Paper Short Abstract:

By showcasing examples of refugee participation in everyday life of Zagreb (Croatia) on the one hand, and analysing public policies on the integration of refugees on the other, the paper juxtaposes how refugees engage with the urban transformation and the City's vision of integration.

Paper Abstract:

The paper deals with the relationship between refugee-led participation in the everyday life of the City of Zagreb (Croatia) on the one hand, and public policies related to refugees on the other.

While approaching the city through a concept of encounter (Gulin Zrnić and Škrbić Alempijević 2019) and taking into account the concept of migrant city-making (Çağlar and Glick Schiller 2018) the presentation offers a brief insight into how refugees in Zagreb are using public spaces, thus being co-producers of urban life and participants in the transformation of cityscapes.

At the same time, in the past three years, the city authorities have passed several strategic documents in which they emphasized and acknowledged the importance and role of public administration and local self-government in the process of integration of refugees and other migrants. Among other things, based on those documents, the city government opened the "One Stop Shop" meant as a place of welcoming and offering much-needed information and support to both refugees and foreign workers in Zagreb. Moreover, the City of Zagreb plans to revitalize one abandoned local market by opening Zagreb's first intercultural social center in its place.

Based on ethnographic research among people with contemporary refugee experience who are living in Zagreb and the analysis of public policies, the author juxtaposes how the City government defines integration, who is their target audience and what actions are planned to facilitate urban integration of refugees with how refugees themselves use and transform urban landscapes within their everyday lives in Zagreb.