The paper Spaces of Inclusion or, What I learned from Alexander Kpatue Kweh was presented as part of the round table African cities: absences and emergencies in the diaspora. Bodies, subjects and struggles, at the XIX ENAMPUR 2022 conference, under the theme “Planning Urban and Regional – Organizing Hope”. The event took place in a fully online format, on May 22-27, 2022.
The intervention aims to debate the importance of a more conciliatory and reformist activism in the construction of citizenship.
In Portugal, recent years have been marked by the struggles for the right to housing and, consequently, by the production of political instruments that seek to respond to this demand. Enlarging a vast social fringe living in a situation of vulnerability, refugees, on the one hand, do not tend to integrate these voices and, on the other hand, do not have access to housing programmes specific for their integration. Even those who benefit from Reception Programs end up being targeted by market logics. In this context, the Refugee Forum Portugal, a platform for dialogue and the construction of inclusion mechanisms, led by Alexander Kpatue Kweh, promoted the agency of refugees with the responsible entities and the public opinion, and practical actions, on the ground, for resolving problems linked to the suppression of rights in the city, such as housing.
Spaces for Inclusion or, What I learned from Alexander Kpatue Kweh seeked to reflect on the strengthening of networks of solidarity, on a local and global scale, as an alternative to the more radical struggles for the right to the city; gains and losses balance; and future trends for the inclusion of refugees in Portugal.