santeria, and you need skulls and candles for our ceremonies. I cannot keep those things in my room, because people touch my stuff’’.. ‘’This is why I go to the Cemetery regularly, to be close to the dead’’. Milena delivers food that she cooks at the home of the Peruvian man ‘’I am in charge of the

marketing in social media’’. ‘’I go do the groceries near Gare du Nord because it is the cheapest. I also work as a hairstylist and a manicurist, and I can also buy my products there’’ 32

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The official procedure Accepting the request Once the residents are installed in the centre, the assessment of their asylum request starts. Within a few weeks they are called to the Foreigners Office [2], situated in a high-rise tower in Botanique, for an interview. This is known among the residents as ‘’the small interview’’. Here the person goes through a background check and has to present the reason for which they are requesting International Protection. At this stage they are not accompanied by a lawyer, but they can prepare for the interview beforehand with the support of one of the social assistants of the centre. The outcomes of this interview will be cross-checked with their fingerprints in an international database. The aim is to determine whether Belgium has the responsibility to treat this request or whether another Member State should do so, according to the Dublin III4 regulation. If the conclusion is that it is not Belgium’s responsibility, it will be up to the country of entry to accept processing this asylum claim. The individual will be moved to a centre with specific ‘’open return posts5’’ to wait for repatriation to take place in the following months. Processing the request When the Foreigners Office [2] accepts the responsibility to process the asylum claim, this information will be sent to the CGRA, the General Commissariat for Refugees and Stateless [3]. This is where the biggest backlog exists, as it can take several months before the asylum seeker is called for what is known as ‘’the big interview’’. This interview takes place during several hours and requires a detailed description of each individual’s story. Any contradictory information could mean the questioning of its veracity, so this interview is prepared carefully together with a lawyer and the social assistant. The decision is taken based on several conditions linked to the impossibility to safely return to their country of origin. There are also significant differences between nationalities, since some countries are recognised as ‘’ high risk’’ and requests from their nationals are often accepted swiftly.

4 ‘’Dublin Regulation’’: Dublin III (EC 604/2013): This determines which country is responsible to examine the request. In general it is the first country of arrival. However, there are other criteria: family considerations, recent possession of a visa or residence permit of a member state, and whether an applicant has entered the EU legally or illegally. If the process determines it is not Belgium’s responsibility, then the corresponding country will be requested to receive the applicant, who will be put in a temporary centre waiting to be repatriated. This can take up to 2 months. 5 In French, Place Ouverte de Retour. The Fedasil network reserves certain spots in its centres to host individuals waiting for the transfer to another EU Member State within the Dublin procedure or in the process of ‘’voluntary repatriation’’. See https://www.fedasil.be/fr/retour-volontaire/accompagnement-et-information

Elena Giral – Master of Human Settlements – KU Leuven 2020-21

On one of my last visits to the centre, I met Milena at the reception. With a very distressed look, she explained it was her birthday, and she wanted to go to celebrate. However, she ‘’desperately’’ needed to find an open Western Union. ‘’I have been everywhere, and they are not

open. I need to get that money, because I want to go to the bar and have a drink.. ‘’

Laura, 58, Mexico Laura arrived to the Red Cross centre on the same day that she registered in Petit Chateau, because there was a free bed. She was in Belgium for 15 days already. She had come to see a man she had met online, who kicked her out to the street at 2 am in Antwerp, after which she headed to Brussels. She had spent the previous 2 years in the Netherlands, living in what she calls ‘’refugee camps’’. She explains that in the Netherlands the reception procedure is very different and people are kept in much more ‘’controlled environments’’. She left her native Mexico City in 2017, where she was an English teacher, to flee to the city of Querétaro. ‘’it all started with the earthquake that year. The building where I was a

teacher had a lot of structural problems but we were forced to work, and I complained. I started receiving threats, and they tried to rape me once as a punishment’’. However the biggest problems came later, after she stopped and denounced three pupils trying to rape a young girl in the school premises. ‘’They were not only doing something terrible but they were also

under the influence of drugs, so I started to investigate.. drugs are a huge problem in Mexican schools you know? Families are disintegrated’’. She explained how she is also trained as a lawyer 34

Invisible networks. Understanding the city through the journeys of female asylum seekers

The verdict Once the request has been examined together with the information from the interview, the CGRA [3] will either come to a conclusion or, in some cases, request a third interview with the person to clarify some issues. If the verdict reached is negative, the person can present an appeal to the Conseil du Contentieux des Etrangers [4] who will review independently the information and come to a conclusion. The result can be more interviews to be performed, an acceptance of the asylum claim, or a final rejection. When the request for International Protection is rejected, the person will receive an order to leave the territory [5] within 30 days. However, this order can take up to 5 months to arrive, causing more uncertainty in the process. A repatriation process will start, and the person will also be moved to an ‘’open return post’’ in a reception centre. However, in reality many seem to decide to remain illegally in the territory, rather than return to their countries. If the request is positively accepted, the person will be granted refugee status6 and receive a residence permit. After this, they can remain in the same reception centre where they reside up to 2 months while they find their own accommodation. Frequently, they will move on to what is known as ‘’third phase reception7’’ provided by the national welfare system. The formal network linked to the centre Contained within the complex ecosystem of the Belgian asylum procedure, the reception centres create their own network of places. During their stay in the centre, residents are put in touch with different organisations across the city. These places are one of the important conditionings for their moves around the city. Health Asylum seekers are entitled to healthcare assistance throughout their procedure (being this the only assistance right that they will preserve if they chose not to reside in a reception centre). Even though the Red Cross centre in Jette has a small health point and a nurse, most of the healthcare assistance is provided across the city. For this reception centre in particular, health services related to pregnant and lactating women become very important both in the immediate surroundings of the neighbourhood, being just minutes away from a children’s hospital (3) and with services such as ONE (5,6), which follows up on new-borns as a public paediatric service. The Central de Services a Domicile (16) provides tailored activities with babies to improve the bond with new mothers. 6 ‘’ Since 2006, in addition to the status of refugee, there is has also been the status of 'subsidiary protection'. This status may be granted to applicants for International Protection who do not meet the criteria for recognition of their status as refugee, but who, nevertheless, are in a situation which means that a return to their home country represents a real danger for them.’’ https://www.fedasil.be/en/asylum-belgium/asylum-procedure 7 Individuals that obtain the legal right to reside in Belgium (via the status of refugee or subsidiary protection) can receive assistance from the social welfare system. This can be financial assistance, accommodation, or support to find a rental space or a job. Source: https://fedasilinfo.be/en/social-assistance-cpasocmw

Elena Giral – Master of Human Settlements – KU Leuven 2020-21

in criminal law, and her ‘’understanding of the structure of the narc, which is very similar to

the corrupt institutions of the country’. Laura started receiving serious threats, as the kids she denounced came from big narc families, and the directors of the school were closely link to the PRD (political party). ‘’They started

following me and threatening me on the street.’’ She also suffered several violent episodes including once when she and her daughter were taken at gun point. ‘’I moved to Querétaro

to work in a call centre, but I still didn’t feel safe. Then one day, I was kidnapped by a taxi driver’’. Laura explained in detail how she was taken to a very dangerous neighbourhood where they threatened to kill her. She convinced the taxi driver to go to the mall to cash out money for him, and managed to escape jumping off the car. ‘’I knew there was a bump in the road,

and he was driving really fast. So, I held my backpack and waited until we crashed to jump out of the car and cross the avenue to the other side. I almost broke my arm, but I managed to get away alive’’. Laura explains how she’s terrified about the idea of going back and being caught. ‘’my fear is not that they’d kill me, its what they do to you’’. She then fled to New York, and worked as a nanny at the house of a Pakistani woman. ‘’she

treated me very bad, I think there is a huge racism and mistreatment towards Latinos in the US’’. She lived in a small room and got paid very little. She started talking a lot to a Kurd-Iranian friend who is a refugee in the Netherlands, who convinced her to go live with him. However, she found out that he was married, and he mistreated her and locked her in a room. She managed to escape and request asylum in the Netherlands, where she was moved to 8 different reception centres before she got her application rejected and left to Belgium. 36

Invisible networks. Understanding the city through the journeys of female asylum seekers

Mental health is also one of the most recurrent reasons for these women to access this network of places. Organisations like Ulysse (11) or EXIL (12) provide psychological assistance specifically tailored to migrants and exiled peoples and counting with adequate interpreters. Woman do (13) works on body reappropriation activities. Other organisations like Women Now (14) or Oasis (15) also provide specific guidance women that have suffered violence or abuse. Particularly important is GAMS (8) where women who have been victims of Female Genital Mutilation receive psychological and medical support or Constats ASBL (9) and Cemavie(10) who also provide a certification of scars and injuries to victims of physical violence. Administration Places related to administrative procedures are also very linked to the local stay of asylum seekers at the centre and create recurrent trajectories, particularly at the neighbourhood level. One of the most significative is the Administration of the Commune (local townhall) (1). Asylum seekers have to register here as temporary residents in order to obtain the ‘’Orange Card’’. This document is highly important during their stay, as it gives them the right to temporary reside, registered as local residents. It normally takes 2-3 months to receive it, and has to be renewed every 3 months, which means that the women have to spend a significant amount of time coming recurrently to this administration. The local office of the post (2) also takes a special symbolism, as it is here where they received the certificated letters, that they must collect in person. Therefore this is often where they learn about the outcome for their asylum procedure, making this regular service a very important spot during their temporary accommodation. Another ‘’regular’’ service that conditions their movements significantly is the local Belfius ATM (3). This is linked to their cash assistance, which is transferred monthly into an account of this bank. In the centre they explain how a worker accompanies them to open the account and, when required, to show them how to use a debit card and withdraw money, which in some cases is not a common practice in their countries of origin. Education and Activities During their stay in the centre, residents have the possibility to take part in a number of activities for learning and leisure, mostly focused on improving their integration and facilitating their independence. In the proximity of the centre there are many local activities in which children and adolescents can take part like the PLOEF! (1), a multi-use centre with a local theatre group and an after class homework space with voluntary tutors to help the kids. Small children are welcome in the local creche (2) or an organisation for toddler activities (5), with whom the Red Cross Centre has an agreement. This is particularly useful as places in kindergartens are scarce and not affordable for these women. Children residing in the centre can also participate in the local music school (4) and the centre reached an agreement with the local gym (6) for adolescents to attend at a reduced rate. An important centre that clusters numerous activities is the Agentschap vor Integratie en inburgering - BON (7) (office for 37

Elena Giral – Master of Human Settlements – KU Leuven 2020-21

She says she feels very good in the Red Cross Centre ‘’They treat me very well and I

appreciate the order and discipline.’’ She particularly likes the area of Jette, ‘’it is very calm, and you can find a bit of everything. People are also very nice and I feel safe.. kind of like Mexico was in the 80s’’. She avoids walking at night though, as the area of the centre and the park are pretty deserted and she gets scared ‘’one day I crossed the park at night, and

I started running until I felt safe’’. She doesn’t go to the centre of the city very much, only to her regular appointments with the psychologist of the NGO EXIL. ‘’It is close to the EU area,

and I really like walking there’’. I met Laura a few weeks later at the centre, and she explained how she had received a rejection to have her asylum request considered in Belgium, and she had to leave the centre in the following 5 days. ‘’I am very scared that they send me back to a reception centre in the

Netherlands.. or to Mexico. How a I supposed to start my life there again? ‘’.

Sandra, 36, Venezuela ‘’I left my country because the situation was turning really bad. My brother is a politician, so we were receiving serious threats. It was very hard, I had to leave my son behind. I left in 2018, he is now 13 years old..’’. Sandra explains how she first headed to Peru, traveling 5 days by bus. ‘’Conditions there were very bad.. I was selling ice cream in the street in a small town in the

Peruvian jungle..you can’t imagine how hot it was.. however, there was so many Venezuelans there that I felt almost at home’’. 38

Invisible networks. Understanding the city through the journeys of female asylum seekers

integration from the Flemish regional government). They provide integration services, with a strong focus on learning the Flemish language and aiming at preparing life in the Flemish part of the country. It used to be a very popular service as they provided the transportation monthly ticket to those participating. Since this is not the case, participation has significantly decreased according to the workers of the centre. The centre also has agreements with organisations for leisure activities like yoga or painting specifically organised for migrants such as SB Overseas (8) and services such as the ‘’Vestiboutique’’(16)Convivial (15) which provide clothing and other material support as well as professional guidance like the Cité des métiers (11) or Bruxelles Formation (12) towards finding a job8. The most important part of the ‘’formal’’ network of places related to the centre is education. Almost all women follow language trainings as well as professional trainings, which are in many cases useful to find a job during the time of their request but also at a later stage. Many of the residents were training to become a nurse or a caregiver, others attend culinary school or train in catering services. Some of them expressed reassurance in these trainings as a ‘’support’’ to their candidature to obtain protection and remain in the country. All school-aged minors go to schools across the city. Since most of them join outside of the normal subscription period, they are allocated to centres all across town. This means that in some cases the girls have to cross the city in public transport for over an hour to be able to attend school or training. In some cases, this is however the only journey they do in the city, spending the rest of the time in the centre.

8 Asylum seekers are entitled to legally work in Belgium. They are subject to general tax declarations and they are supposed to declare it to Fedasil, who will discount the ‘’cost’’ of their accommodation etc. However, many do not declare to the latter, and must pay the cost when they get their refugee status and enter the formal system, which sometimes is a significant burden.

Elena Giral – Master of Human Settlements – KU Leuven 2020-21

She decided to come to Belgium as she had a cousin that she could come visit with a tourist visa. She requested asylum after two months and stayed with her. However, the cousin was abusing her so she decided to leave after 4 months. ‘’it was hell, I couldn’t take it anymore.. so I went to

Petit Chateau, and I waited there until they found a place for me’’. She explains how she studied audio-visual sciences in Venezuela and how much she’d like to work here as a cameraperson. For now, she has found work as a cleaning lady or as a nanny. ‘’I started working as soon as I

got my orange card and registry number.. I like sending money back home, specially for my boy.. I want him to go to a good school, and things are totally unaffordable in Venezuela right now’’. Once a week she crosses the city until the area of Fôret, where she found the money transfer service with the best rate or Venezuela. It takes her over an hour, since she cannot afford the public transport, so she takes a tram and then a bus that do a really big detour, in order to avoid the metro where she cannot enter without paying. ‘’He really must stay in school and

safe. I think they might try to kidnap him. Some days ago, someone pretended to be a friend of mine and texted him to see if he was home’’. When she goes there do her money transfer she likes to eat a sandwich in the nearby park. ‘’I really like it here, it makes me feel calm’’. Sandra works a lot and doesn’t spend much time in the centre, she is constantly moving around the city. ‘’ I have a good feeling, but there are many cultural differences here..’’. She goes as far as Overijse or Zaventem for small works and to French class every day from 3 to 5. Sometimes on the weekends she cooks and delivers some food with Michelle, but she doesn’t like to hang around Gare du Nord too much ‘’I don’t like the area, I am scared sometimes’’. She has already gone through her two interviews, which took place after 1 and 11 months. 40

Invisible networks. Understanding the city through the journeys of female asylum seekers

[ Of time and space: Analysing the urban life of asylum seekers]

Migration trends show how most of the displacement of refugees or asylum seekers happens increasingly towards urban areas. However, this evidence (and therefore, the need to focus humanitarian assistance towards cities) was not fully or officially acknowledged until the publication of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees’ urban policy in 2009 (UNHCR 2009). Acknowledgement of assistance to refugees or asylum seekers in urban areas is still a very challenged concept, and many governments (national as well as local) do not want to encourage or accept this reality by fear of creating a ‘’pull factor’’ that would attract more refugees to their cities, and preferring they remain in temporary9 camps. This becomes clear as well with the publication of ‘’Alternatives to Camps’’ which puts the focus back onto the rights of those residing in camps outside of cities, even though acknowledging than more than half of the refugee population worldwide lives in urban areas (UNHCR 2014). In the complex context that is a city, it is crucial to understand where refugees are located and what is their appropriation of urban space. A territorial understanding of the city in relation to refugees and asylum seekers can provide very valuable insights to humanitarian organisations providing assistance as well as to local authorities and urban practitioners that seek to improve cities through social cohesion. 1 out of 5 migrants in the world reside in no more than 20 cities globally, and Brussels not only is amongst these, but has the second highest percentage of foreign-born population, namely of 62% (Migration Data Portal 2021). In such a multicultural context, it becomes crucial to understand the dynamics between refugees, asylum seekers, well-establised residents and the city itself. When analysing the city, and specifically the case of Brussels, the experiences of asylum seekers residing in a reception centre, offer a new perception and a different understanding of urban space linked to their particular conditions of inhabitation. By studying the official asylum procedure, everyday life in a temporary centre, the network of places linked to this, as well as the personal experience of its inhabitants, it is possible to better understand the barriers as well as the enablers to access urban life. From the study it is also possible to observe different ‘‘conditioning factors’’ in the life of asylum seekers. As global, more general categories we can distinguish the issue of ‘’temporality’’ and the limited ‘’spatial agency’’ as overarching restrictive principles. The study shows how it is very hard to separate them, as this temporalty of existence, use or access is oftentimes linked to particular sites and their specific spatial conditions. Subsequently, it is possible to understand how systems like that of asylum operate as a whole, but also understand the financial mechanisms and administrative conditions con9 Even though originally thought as temporary structures, some settlements have existed for decades, such as the Palestinian Zarqa settlement in Jordan, founded in 1949 for around 8.000 people fleeing the Arab-Israeli conflict. Hosting presently almost 20.000 people in 0.18 km2, it has become another neighbourhood of the Zarqa municipality, replacing original tents with brick or concrete houses, replicating a similar architecture to any other Jordanian town and featuring numerous business, five schools, two health centres, a rehabilitation and distribution centre, an environmental bureau and a nursery (UNRWA 2013). Other refugee camps are younger in age but have grown to the size of a big European city. The area of Cox’s Bazar in Bangladesh is currently home to over 700.000 Rohingya people (UNHCR 2020), who fled Myanmar massively after the 2017 genocide. This equals the population of Frankfurt or Seville.

Elena Giral – Master of Human Settlements – KU Leuven 2020-21

Fortune, 24, Cameroon Fortune arrived in Belgium in February 2020, and she was sent to the centre to the military hospital, though she doesn’t know where that is. She prefers not to speak about her past. ‘’I

used to live in Douala, and I had some problems, so I left’’. She was sent to the centre in Jette after 6 weeks. ‘’I honestly do not leave the centre a lot. I am following a pre-nursing training

in the south of Brussels. I go every day and I come right after.’’ Fortune tells me she doesn’t know the city centre and doesn’t move around the city in general. ‘’I went once to Matonge,

I like the shops there for my hair products. There is also a Cameroonian restaurant next to Gare du Midi, I went there a couple of times.. I think it’s called Maryland ’’.

Aamiina, 17, Somalia ‘’I used to live in Mogadishu with my mother and my grandmother. When I was 15, there was a dangerous problem and my mother helped me to leave’’. Aamiina crossed to neighbouring Kenia with a fake passport and the help of a smuggler. She stayed in Nairobi for 4 months, living with his wife and doing house work for them. ‘’then I left Nairobi, and I thought I was traveling

to the UK. When I landed I discovered it was Belgium.. but the woman told me it was ok, and I should stay here. ‘’ On arrival she got to the North Station and was in a considerable state of shock. ‘’I was crying nervously and I just asked a boy where could I find a police station, that is

all I knew I had to do..find the police.’’ They took her to the centre for minors next to the military hospital for one month before she 42

Invisible networks. Understanding the city through the journeys of female asylum seekers

nected to its enactment, both of which have a significant role in determining the movements and relationships to the city of female asylum seekers. We can observe how ‘’external factors’’ such as local political powers can have a direct impact on the location of asylum centres and their relation with their environment, and how this significantly conditions the life of those residing in reception centres. And finally, it is possible to highlight a series of ‘’places’’ and see how certain physical conditions play out both at an individual and an urban scale, having a very important role and impact on shaping the lives of these individuals. Temporality and Spatiality Temporality The issue of temporality becomes one of the most significant barriers in the life of asylum seekers, influencing their capability to imagine the future, not knowing whether they will be able to stay in the country or will rather be “returned” to their homeland. The interviews indicate how the irregular timeframe of the process is also the source of significant insecurities. From the first contact with the authorities responsible for registration and temporary accommodation, the time required before being moved to a ‘’final’’ accommodation in a second-phase reception centre, and the waiting for each of the assessment interviews, their results or new appointments... not knowing what will happen next, nor when, makes up a great obstacle to engage in long lasting activities, participate in community life, or more pragmatically, makes it complicate to find a job other than services by the hour or agree on a rental contract. These barriers are even more evident in the case of women, who need longer time to find opportunities, and find generally low-skilled, badly paid jobs with worse conditions than male counterparts. The situation is particularly complex for isolated women who have to take care of children (Li 2018). These limitations and overall uncertainty have an important impact on the capacity of asylum seekers to find the means to be self-sustainable, which inevitably make reception centres the only suitable solution for many. Time restrictions in these centres continue to be among the main constraints for the development of their daily lives. Through a series of schedules for administrative matters, official appointments, curfew or having their food served, the life of each individual is strongly determined by timeframe(s) imposed from ‘’the outside’’. However, some residents claimed how the structure provided is, in some occasions, greatly appreciated and perceived as a support guidance to their (sometimes) revolted lives when they arrive to the centre. Also, the interviews show how during the great length of the process, many women had managed to find a sort of ‘’temporary establishment’’ with activities, routines, trainings, or jobs thanks to their personal efforts and also the mediation and assistance of the Red Cross. Spatiality The particularly limited spatial agency of asylum seekers residing in a communal reception centre is another characteristic of the way these inhabit the city. In practice their only personal space appears to be the unit of their bunkbed. Their ownership and capacity to appropriate this space is very limited, as well as its privacy, restricted to a curtain that separates that 43

Elena Giral – Master of Human Settlements – KU Leuven 2020-21

was transferred to the centre of the Red Cross in Jette in December 2018. ‘’It was weird at

first. I had never had to share a room with 4 people, and sometimes my things disappear. But I am not here a lot’’. She explains how she immediately started studying both in French and Flemish and how she wants to become a nurse. At the moment she works as a caregiver in Liedekerke. Besides going to work and to school every day, she likes to move around the city. She likes the calm of the parks, going often to the Atomium or the nearby Park Roi Baudoin. ‘’I really like

going to the Grand Place and also travel around the country, it is really beautiful’’. She likes to meet with some other teenage friends and go buy make up in Place du Mirroir or eat a snack next to the station ‘’I like shopping in chausée d’ixelles, and also the Matonge. I go there

to get my hair done’’. She already had her two interviews and she explains, with a troubled face, that they denied her request for International Protection. ‘’they said there is not a lot of war in Mogadishu, so I can

go back..’’. Her appeal was also denied, but she cannot be expelled as long as she is a minor. She explains that she hopes to stay long enough to access a regularisation process. ‘’I have a

work contract for four years, I have learnt the languages.. and I really hope I can stay here’’.

Invisible networks. Understanding the city through the journeys of female asylum seekers

cubicle from the rest of the room and bathroom they share between 4 to 6 people. Any other space in the centre is shared, and their capacity to access it is also restricted, either by schedules set by the centre’s administration and overseen by the reception, or by the need to request a key. The interviews show how the perception of the centre is very individualised as well as their use of its spaces. Some of the women declared to feel very well and seemed to have a strong will to take part in communal life, participating in shared tasks as well as in activities proposed by the centre, and others barely used the space besides their own bed. Residents also described how their spatial perception of the centre was related to their movement in the city. While some residents spend most of their time inside, others declared to spend as much time as possible outside, walking around the city as a means ‘’to forget about their own life’’, as related by Mariama, or because of engaging with numerous activities, particularly trainings and jobs. In this sense, even though the first impression could be to only perceive the limited capacity and spatial appropriation these women can have, fieldwork shows how in some cases they have indeed a great capacity to move around the city making it their own and recreating what this thesis claims is an invisible network of connections, relations and places. Systems Female asylum seekers’ appropriation of spaces in the city is also particularly conditioned by either the formal asylum path, the formal network of ‘’services’’ in relation to the centre or the implications of being part of these ‘’mechanisms’’, most commonly related to economic factors. The asylum paths The official asylum procedure significantly conditions their relation to spaces in the city. The perception of particular sites as places of power and authority, is marked by their strong symbolism as well as their architectural typology. The Petit Chateau [1], for example, is literally an old castle, a fortified building where some newly-arrived asylum seekers claimed to feel like felons, confined to tiny individual cells. However, thanks to the work of volunteers handing over tea and biscuits to those queueing outside the building, this was also described as a place of comfort, where human contact aims to soften the hardship of waiting in the street under what can be arduous weather conditions, while entering an often-unknown reception system. The architectural spaces linked to moving along the procedure means female asylum seekers will be in contact with either the Foreigner’s Office [2] or the CGRA [3]. These also represent an architecture of power, with high glass buildings composed of equally divided office floors, where the individual can easily become a number. These places can have a strong impact on individuals’ emotional and affective dimension, especially when being alone, as it is the case of the first interview with the Foreigner’s Office, where they cannot count on the presence of a lawyer. These points become very relevant in their relationship with the city. In some cases, these might be the only places that the women will see at the city level throughout their asylum procedure, for those who chose to stay in the centre. Other residents and the personnel of the centre highlight how some of these buildings create a sort of reference point in the urban space around them. Some associated the fact that the Foreigner’s Office used to be located near the North Station as a 45

Elena Giral – Master of Human Settlements – KU Leuven 2020-21

Fatoumata, 18, Guinea Fatoumata arrived in Brussels in 2018, when she was 16 years old. She doesn’t want to talk about what led her to leave her hometown, Conakry, but she explains however the very arduous trip that led her here. ‘’I left the country crossing the border with a smuggler we had paid that

took me in a group of people, without my family. In a bit over a month I crossed to neighbouring Mali, then Algeria, and Morocco.’’ Most of the route through these countries is a desertic plain, and she explains how she travelled by car or often walking. The groups were not always the same, some people didn’t follow all the way.

‘’Once we reached morocco I went on a very small boat to cross to Spain. We were around 50 people..but the trip is not too long if the weather is good’’. She first spent 7 months in a Red Cross centre in the city of Ceuta, and then she was transferred to northern Spain, to the city of Bilbao, where she spent a month before transferring to Belgium. ‘’the Red Cross put

me on a bus and sent me here, when I arrived to the North Station, I went straight to Petit Chateau and requested asylum’’. Fatoumata studies French in the school at the moment where she goes daily, but otherwise she doesn’t like to leave the centre too much. ‘’I came to Belgium because my cousin lives here, so I

visit her sometimes..but otherwise I do not have any friends, so I don’t feel like going out alone’’. [..] ‘’I sometimes go shopping or to the centre, or I visit the Grand Place or the Atomium, they are very beautiful’’. She tells me however how she avoids the North Station as much as possible, as there are a lot of people sleeping outside and she doesn’t feel good about it. 46

Invisible networks. Understanding the city through the journeys of female asylum seekers

reason for the high use of this place by asylum seekers, refugees and other migrants. Network of ‘’services’’ related to the Red Cross Centre Within the reception system, the network of places and ‘’services’’ related to the Red Cross Centre occupies a very conspicuous place in the daily lives of asylum seekers residing there. On the one hand, it may be perceived as less prominent than the official asylum procedure since most of these places host voluntary activities, trainings etc. However, the number of places and wide range of services provided, as well as the incidence with which these women go to these places can be understood as having a really big impact in their lives. In several of the interviews, residents affirmed they only left the centre to attend these activities (often related to education) and access services like health care, notably psychologists. The availability of services, places in education centres or nurseries willing to take care of the children of asylum seekers is far from being high, so these span across the city, wherever the Red Cross Centre in Jette has managed to reach an agreement. This entails that residents sometimes move daily across town, to neighbourhoods far away from their residence. In some cases, this helps them discover and appropriate new places in the city, like in the case of Laura, who likes to walk in the European Neighbourhood on their way to the psychologist in Etterbeek. Others, however, recognise to never have explored the neighbourhoods where they go on a daily basis to attend school, returning to the centre immediately afterwards. Money Financial restrictions are some of the most recurring issues in the lives of asylum seekers residing in community centres. ATMs from the branch Belfius become highlighted spots on their path as this is the designated bank where the authorities will open a bank account so they can receive their cash ‘’pocket money’’. These are not however the only spots related to money that influence their movements in the city. Sandra, for example, crosses the entire city every few days to go to a specific money transfer agency, where they have the best rates to send remittances back to Venezuela. Milena also showed how crucial receiving remittances from another country can be, and how this is linked to a wire transfer being processed and finding an open Western Union. Their movements in the city are also very conditioned by their capacity to work. Some residents take up jobs to be able to eventually sustain themselves. However, their temporary status means that they most often only find jobs by the hour like cleaning or cooking, which makes them move across the city even several times a day, for small jobs of very short duration. Mobility and Transport One of the recurrent topics during the interviews with both residents and workers and linked to financial restrictions of the centre’s reception system was access to transport. The residents can request individual tickets at the reception for ‘’justified’’ reasons related to activities linked to the centre. However, they do not have access to a monthly transportation ticket, and in most cases, they do not have the means to pay for one. 47

Elena Giral – Master of Human Settlements – KU Leuven 2020-21

Rasika, 18, Afghanistan Rasika grew up in a wealthy family in Kabul. ‘’we had a good house and a car, we didn’t lack

anything. My father worked for an American company, and we could afford a good life’’. However, since she was very young she remembers experiencing problems with the Taliban, that rejected them because of working with foreigners, and particularly the USA. ‘’They said my

father was a Kafir2 and started threatening us with phone calls or following us. ‘’ […] ‘’one day when I was 12 or 13 years old I was walking to school and 3 men tried to stopped me. It was very early morning so if I shouted nobody would hear me.. they hit me with a metal bar but I managed to scape and go back home. For days I couldn’t manage to go to school, and the teachers were calling home. My father convinced me to go to school changing my route every day, and I started wearing a full long hijab where you could only see my eyes.. these were no normal people..they were the Taliban’’. Rasika missed a lot of school days to the point when she needed a special paper from the doctor to be able to take her exams. His father lost his job, so they started to have less money to buy food and to be very restricted. ‘’my father went to the market at the end of the day,

when things are cheaper, and he didn’t come back. We couldn’t go to the police because it would only make things worse so we just had to wait. ‘’ Her father was gone for almost three weeks, during which he was tortured and barely fed. The Taliban called them at some point to inform them that they had them, but didn’t offer any option to have him back. ‘’They beat him 2 Kafir is an Arabic term that means ‘’infidel’’ or ‘’pagan’’ and is used generally by radical Muslims that reject other Muslims that engage with other religions or cultures.

Invisible networks. Understanding the city through the journeys of female asylum seekers

The residents often seem to avoid taking the metro and the train and prefer the bus or sometimes the tram. On the one hand there is a reasoning behind the mode of transportation chosen linked to cultural backgrounds. Depending on their origin sometimes they claimed how they are not used to trains and undergrounds, which create a sensation of fear or uncertainty. On the other hand, many indicated that because of not having access to a transportation ticket, they deliberately chose the bus, as it is possible to access it without a ticket, unlike the metro. In both cases, women sometimes double their transportation times doing significant detours because of these restrictions. The staff from the centre explained how some institutions finance the transportation for those attending their courses, and this significantly improves the attendance rates and gives a lot of independence to those residents obtaining the monthly ticket. They also claimed how participation in activities organised by the Flemish Inburgering agency had significantly decreased since they stopped providing this. Location and environment The location of reception centres: urban or rural The spatial perception of asylum seekers is strongly conditioned by their assignment to a reception centre across the country. While some persons are hosted in the main cities of Belgium, others are accommodated in relatively rural areas, and significantly isolated from urban centres, which limits the capacity of asylum seekers to engage in public life and with ‘’host’’ society in general. In those cases, access to facilities or healthcare often requires transportation from the centre, limiting the agency and capacities of the individual even more. On the contrary, asylum seekers located in urban areas have a higher range of possibilities but can however also experience a number of challenges especially related to complex infrastructure and transport, particularly in the case of those arriving from rural areas in their home countries. In both cases, some of these challenges pose barriers (physical or psychological) to movements and to people’s capacity to take part in daily life. The fact that some asylum seekers are moved to several centres through their asylum journey, increases the complexity of their ‘’integration’’ or the capacity to create stable and durable connections or engage in long-lasting activities. The environment of a reception centre Interviews with residents and workers of different centres of the Red Cross in Belgium show how the location of the reception centres can also have a strong impact in the area, and cause problems with neighbours and local population and in certain occasions also face administrative obstacles by the commune. The relation with their immediate environment can be particularly challenging in those centres with a high number of female residents. In some occasions, particularly in rural centres like Yvoire Pierre Bleue10 in the province of Namur, the women have to walk along a road to reach the centre of the town where they are located. This has caused situations where the women were harassed along the road or offered money in exchange for sexual services. The Red Cross responsible for gender projects explained how working together with the local municipality, the centre managed to increase lighting along the road, and is trying to improve the frequency of public 10

https://accueil-migration.croix-rouge.be/centres/pierre-bleue/

Elena Giral – Master of Human Settlements – KU Leuven 2020-21

so bad that they thought he was dead, and they threw him...on one of those places where you get rid of bodies. He woke up surrounded by corpses and managed to come home once it was dark. He could barely walk, and he stayed in bed for days. ‘’ In 2018, when she was 15 years old she started looking for opportunities to study abroad, hoping to get a better life. She was accepted in an arts program to go to Portugal, and managed to save 700$ for the inscription and the visa. She first had to go for 5 days to Pakistan, to get the visa and then wait in Afghanistan until she got her passport and could leave. ‘’I didn’t leave

the house for almost 2 months until I could leave so I wouldn’t be kidnapped. We went to the airport at 3 am.. I covered myself completely in the taxi and I held my breath until the plane took off. It was the happiest day of my life’’ Rasika attended the program in Lisbon, and on the last day she got on a train and disappeared. She crossed Spain and France by train, and got on a bus in Paris and finally made it to Belgium. ‘’I cannot go back, there is no life there. My family cannot work, they don’t go to school,

sometimes they lack food’’. She arrived at midnight in Gare du Nord and spent the first nights in the train station until she decided to speak to the police. They took her to the centre for minors for a month, where she shared a room with other 3 girls. ‘’People were very caring, they gave me clothes and other

things I didn’t have. Everyone was very nice and wanted to help… that doesn’t happen in my country’’. She was transferred to the Red Cross centre for the beginning of the school year in 2018. She did her studies in Flemish, thanks to which she has a job in a logistics company in the port of Antwerp. ‘’Since I go to school during the week, I work there on the weekends 50

Invisible networks. Understanding the city through the journeys of female asylum seekers

transport, as well as the physical accessibility to the train station, as many women have to carry their strollers on the stairs at the moment. They also tried to engage local population with activities like ‘’community gardens’’ to foster exchange with the residents of the reception centre. In other cases where the centres are exclusively hosting men, the perception of fear or the reported cases of harassment are suffered by the neighbours and sometimes the workers of the centre itself, as I learnt through a conversation with the Director of the Red Cross centre in Uccle, Brussels. Once again, working with the local community to improve the perception of safety in the spaces surrounding the centre was one of the main steps taken. The Alderwoman of Jette’s municipal administration responsible for (amongst others) “population, equality of opportunities and integration” explained how these subjects are addressed locally and the number of available organisations working “on the issue of migration”. Also, the coordinator of the “equal opportunities for women” project and two representatives from the ‘’mobility and urban planning’’ unit agree on the importance of multiculturality in Jette and to facilitate “integration”, through a series of communication products published in several languages or referring to the existing organisations in the area. Particularly the Alderwoman, Ms Vandevivere, refers to the invisibility of women in public space and the organisation of initiatives addressing mothers while children are at school, to encourage their discovery of the area. She called the specific relationship of the Administration with the Red Cross Centre very good, and claims how they tried to facilitate their arrival and mediate with the neighbours. “We wanted to be a partner on this project, and we wanted to work at a human scale, we didn’t want to have a centre that was too densely populated […] ..they are pretty discreet, and they also organise activities open to the local residents and representatives”. She also explained how they organise some ‘’collective cleaning’’ activities, where sometimes residents of the centre participate as a way to engage with locals. However, it seems that the do not have any activities that are specifically focused on engaging with the asylum seekers neither to facilitate that they remain and further integrate in the neighbourhood if they see their status recognised. In terms of specific actions that look at planning the urban space considering the perspective of females or asylum seekers, it seems that besides some good intentions and “tick the box” exercises, participation in general, and engaging with these groups in particular is still a pending task. The local workers explained how the project of “feminisation of public space” consisted mostly on renaming streets after important female figures. They highlighted how engaging with citizens was a very challenging task still, that was often relegated to an external consultant to be able to get the public subsidies that are conditional to participation, and confirmed how there was no specific actions focused on engaging with the female asylum seekers of the Red Cross Centre.

Elena Giral – Master of Human Settlements – KU Leuven 2020-21

and the holidays’’. She had her second interview in 2019 and got a negative response. ‘’I contested it and I will

have a new interview.. but I don’ t have a date yet.. It is 1.5 years waiting for an interview.. It is too long.’’ ‘’I really like brussels and I have been living and working for almost 3 years now.. I like going to the Grand Place to buy chocolates, and the Cinquentenaire Park with my friends from the minor’s centre’’ Rasika has learnt French as well as Flemish, and has also taken piano lessons in the local school, and recently joined the football team of the Centre, that plays in Kraainem with other refugees. She also regularly goes to the local association PLOEF to participate in several projects. ‘’I was expecting a positive reply so I had even bought some things for my

own house. Now I don’t have any hope.. sometimes I really don’t feel good and I need to walk away from the centre’’. Rasika has followed all the integration courses offered by the Flemish agency for integration BON and really likes her life in Belgium ‘’here I can go anywhere I want and do everything like a

boy, I no longer wear long clothes or a veil.. here I feel free’’. She has also spent a lot of time with her Belgian tutor. ‘’It is like a foster family, and she has become my legal representant

now. I go visit her in Tervuren a lot’’. Rasika explains how she has a speech prepared in case she manages to speak to politicians in charge of the asylum system. ‘’The administration doesn’t understand how a negative response

can affect a person mentally and physically.. ‘’ 52

Invisible networks. Understanding the city through the journeys of female asylum seekers

Places Finally, the fieldwork and interviews with the residents show how there are a number of physical places in the city that repeatedly appear in the stories and the journeys of these women. These show their more individual perception and appropriation of the city, as they are the ones where they chose to go without the delimitation or constraints linked to the asylum system, the centre and its related partners. Places of culture Getting in touch with their own culture seems to be one of the main drivers for movement in the city. Repeatedly, the women and girls explained their experiences in the city through meeting with other people from their country or region. While Sandra showed the areas in which ‘’Latinos’’ usually meet, and their social media groups dedicated specifically to do so, most girls and women from African countries like Mariama, and Aamiina described the neighbourhood of Matonge as the place to reconnect with their traditions, eat their local food, or get their hair done, a very important sign of identity. Even Fortune, who claimed she was often not leaving the centre at all, told one of the only few places she’d go to is a Cameroonian restaurant. Parks Parks appeared repeatedly as one of the women’s preferred places in the city. The privileged location of the centre next to the Park Roi Baudouin made it possible for many of the residents to enjoy it. Some, like Mariama highlight the importance that the park has in their routine, and the soothing effect of watching the children play. Others prefer the more touristic spots like the park of Atomium, Cinquentenaire, and Royale, notably the younger girls who like to hang out with their friends there. All of them highlighted the feeling of calm provided by parks, opposed to the often complex situations they had to flee. Opposed to this, the workers of the Red Cross Centre explained how some residents never set foot on the park nearby. They claim this could be linked in some cases to the lack of habit of going to ‘’urban parks’’ (particularly for those coming from rural areas) and in others to fears and insecurities, for those coming from dangerous or conflict areas. The perception of insecurity increases at night when residents claim to do a significant detour to access the centre in order to avoid crossing the Park Roi Baudouin. Religious practice In order to practice their religions, residents often need to find a specific type of place to perform their rituals. While some go to the local temples of different faiths, others do not find adequate spaces for their tradition. This is the case of those practicing Santeria, a religion that mixes Spiritism with traditional Catholic beliefs and roots in the west African practice of Yoruba. In some cases, the practice of these rituals requires lighting candles, holding skulls and drinking liquors. Milena explained she couldn’t practice these in the centre, so she often goes to the local cemetery, in order to be close to the dead, 53

Elena Giral – Master of Human Settlements – KU Leuven 2020-21

Lamyae, Morocco, 19W Originally from the city of Fez, she left Morocco because of problems with her family two weeks before turning 18. ‘’they were very conservative.. they didn’t want me to study and the said I should stay at home..

I really don’t want to go back’’. She went fist to France with the pretext to visit her family that lives there, and after a month she fled to Belgium, and didn’t tell anyone where she is. ‘’I arrived with the

bus to the North Station and I went to Petit Chateau. It was the hardest part because I spent almost 2 months there. I had never had to share a room with so many people and I was pretty confused.’’ She was sent to Tournai to a Red Cross Centre for 1 week, after which she was moved to the one in Jette. She is conducting a traineeship with the citizen service in a home for the elderly in the neighbourhood of Etterbeek, and she is also a volunteer helping children with homework and activities in Anderlecht while she looks for a job.

freedom to work..’’

‘’I really want to stay here, for me it means freedom. Freedom to study,

Invisible networks. Understanding the city through the journeys of female asylum seekers

and ‘’connect with them’’. She and Sandra insisted on not feeling sufficient freedom to practice their religion in the centre nor elsewhere (against other residents, by whom they ‘’didn’t feel respected’’). Touristic spots When discussing with the women of the centre, many of them had never seen the map of Brussels, not knowing where the centre was located, and recognised that they had not been to any of the most touristic or ‘’busiest’’ areas of the city. There were others who, however, really appreciated the most renowned areas like the ‘’Grand Place’’ and enjoyed going for a stroll, shopping in commercial streets, or ‘’buying chocolates’’, one of the favourite things to do of Rasika. This is similar for their journeys in the country. While some residents have never left the immediate surroundings of the centre, others have travelled in the country on their own and taken part in the cultural activities organised from by the Red Cross. Points of reference Finally, the North Station of Brussels appears as previously mentioned as one of the main referents in the urban journeys of asylum seekers in Belgium. It is the point of arrival and departure, and where in many cases the first ‘’informal reception’’ takes place. For those later hosted in centres elsewhere in the country, it remains the point of reference for arrival and departure in Brussels, linked to their appointments with the authorities. For the ones hosted in the city, Gare du Nord becomes almost a compass, the absolute point of reference to find their way in the urban network, a stop on the way, or a destination in itself, which has led to the proliferation of businesses (formal and informal) and to the development of a whole district of reception where individuals seek hospitality (see Printz et al. 2019). To a lesser extent, Gare du Midi (the South Station) functions also like a reference point, and a similar ‘’pull effect’’ can be appreciated. When asking for directions they often try to refer them to these points, for which they know the connection to/from home. The North Station was mentioned in all the interviews, however, the perception was very different with each person. For some, it constitutes a very frequented place for business, shopping, gatherings etc. However for others, and particularly the youngest ones, it appeared as a place of insecurity, and oftentimes mentioned as part of a troubled memory of their arrival experience, and they rather avoid it. All these places represent what this study refers to as the ‘’invisible network’’. Understood through movement, personal sensations, memories or appropriations of the space. Looking at them through the eyes and the personal stories of these women allows to see the city from a different angle, and understand a bit better its relation to the complex process and lives of asylum seekers. On the one hand, the study shows a number of difficulties, limitations and restrictions linked to time constraints, spatial delimitations and other issues related to the conditions of the system. However, these personal stories also show the different means of reappropriating the city, the real intricacy of their movements and relations they create in their daily lives.

Elena Giral – Master of Human Settlements – KU Leuven 2020-21

Invisible networks. Understanding the city through the journeys of female asylum seekers

Conclusions The lives of asylum seekers in cities, and therefore their access to urban life, are marked by the temporality and the incertitude linked to the asylum procedure as well as to their restricted spatial agency on the reception centres and urban environments they inhabit. Asylum seekers face certain limitations and barriers to their integration linked to social, cultural, financial reasons, amongst others, and conditions which determine the way they move. Studying the city through the individual experiences and movements of female asylum seekers allows to understand it from a completely different perspective, while raising awareness and visibility of problems that are normally not considered in its planning. This study tries to provide a useful analysis for two apparently distant disciplines: Urban Planning and Humanitarian Aid. I believe that urban planning still has a long way to go in projecting cities that better include the perspective of different sexes, nationalities, religions, ages, or sexual orientations. In extremely multicultural contexts like the city of Brussels, including migrants and forcibly displaced populations in the urban reflection can not only have a positive impact in the city itself but becomes the only way to use their potential to ‘’advance the social experiment that is the city’’ as they ‘’reinterpret their environments, challenge the urban status quo and push for new social, legal, and spatial norms in cities’’ (Park 2016). Dismissing the impact of migration in a city as a ‘’negligible effect or a background noise’’ (Saunders 2010, 11) will only lead us to a greater division. On the other hand, this study wants to highlight the complexities and difficulties together with the crucial role that spatial practitioners can have in the provision of Humanitarian Aid. Understanding the function of place and its spatial complexity (be it a shelter, a refugee camp, an informal neighbourhood or a western city) becomes crucial to know how to better serve the people who inhabit it. Understanding the city to better provide humanitarian aid or understanding the latter to better plan our cities both pass by the same logic of looking otherwise. Stepping outside of the bureaucratic checklists, the zoning exercises and the standard procedures becomes here a means for empowerment and ‘’production of an expanded notion of (architectural) practice’’ (Cruz 2010), while building a conversation that looks away from the ‘’experts’’ and towards everyday life, using different techniques, times and scales and that require ‘’Speaking to people as if they mattered’’(Awan 2011, 22) and giving them the possibility to tell their story, and their own understanding of the city.

Elena Giral – Master of Human Settlements – KU Leuven 2020-21

Annex 1 . List of meetings with experts, organisations and representatives Date

Organisation

10/3

Plan International BE

11/3

UN Habitat

12/3

Cities Alliance

18/3

Plan International BE

24/3

UN Habitat

29/3

Croix Rouge Belgique

1/4

Croix Rouge Belgique

8/4

Croix Rouge Belgique

Chloé Michelet Directrice Adjointe Centre Accueil Demandeuses Asile Jette

Female asylum seekers and Jette centre

9/4

Croix Rouge Belgique

First visit to Jette centre and overview of arrival procedure

13/4

Croix Rouge Belgique

Chloé Michelet Directrice Adjointe Centre Accueil Demandeuses Asile Jette Pauline Leclef Coordinator of individual support - gender projects Manon Dégut Nurse – medical office

16/4

Croix Rouge Belgique

Mapping of structural /official services

28/4

Commune de Jette

19/5

Croix Rouge Belgique

20/5

Commune de Jette

Pauline Leclef Coordinator of individual support Claire Vandevivere Echevine de la population, du développement durable, du plan Air-Climat, de l’environnement, du commerce équitable, de l’égalité des chances, de la personne handicapée, de l’intégration et du bien-être animal David Brasseur Social Worker Sylvie Van de Zande Service technique Mobilité et Aménagement Urbains Manon Vandromme Service Vie sociale et Citoyenneté

5/3

Serve the City

Who

Mahmoud Qeshreh Coordinator Lunch4Refugees Sofie Picavet Champions of Change Coordinator Mathilde Bernard Youth Officer Rafael Tuts Director, Global Solutions Division Giulia Maci Urban Specialist Sofie Picavet Champions of Change Coordinator Mathilde Bernard Youth Officer Cassiopée Mairiaux Elin Adersdotter HerCity Manager Carmen Salgado Directrice Adjointe - Centre d'accueil pour Mineurs Etrangers Non Accompagnés (MENA) (Uccle) Cristina Arnal Coordinatrice projet Genre – Centre d'accueil pour demandeur. se.s d'asile Pierre Bleue

Subject

Refugee programmes north Brussels / Lunch 4 refugees Safer Cities Programme & possible collaboration HerCity guide – Gender analysis in urban settings Cities for Women programme Urban Assessment framework Safer Cities Programme – Safety walks

HerCity methodology Integration of Asylum seekers from an urban perspective/ exploratory walks of Red Cross centres Gender & migration, analysis of public and shared space. Experiences with centre in Yvoir

Overview of centre residents, profiles, asylum procedure

Integration of centre in Jette, available services, opportunity for exchange and inclusion

Review of the asylum procedure Projects of ‘’egalitarian opportunities’’ and ‘’feminisation of public space’’ in the municipality of Jette

Invisible networks. Understanding the city through the journeys of female asylum seekers

Annex 2 . List of interviews with residents of the Red Cross Reception Centre in Jette Name

Age and Country

In BE

In RC

14/4

Milena

24, Colombia

Oct 2020

Feb? 2021

16/4

Mariama

37, Senegal

Feb 2021

16/4

Laura

58, Mexico

Feb 2021

19/4

Sandra

36, Venezuela

Ag 2019

January 2021

1/5

Fortune*

24, Cameroon

Feb 2020

March 2020

18/5

Aamiina

17, Somalia

Nov 2018

Dec 2018

18/5

Fatoumata

19, Guinea

Ag 2019

18/5

Rasika

18, Afghanistan

July 2018

September 2018

19/5

Lamyae

19, Morocco

Jan 2020

April 2020

*Names has been changed protect their identity

Elena Giral – Master of Human Settlements – KU Leuven 2020-21

Annex 3. Global Methodologies and International Organisations At the beginning of this study, I engaged with some international organisations working with issues like migration, development, refugees or women’s rights. I tried to better understand the existing methodologies to approach the relation between women and public space, as well as the integration of migrants, and particularly refugees in urban environments. These discussions and methodologies, together with the reading of some other authors, and key concepts, helped me develop my own approach to these topics. Without the need to explain them in detail, I believe it is important to acknowledge the part they took into the development of this study and include them as a reference for those researching further on the topic. UN Habitat – HerCity toolbox https://hercity.unhabitat.org ‘’UN-Habitat works with partners to build inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable cities and communities. UN-Habitat promotes urbanization as a positive transformative force for people and communities, reducing inequality, discrimination and poverty’’ (UN-Habitat 2021). This ‘’ guide for cities to sustainable and inclusive urban planning and design together with girls’’ (Fabre et al. 2021) aims at providing a tool for practitioners to support mainstreaming of girl’s participation in urban development of cities worldwide. It was developed together with European thinktanks, architects, planners, and as a result of the Urban Girls Movement launched in 2017 financed by the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida). It is organized in three phases, with three blocks each, following Assessment, Design and Implementation. This principle of the ‘’building blocks’’ is really useful for external users, as it allows to ‘’chose and pick’’ the desired parts for a specific analysis. It is therefore not needed to go through the whole process to use the toolbox. Each block has a number of activities, providing examples, templates, and references to other readers and methodologies that can be of use. Another positive point of the toolbox is that in its suggested participatory activities it includes both local women and practitioners/professionals. It mixes different analyses and points of view which can provide relevant conclusions. Finally, the biggest innovation is the digitalization of the toolbox. Most of the guidelines, activities, etc are presented as part of a digital platform where users can register as moderators and encode their activities as desired, to be shared as an open platform. Most of the activities can be access from mobile devices and offer as well alternatives to be facilitated online (when physical presence or gatherings are not possible). The Cities Alliance – Cities for Women programme https://www.citiesalliance.org/how-we-work/global-programmes/cities-women/overview ‘’ Cities Alliance is a global partnership fighting urban poverty and supporting cities to deliver sustainable development. To manage its activities, the Cities Alliance operates a multi-donor fund with UNOPS as host and Trustee.’’ (Cities Alliance 2021) 60

Invisible networks. Understanding the city through the journeys of female asylum seekers

One of the flagship global programmes of the organisation is the ‘’Cities for Women Programme’’ that focuses on better planned cities for women, organised on three components: Participatory Local Action Research (focusing on solutions for inclusive cities), a Global Platform for Knowledge Exchange (events, articles, etc contributing to a global debate) and Cross-support and Gender mainstreaming (embedded with trainings and technical support in country programmes). Within this programme, the organisation has created the ‘’Urban Assessment Framework Through a Gender Lens’’ (Cities Alliance 2020) which consists on six phases: Initial engagement (group discussions with women’s associations), participatory assessment (Women Engagement in Cities workshops with several stakeholders), Co-creation (review policy and planning proposals), Piloting (testing scenarios), Evaluation (assessing impact with surveys), Communication (sharing, advocacy). Presented as a rather concise step-by step text, with sample questions and a few annexed checklists, it presents a quite complete overview of concepts like inclusion, economic opportunities etc. Plan International – Safer Cities https://plan-international.org/ending-violence/safer-cities-girls Plan International is an organisation that works globally on the issue of children’s rights and equality for girls. The scope of their work is broad (working on emergencies, education, protection..) and they have implemented a specific programme with the goal ‘’to build safe, accountable, and inclusive cities with and for adolescent girls’’ (Plan International 2021). The organization does not present a fixed methodology, but rather a set of goals like applying a gender, inclusion and age sensitive approach to urban planning; consulting adolescent girls; investing in safe transport.. They implement specific programs in different cities, tackling specific local problems together with local organisations that know the area of work and local population. In the specific case of Belgium, Plan International implements their project ‘’Champions for change’’ and organises exploratory walks linking with local youth organisations like Kras Jeugdwerk in Antwerp, or Centre Ener’J, Maison Arc-en-Ciel et Tels Quels in Charleroi.

Elena Giral – Master of Human Settlements – KU Leuven 2020-21

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