Asylum under dreaming spires: Refugees’ lives in Cambridge

When a young Cambridge academic heads out incognita to the rougher parts of town, she encounters refugees from all over the world who have built transplanted lives there. Twelve lives intersect under the dreaming spires of Cambridge, weaving bridges between elites and the poor, ethnocentricity and internationalism, rarefied academia and the gritty work of public policy-making. No other book has listened like this to refugees settled in England. What do they think of their host society? How quickly do they recover from their traumas and integrate? How much do they contribute to their new country? Do they feel lucky? With refugee populations expanding worldwide - and waves of climate-change refugees to come in the decades ahead - we must find out now which refugee policies work well. This book concludes with public policies shaped by insights from the refugee speakers, and implemented by the author with local authorities. This policy work has been showcased by government as a positive practice model that can be used elsewhere. ‘A timely work highlighting the complex interplay of identities experienced by refugees, asylum seekers and migrants during their flight and integration into a host community.’ The Living Refugee Archive, University of East London