- 1 All interview participants have been anonymized using pseudonyms.
“International District […]. That means people from all over the world, different cultures, different backgrounds, different religions, different, languages. But we all live in this place, and we make this place beautiful and successful: A place where everybody is willing to do their best.” (Pema, 2021)1
‟ […] while the specific future of legacy cities is uncertain, their contribution to the development of the nation is unquestionable, and their resilience […] demonstrates the ability of cities to evolve, adapt, and reinvent themselves over time.” (Tighe and Ryberg-Webster 6)
- 2 In this chapter the term refugee is employed to encompass forced migrants independent of their lega (...)
1Much of the debate on urban shrinkage tends to oscillate between stigma and utopianism. There is a common referral to emblematic cases of shrinking places like Detroit, which become ‟byword[s] of urban failure” (Doucet 17). Negative representations dominate as shrinking places are described as falling behind in the global inter-urban race for investment and human capital. However, according to Tighe and Ryberg-Webster, “[a]n overlooked benefit of decline may, in fact, be the opportunity to craft a more equitable urban future for all who call legacy cities their home” (5) leading to “utopian” narratives that contrast narratives of ‟left behindness” and political discontent and put forward possibilities and strategies emerging from places that tackle decline. Examples include the revitalization of entire neighborhoods through immigration as seen in Cleveland’s Dream Neighborhood (Day) or urban gardening-projects in Detroit (Tsu). In Akron, Ohio, a mid-sized city in the US Rust Belt, this paper argues, it is precisely such urbanisms of hope that have transformed North Hill from a decline-ridden district to a vibrant multicultural place, following long-term refugee2 resettlement in the area.
2Once a key rubber production hub for the early twentieth-century automotive industry, Akron has faced significant economic and population downturns. These structural changes have led to widespread vacancies, brownfields, and an aging housing stock. An emblematic case of urban decline in the US, Akron suffered heavily from deindustrialization in the latter half of the twentieth century and was significantly affected by the 2008 financial and foreclosure crisis. Consequently, the cityscape has long featured visual markers of decline.
3The North Hill neighborhood, however, has become a ‟laboratory” for urban revitalization due to Akron’s growing role in refugee resettlement in Ohio. Building on historical and socio-demographic data as well as interviews with local actors, including refugees, community development corporations, NGOs and municipal leadership in planning and economic development, the paper explores Akron’s North Hill neighborhood as space of hope for arriving newcomers, and how these newcomers represent hope for a city dealing with urban decline. The underlying assumption is that cities that cope with the long-term effects of urban shrinkage may be challenging environments for negotiations of new diversity, but that they might just as well be insightful settings to explore everyday urbanism (McFarlane and Silver) driven by resettled refugees who renegotiate their aspirations upon arrival. In many shrinking US cities, the arrival of refugees was seen as steady source of in-migration that would at least contribute to slowing down demographic decline, and at best contribute to community building. As Richard and Callahan put it about Utica, “during the Obama era, there was a feeling of hope and expectation to continue the upward trajectory of community building and economic growth in Utica” (181, my emphasis).
4This paper thus analyzes refugee arrival in Akron through the notion of hope, both for a city that struggles with urban decline, and newcomers who are resettled there. Instead of presenting a utopian vision for shrinking places, the paper investigates the complex coming together of visions of local decision makers that hope to return to urban and economic growth, and the hope and aspirations of refugee populations resettled in Akron who navigate arrival and homemaking and place-making under conditions of decline. We understand place-making in the Lefebvrian sense: as the production of place via daily practices of living in space (Lefebvre). The following sections will first review existing literature on refugee arrival and immigration in shrinking cities and then discuss hope and how it is understood in this paper. Subsequently, the methods section will provide insights into the chosen approach, a critical discourse analysis (Fairclough), starting with a rich contextualization of refugee arrival in Akron. The remainder of the paper will then present and discuss the findings, before the article ends with closing remarks and avenues for future research.
5Urban shrinkage, marked by sustained demographic and economic decline, is a global issue requiring place-based strategies. Causes include, but aren’t limited to, deindustrialization, suburban sprawl, demographic shifts, and environmental shocks. Notable examples are Rust Belt cities like Detroit, Leipzig in the former GDR, and cities in post-industrial French regions, like Saint-Etienne. The phenomenon becomes visible through deteriorating infrastructure, vacant buildings (Immergluck), and can result in a lack of public services. In the US, prolonged shrinkage has been found to have social (Tighe and Ganning) and physical (Immergluck) impacts, with a potential for causing political fragmentation (McQuarrie).
6Yet, some shrinking cities have welcomed refugees: Altena in Germany accommodated more of them than the national distribution key required, leading to positive demographic changes (Engel and Deuter). In the US, cities like Utica (NY) encouraged refugee settlement to boost the economy, with the State of New York providing financial support as these communities showed signs of revitalization due to refugees. PBS reports that one in four Uticans are refugees today (Solman), with the city embracing the positive impact arrivals have had on its economy, thus acting beyond humanitarian reasons (Goldbaum). The town of Riace in Southern Italy also showed signs of a turnaround thanks to its mayor’s strategy to integrate welcoming refugees and revitalizing the village (BBC). These cases illustrate why some city administrations aim to attract international migrants to foster economic growth (Richard and Callahan; Pottie-Sherman), particularly in declining cities desperate for rejuvenation (de Shalit 4).
7As the geographies of arrival change globally, the academic literature on refugee arrival in cities experiencing urban decline is expanding (Housel, Saxen, and Wahlrab; Pottie-Sherman; Haase, et al.; Radulescu; Schemschat). Recent studies have explored local growth strategies centered on migration. For instance, Pottie-Sherman investigated immigration in Rust Belt cities, noting how austerity urbanism launched a wide-spread focus on migrant-led revitalization. According to her, Rust Belt cities began focusing on refugees in revitalization efforts mainly in response to the 2007-2009 recession. Strung and Richardson find that urban gardens in austerity contexts become spaces for refugees and long-term residents to negotiate belonging, planning, and public health. In line with their holistic approach, some scholars caution that viewing refugees solely as economic boosters overlooks the structural challenges they face and erases their agency (Schemschat). In Europe, too, research deals with refugees in depopulating areas (Galera et al.), and sometimes highlights risks of exploitation for newcomers (Egea and Kreichauf). Haase (et al.) studied Leipzig’s Inner East as an arrival neighborhood from the 1990s through Europe’s 2015 welcoming crisis, showing its evolution into becoming the city’s most heterogeneous district due to international migration, and revealing the complex development of the area as an arrival neighborhood. Contrary to Pottie-Sherman’s findings in the US Rust Belt, Kühn observes that German urban planning wavers between seeing immigration as an opportunity and a problem, ignoring calls to shift from a problem-centered to a potential-focused perspective (59).
8While refugee resettlement in declining urban areas attracts attention, the literature underscores the complexities involved. This article speaks to this literature by offering an analysis of refugees in shrinking cities through the lens of hope. Consequently, the next section develops the notion of hope employed here.
9For cities enduring long-term out-migration, newcomers can signal the beginning of economic and demographic recovery. For resettled newcomers, arrival marks the start of a new life post-displacement. However, prolonged shrinkage and disinvestment often result in inadequate social infrastructure funding, exacerbating post-migration stressors and making shrinking cities ambivalent places for newcomers.
10I thus follow Clark and Stubbeman in recognizing the significant role of context in the concept of hope, which “functions in and is influenced by context” (1045). Echoing Mattingly and Jensen, I contend that “hope is rarely a personal matter […] but is deeply interdependent” (38) on the actions of various local actors, particularly in areas experiencing decline. The analysis will demonstrate that for local communities, hope “directly relates to their efforts to cultivate relationships and build communities, fostering trust even across challenging social and political divides.” Hope is seen as “practice rather than merely an emotion, belief, or cultural model that community members enact, feel, or espouse” (Mattingly and Jensen 38), and therefore conceptualized as both an individual and political phenomenon. It can serve as a collective, political force of resistance, often activated through grassroots actions (Leontidou). It should be viewed “not as simple optimism or faith in some ‘happy ending,’ but as something darker and morally demanding” (Mattingly and Jensen 38). This perspective allows for a new understanding of local action in declining cities, where hope and despair can closely coexist.
11How are cities and hope connected? Cities increasingly become sites where action is taken to contest national policies, and scholars pay growing attention to the urban as an arena for political support for migrants, too. Cities pose distinct challenges and opportunities for migrants to form what Nicholls and Uitermark called “counterpublics,” building on Fraser who conceptualized them as “parallel discursive arenas where members of subordinated social groups invent and circulate counter discourses to formulate oppositional interpretations of their identities, interests, and needs” (Fraser 68). Newcomers assert their right to the city by claiming space through daily practices (Bauder 181), which serve as a means to comprehend and navigate rights, responsibilities, belonging, and participation (Lister 55). The urban thus turns into a political space of contesting exclusion, an act that implies a hope for belonging.
12Understanding cities as spaces of hope and contestation for migrants, hope will be viewed as closely tied to space. Following Nussbaum, the article examines what refugees are “actually able to do and to be” in Akron (Nussbaum 129). Beyond refugee well-being in shrinking cities, the analysis understands hope as capabilities and explores what refugees are “positioned to do.” This is crucial in political climates like the Rust Belt, where feelings of nostalgic deprivation (Gest, et al.) necessitate a deeper examination of refugees’ capabilities and aspirations upon resettlement. How does the arrival of refugees allow declining urban areas to hope, and in what ways do these areas facilitate or impede the pursuit of newcomers’ aspirations?
- 3 The focus lay on local newspapers such as the Akron Beacon Journal, but Google News and Europresse (...)
13The results presented in this article are based on data collected during doctoral research on refugee arrival in shrinking cities from 2019 to 2023. A critical discourse analysis (CDA) was employed (Fairclough), utilizing primarily qualitative data, along with selected quantitative and historical data. CDA was chosen for its ability to contextualize verbal and written text richly and to extend analysis using historical, spatial, and socio-economic data. Six policy and planning documents, including the City of Akron and Summit County's Welcoming Plan, were analyzed. To contextualize local action historically and geographically, online archival materials, Google Street View images, Census and Community Survey Data, and local and national media articles were examined.3 Fourteen semi-structured interviews, each lasting 45 minutes to two hours, provided primary data. Conducted remotely via Zoom due to the Covid pandemic and travel restrictions, the interviews spanned three years (February 2020 to April 2023). Interviewees included urban planning and economic development policymakers, members of local NGOs and regional foundations, three refugee community leaders, and members of two local community development corporations (CDCs). Participants were recruited through purposive and snowball sampling, initially contacting local organization members and city administration via public websites. Snowball sampling facilitated access to local refugee populations. Interviews with local decision-makers and development actors focused on urban shrinkage, local development, and refugees’ roles in revitalization, while interviews with actors working in resettlement and refugee inclusion and with refugee community leaders addressed arrival experiences, structural challenges, and their roles in urban processes. Written consent was obtained, and anonymity was ensured using broad job descriptions and pseudonyms. Interviews were transcribed and analyzed with MaxQDA to identify themes and patterns closely related to the local context, as suggested by CDA.
“New Blood Keeps Akron’s North Hill Pumping” (Shingler)
“How Immigrants helped save the economy of Akron, Ohio” (Blanco)
“Bhutanese refugees prosper, keep culture alive” (Albrecht)
14As refugee arrival is increasingly viewed as “hope,” the following sections will explore hope both from the perspective of Akron as a city that tackles long-term decline and from the perspective of refugees who are calling the city their home. In line with CDA, the following section will provide a rich contextualization as the first analytical step.
15As a major resettlement site in the state of Ohio, revitalization strategies have integrated the economic benefits of welcoming refugees. What emerged from the analysis is a narrative of newcomers as hope for the region in its efforts to bounce back demographically and economically.
16Emblematic of so-called “legacy” cities, Akron grew rapidly during the twentieth century. At a time when the automotive industry in the Great Lakes region took off, Akron’s tire manufacturers became the major supplier for the industry. This rapid development boosted Akron in terms of scale and resulted in its nickname, “Rubber Capital of the world.”
17During the city’s booming years, immigration was needed and encouraged, and local factories employed an international workforce. Akron thus looks at a long history of immigration, similar to other Rust Belt-cities. However, with globalization and the outsourcing of rubber production to the country’s Sunbelt, most rubber manufacturers had closed doors by the 1980s, leading to steady economic and demographic decline in the city (Tighe and Ryberg-Webster), aggravated by suburbanization processes, leaving Akron particularly affected by the economic downturn of the region (Ledebur and Taylor 12). Since 1970, Akron has lost more than 30% of its population.
18The shrinkage effects in the downscaled Rubber Town are considerable and lasting. According to recent Census data from 2022, the poverty rate is 23% compared to 11.4% nationally, and the unemployment rate is slightly higher than the national average, with 4.3% in July 2022 vs. 3.5% nationally (US Bureau of Labor Statistics). While residential vacancy rates have dropped over time, the foreclosure crisis in combination with an old housing stock have led to the re-emergence of elevated residential vacancy rates which remain an issue for the city (see Table 2). Akron has recently launched a residential tax abatement program to tackle high vacancy rates, which have decreased from 15.3% in 2010 to 11.8% in 2020 (ACS 2010a, 2020).
19Since 1984, Akron has been run by mayors affiliated with the Democratic party. Summit County voted for the Democrats in the 2016 (“Ohio Presidential”) and 2020 (“Donald Trump”) presidential elections. North Hill residents voted between 61% and 89% for Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential elections (Bloch et al.) and between 61% to 87% for Joe Biden in 2020 (Park et al.). As such, the city is embedded in a political divide between center and periphery that is typical for the Rust Belt region. The rural areas of Ohio—like many neighboring Rust Belt states—voted for Donald Trump, while most cities, including those struggling with long-term urban shrinkage, chose Joe Biden.
20The city is employing several policies and strategies to tackle urban decline. The local strategy is strongly regrowth-oriented with former Mayor Horrigan stating in the city’s five-year strategic plan for 2019-2024, that he “refuse[d] to manage [his] city’s decline” (City of Akron, 2019)—referring to a planned shrinkage strategy aimed at actively reducing the city’s infrastructure to its declining population and economy. Recent measures taken by the city target middle-income populations, including tax-abatement programs for housing. While rejuvenating an old housing stock is an important measure, one can assume that tax-abatement programs provide hope mostly to white, middle-class residents.
Table 1: Selected urban and economic development initiatives by/with City of Akron
Sources: City of Akron; ** Summit County & City of Akron; *** Deevers
21In Akron, the foreign-born population is small but growing and increasingly diverse. According to the ACS, it grew from 8,524 in 2010 to 13,756 in 2023 (ACS, 2010b; 2023). According to a report by the Partnership for a New American Economy (NAE), 27% of the foreign-born in Akron were refugees in 2013 (NAE). One of the city’s largest refugee populations is from Southeast Asia. Akron’s Asian population grew significantly from 2,701 in 1990 to 10,771 in 2023 (US Bureau of the Census). Most refugees in Akron are so-called ‟convention” refugees (Resettlement Agency), that is refugees who are resettled from UN refugee camps to the United States via the UNHCR. These arrive either directly Akron or move there via secondary migration from other resettlement sites.
22Local revitalization driven by refugee-led entrepreneurship and civic action don’t go unnoticed by the city administration, which sees the local refugee population as an important factor in local development.
23The Welcoming Akron and Summit Country plan through which the city has joined the Welcoming America network, an organization which aims to promote welcoming local identities, and institutionalized its welcoming strategy, stems from combined efforts by the city, the county and several local organizations that work closely with refugees, including the local resettlement agency. In participating in the Gateways for Growth Challenge, the actors involved have obtained funding and technical assistance from the Washington-based pro-immigration non-profit American Immigration Council and Welcome America networks, both initiators of the competition. With the plan, Summit County and Akron commit to improving the integration of newcomers socially and economically. While the report emphasizes migrants’ sense of belonging, local economic development remains central:
Immigrants and refugees are a vital part of our community. They bring fresh perspective and new ideas, start-up businesses, and they contribute to the vibrant diversity we all value. Communities across the country are constantly competing to attract the human capital that will allow them to thrive in a global economy. More importantly, communities around the world are grappling with how they will live their values in an age of growing migration. (Summit County and City of Akron)
24With its approach to center revitalization, in part, on refugees, Akron’s municipal government is not alone: the Rust Belt region is home to numerous places that launched similar welcoming plans that couple development strategies with diversity and inclusion (Welcoming America). We thus see that refugee arrival raises hopes among local and regional decision makers to tackle urban decline with the help of immigration.
25The narrative presented by the administration’s welcoming plan and planning reports such as Planning to Grow Akron, is carried into the wider public by guest editorials written by the members of the administration. Some contributions come in the form of an enthusiastic introduction to the city’s planning approach which rejects the notion of managing decline: “[…] my boss has established a bold goal of growing the city’s current population of 198,000 back to 250,000 by 2050. He unequivocally states that ‘I refuse to manage this city’s decline’” (Segedy).
26Local and regional organizations attach great hopes to refugee arrival and its potential positive impact on neighborhoods affected by urban decline. They also provide support and funding for local action. Their funding is particularly important in the state of Ohio, where local and State politics have often been conflictual and where shrinking cities face increasingly constrained budgets. As conservatives have exploited urban decay imagery since the 1970s to further their agenda, the marginalization of post-industrial cities has led to disinvestment and neglect, worsening the outflow of residents and resources (Hackworth, 2019). With this decline, many Rust Belt mayors have lost power, and community development organizations (CDCs) have emerged as political actors, funded through foundations and other private capital, and pushing local projects. These foundations give local actors—administrations, NGOs, CDCs, and refugee community organizations—the possibility to continue their work despite shrunk tax bases, and even if regional or national politics pursue opposing agendas.
27In Akron, several organizations support the city and local actors. For example, Global Cleveland, in spite of its location, funds projects and organizations in Akron. The organization advocates vividly for the benefits of immigration in the region and is organized around networking and community engagement, while putting forward stories that exemplify the positive impact refugees and other newcomers have on US cities. During an interview, the Cleveland Dream Neighborhood was identified as one such example of revitalization led by refugees:
The Dream Neighborhood took the idea of what the power of immigrants and refugees could do, and it applied it to a neighborhood that was very, very sick. The neighborhood […] had the largest public of English as a second language learners from kindergarten through 12th grade in the United States. About 1,100 students from 40 different countries and I will tell you: If you ever come to Cleveland, we would love to take you there because your heart will beat very intensely when you’re in that school: this burst of light from the Earth in the middle of a very dark community. A lot of opioid overdoses, a lot of arsons and peoples’ houses being set on fire, a lot of gun violence. So, housing was very available, and people said to us: ‘‘You’re crazy to think that refugees and newcomers will change this neighborhood!’’ But that’s exactly what happened… (Global Cleveland)
28The organization’s member evokes religious imagery by referring to a “dark place” and a “burst of light from the Earth,” symbolizing newcomers and the neighborhood transformation they bring. This rhetoric echoes a long-standing narrative of the US as a guiding “City upon the Hill.” The interview portrays refugees as symbols of hope in declining areas, reinforcing the idea of them as “saviors” of Rust Belt towns. In the context of Trump’s “Muslim Ban,” we consider the framing of refugees, some of whom likely aren’t Christian, as beacons of hope as particularly significant.
29Another actor is the Partnership for a New American Economy (NAE), a pro-immigration think-tank that conducts research on immigration in the United States and migrants’ contributions to local economies, and is also an important player in framing newcomers as hope for places affected by decline. In Akron, their research builds a central argumentative element for advocating for immigration as part of local revitalization strategies. Almost all local actors interviewed for this research based their statements on the same data published by the NAE. The think tank provides research to regional and national actors, including the Welcoming America Network.
30Generally, the involvement of actors like Global Cleveland, the Cleveland Foundation or the NAE shows an interest in stabilizing the entire region beyond city limits, and these organizations’ political mission to frame newcomers as hope for places affected by decline.
31Analyzing the perspectives of the city and its collaborators on refugee arrival through the lens of hope confirms a trend of viewing immigration as means to correct demographic decline (Koser). However, discussing refugee arrival in shrinking cities solely under the lens of opportunities for revitalization neglects the structural challenges refugees face upon arrival, and almost always erases their agency. Reading interview materials with refugee communities through the lens of hope allowed for insights into how resettled refugees turn their shrinking place of arrival into a space of hope. The following section explores this in greater depth.
32For refugees, ‟[t]he chronic lack of certainties is expansive and reinforces the urgency of hope” (Twigt 168). Conversations with three refugee community leaders, Pema, a Bhutanese refugee in his fifties, Gloria, a Congolese refugee in her thirties and Sonam, a Ka’ren refugee from Myanmar in his twenties, have allowed to identify several themes linked to hope (and despair), including economic development, home-making, and the often political struggle for recognition. They will be discussed in the following and enriched by interview materials with other local actors involved in refugee resettlement, housing and economic development.
33In line with the municipal narrative, various local actors are engaged in creating (economic) opportunity structures for newcomers, including newcomers themselves. For refugees and their allies at neighborhood level, economic autonomy is a driver of hope in North Hill.
34An active organization in the neighborhood at the nexus of urban development, economic revitalization, and social cohesion building, is the North Hill CDC (NHCDC). The NHCDC defines its mission as empowering North Hill’s diverse communities, giving voice to their experiences, and helping them realize their vision for the neighborhood (North Hill). This mission reflects an optimistic view of the prospects for newcomers in North Hill. Additionally, the NHCDC seeks to enhance social cohesion, a challenging endeavor in a city and district that have undergone significant transformations. In North Hill there are historically grown social and racial injustices, and long-term residents find themselves “left out” of municipal action centered on newcomers. This is echoed by a member of the NHCDC: “When we first built our pocket park, we had mostly immigrants using the space, and just this past year I heard some Black Americans express that they didn’t feel like they could use it, too.” She elaborates, “old Americans, folks that were born here or folks that have immigrant parents from Italy or Poland, and Black Americans. . . […] In terms of social cohesion, there is a resentment against refugees. They think that [refugees] are getting more resources” (CDC II).
35The reports about inter-group tensions resonate with classical works of the Chicago School according to which socio-spatial processes are responding to external influences such as migration, and according to which groups were considered in competition for economic resources such as jobs. What is important, as pointed out by Athens, is that “people not only compete against each other on an individual basis for work and better jobs, but the groups to which they belong also compete against each other on a collective basis.” (77). In shrinking cities where resources are often scarce, social groups find themselves in a potentially harsher competition, aggravating the risk of social tensions. Our interview participant drew a complex picture of race-relations in which discontent about the perceived lack of access to resources is joined by ‟American-born [white] people influencing refugees to have an anti-Black sentiment as well” (CDC II). Consequently, the CDC focuses on economic access for all residents and adapts its programming to ensure that all social groups present in North Hill feel included. The comparative disadvantage of Black communities has historically posed challenges in the city and region, including racial housing exploitation (Akers and Seymour 127), or the disinvestment of Black communities in declining Rust Belt cities (Hackworth, 2021). Our interviewee explains how these systemic issues are addressed: “We run restaurants and mini-incubator spaces that are all intentional opportunities for Black Americans and people of color. We really prioritize that those opportunities should be for them, too” (CDC II).
36Some approaches taken by the NHCDC are typical for interim uses in shrinking cities: pop-up stores, pop-up restaurants, the creative use of green space, and the reuse of vacant buildings. In North Hill, some of the projects initially thought of as temporary became permanent, creating a bustling central district. One example is the Exchange House, a bed and breakfast and culture center that promotes the diverse life in the North Hill neighborhood. While presented as a means for visitors to stay in Akron in direct touch with the local community, commercial short-term rental providers such as Airbnb also bear risks as driver of gentrification and touristification, which is notably the case in growing cities where the housing market is tense (Wachsmuth and Weisler). This raises the question of whether short-term rentals as a development strategy could be more detrimental than beneficial for settled refugees, who might eventually suffer the long-term effects of gentrification.
37Alongside local CDCs, refugees shape the local economy. North Hill now features local shops that are frequently operated by newcomers. Pema, a Bhutanese respondent in his fifties, was a pioneer in this transformation. Although he initially arrived in the US on a student visa, he is a refugee who spent many years in a Bhutanese refugee camp, from which family and friends were later resettled to Akron. A small business owner today, he explains how his store came into being:
Initially, it was just my family who came here, followed by my friends from the refugee camps in Bhutan, my neighbors, etc. And they would look for food they were used to eating in the camps, but they wouldn’t find it here. I needed to drive to places as far as Cleveland to find products similar to what we were used to eating. (Pema, 2021)
38After offering a driving service between Akron and Cleveland for community members interested in buying products and other items for Bhutanese cuisine, he quickly decided that driving from Akron to Cleveland for grocery shopping was not sustainable: “When the [refugee] population grew that became a full-time job. . . more than a full-time job.”. Pema “knew that there was a need for ethnic foods” in Akron (2021), which is why he and his family began to wonder how to address the issue as the refugee population continued to grow. He continues:
The demands [were] growing, and so we thought, “How about we collect all the food and get it all in one place? How about we open a store?” So, I spoke with my brother and my nephew, and we ended up opening this grocery store. That’s how it began. (2023)
39There are hope and joy in Pema’s voice as he shares his story. He has by now opened a second branch, and alongside his business many more shops opened in North Hill, thanks to the coming together of new needs, growing demand, and commercial vacancy rates. The following excerpt from our interview underlines this:
Norma : You mentioned that vacant shop fronts would gradually disappear. Was this due to the new shop owners?
Pema: Exactly, yeah! There are many groceries like mine now, several restaurants, gift shops. . . places where they offer dancing, singing and language classes. And there are several home care agencies launched by refugees.
Norma : That sounds like an entire industry of services emerged thanks to refugee arrival.
Pema: Yes! (2021)
40Despite the visible contribution of newcomers to North Hill, Pema still refers to the previously discussed NAE report:
So the study they have done, they’re getting it out to the public and people who have complaints. It helps to balance out any prejudices. […] Most vacant lots are gone. The city is getting a lot more money because there are many people working in the city, they’re taxpayers, homebuyers contributing property taxes. And, I mean, with a small grocery store like mine, I’m contributing thousands of dollars every year. There are several businesses like mine in this place. So, it definitely does contribute. (2021)
41And indeed, according to the report, refugees in Akron play vital roles both in the local economy and the housing market. The NAE-report concludes:
Amid the decline in Akron’s overall population from 2007 to 2013, foreign-born residents played an outsized role in supporting the city’s economy as small business owners who created local jobs; STEM workers who took up hard-to-fill jobs; consumers who spent on local goods and services; homeowners who bought local houses; and taxpayers who supported various programs at federal, state, and city levels. As Akron keeps attracting more immigrants and refugees to the city, these new Americans will become an increasingly indispensable part of the city’s future success story. (2016 13)
42The NAE’s interactive map, using recent ACS data for the Akron Metro Area, reveals 1,577 immigrant entrepreneurs, 15,765 eligible immigrant voters, approximately $324.5M in annual taxes paid by immigrants, and an estimated $817.2M in spending power held by immigrants.4 While the NAE-report Pema refers to puts forward the contributions of refugees in particular, the NEA’s website uses data from the American Immigration Council,5 a non-partisan and non-profit organization, which provides data on the total immigrant population. Failing to distinguish refugees from other migrants obscures their role in local development, undermining narratives of refugee-driven revitalization. Still, publicly available reports and data continue to be a valuable resource for CDCs and refugee community organizations to corroborate their observations. The following statement of a member of a local CDC provides an interesting case in point:
They [the South-East Asian refugees] have built almost their own economy […] within their community. There are 15 Asian grocery stores in this neighborhood, and each of those people that started those grocery stores have families and friends that go to it, and they only buy from there. (CDC II)
43Newcomers are contributing to the city’s goal of economic revitalization, and their financial independence allows them to rebuild their lives, offering hope to those who have spent significant time in refugee camps.
44As a shrinking city, Akron has struggled with high vacancy rates which were further aggravated by the 2008 financial crisis. These vacant structures were widespread in North Hill, too. However, they became a pool of available housing, providing hope to newly arrived refugees.
45A significant issue in housing is the extensive acquisition of retail properties by external investors, adversely affecting residents and newcomers. Many accounts highlight predatory landlords exploiting newcomers (Schemschat; Egea and Kreichauf; Sender). The faith-based CDC Legacies of Success aims to counter this by rehabilitating vacant homes and promoting homeownership among marginalized groups. It assists refugee families in transitioning from substandard housing to ownership by renovating vacant properties in North Hill.A member elaborates:
Our goal is to provide opportunities for families that are interested in being long term residents. There are some groups that have a fair representation in the neighborhood and so they feel like, “Why would we move anywhere else. This is where we have found a strong community.” (CDC I)
46While interviews with other local actors suggested a strong capacity for Bhutanese refugees to support each other within their migrant network, CDCs like Legacies of Success step in for individuals who need support as they struggle to navigate US housing markets. As more and more refugees become homeowners in Akron, “some of those investors are dumping properties and getting out because it’s a headache to be a landlord regardless of whether you’re doing it right” (CDC I).
47However, the process of bringing newcomers into homeownership is not without tensions, as reported by a member of the CDC:
There’s a sense that North Hill has been a place that has struggled for fifty years. There was a lot of disinvestments, and as refugees have shown up, there has all of a sudden been interest in the neighborhood. So, I think there’s this sense that people have struggled, have really been left behind, and now there’s a focus on what is a new struggling group, which are in many cases newly arrived Americans—many of whom are refugees. (CDC I)
48These home-making practices and the cooperation with local organizations thus become the grounds for negotiating the new diversity in North Hill, as reported by our respondent: “with every home that we work on, we encounter neighbors that are around the homes that we’re rehabbing, and a very common reality is that at least one of those neighbors will say something along the lines of “Well, why are you working with…?” (CDC I).
49As previously mentioned, such inter-group tensions emerge along various lines and include many social groups affected by long-term decline. In North Hill, long-term residents of many backgrounds feel affected by disinvestment: ‘‘And it isn’t always a refugee family. If it’s a white family, [they ask] ‘Why are you working with this Black family, Latino family…? Why are you helping these folks when people like us are struggling?’” (CDC I).
50Despite such challenges tied to tensions in diversity, the rehabilitation of formerly vacant homes at a relatively large scale creates hope for inhabitants. As members of the refugee community tap into their social networks and pool their resources to buy real estate, they start building foundations of their belonging in the city.
51Interviews reveal that home ownership is an important feature in Bhutanese culture and a means for creating and enforcing one’s attachment to a place. While aspirations for homeownership exist among many individuals, Pema elaborates on homemaking as cultural practice:
Culturally Bhutanese people like to own homes. A trend I see here is that people are always looking for homes to buy (laughs). And the American residents are kind of wondering: “What the hell? They’re not even here for 10-12 years, and they own homes already?” But then in our case, as long as you don’t own your own home and are off on your own, you feel like an outsider. To claim this place as being yours, you create the belongingness to this place. You can say “Now I belong to this place. This is my place.” (2021)
52Widespread vacancies provided an opportunity for the Bhutanese community to attach themselves to their place of arrival through building a home: “That’s how most of the vacant places are gone!” (Pema 2021).
53As the needs for housing are met, local action to improve community relations become more important and a stable basis for younger generations exists to inform political action which will be discussed in the following.
54Together with North Hill-based actors, refugees engage in political action and awareness raising, creating hopeful spaces through encounter, participation, and engagement. The NHCDC is again a noteworthy partner. Its mission is to unite people, places, and programs to stimulate a robust, creative economy in North Hill, and anchor the intercultural community by celebrating its diversity (North Hill). Significant projects of the CDC are its Exchange House and its People’s Park. The Exchange House originated from a 2015 temporary use project by the Better Block Foundation which has transformed a formerly vacant house and its surroundings into a space for encounter. Upon completion, the foundation transferred ownership to the NHCDC which continues to use it as a welcoming space. Members recall that this was a challenge in a red state in the era of Donald Trump, which renders cohesion-building in a diverse district like North Hill particularly important:
When we opened the Exchange House at the beginning of 2017, it was right when the Trump presidency began, so there was that first initial “Muslim ban”. So, the first activity in the Exchange House was a Refugee and Immigrant March through the neighborhood that ended behind the house where refugees were invited to come and make a speech with everyone being there in solidarity. (CDC II)
55Opening the Exchange House when President Trump entered office paved the way for ongoing political action within the North Hill neighborhood. During our talk on Joe Biden’s Inauguration Day in January 2021, as the Trump administration came to an end, this member of CDC reflected on the early times of the Exchange House: “I always think of that as a powerful first moment, because it [our first activities] was in response to Trump being Trump. And, today is a good day. Hey, he’s gone.” (CDC II)
56Having been rather reserved and very careful in his ways of expressing himself, Pema appears to allow himself to dream when asked where he sees Akron and its refugee communities in ten years:
In ten years, I would think, most of the refugees from older generations would have disappeared. My parents, my grandparents who still want to go back to Bhutan. . . most of them would be gone—unfortunately! So, it will be mostly younger generations of highly acclimatized [individuals who are] accustomed to this culture. Most of them, I would think, would be homeowners, many of them would be business owners. Many doctors and engineers, nurses. We do have many nurses already in this place. Many engineers, doctors, lawyers, and nurses in the health industry. And I would also think there would be one or more people in politics you know, as Councilmen. (2023)
57Pema envisions Akron’s North Hill as a hopeful space, particularly for younger refugees whom she sees as vital to the city's future. This vision includes aspirations for independence through prestigious professions such as lawyers, doctors, engineers, and nurses—critical skilled labor that garners societal respect and provides refugees with agency. Notably, these professions offer legal or medical services, implicitly highlighting that newcomers contribute to local communities. Pema sees political representation and societal impact as the task of newer generations of former refugees. In interviews, these shared Pema’s hopeful perspective on North Hill. One example is Sonam, a young Ka’ren refugee, who stated: “I see my community as a space for joy and resilience. I believe that to be active and involved in my current space has allowed me to learn different opinions, feel supported and share happiness” (Sonam).
58Sonam, inherently optimistic in his demeanor, attributes his pursuit of political recognition to his identifying as Ka’ren, an ethnic minority historically denied political expression before and after their displacement from Myanmar. He states, “growing up in a refugee camp, I didn’t have the access or opportunity to learn about my culture, food, or traditions. That’s why it’s important to me to keep learning and sharing with the Ka’ren community in Akron.” In Akron, his community exercises its newfound freedom of expression. However, Sonam’s work is shaped not just by displacement but also by the challenges of establishing a new life in the US. The path to citizenship for him and his community is fraught with language barriers, distrust towards health authorities, and youth isolation. Aspiring to run for City Council, he aims to represent those who “came from a refugee camp” and feels unrepresented by a predominantly white, US-born political elite who he believes is unaware of refugees’ needs. He calls for “a new leader who’s able to solve issues that are unique to refugee communities” (Sonam), presenting a hopeful vision for political representation.
59What emerges is that exiled people not only drive local development, but promote refugee rights along with it. As was the case with Sonam, for another participant, Gloria, a Congolese refugee in her thirties, this commitment is driven by personally experiencing the discrimination and hardship that come along with exile. ‟It’s been me, being a refugee, getting involved in helping my fellow refugees [...] when I came to America, I saw the barriers and was like, ‘Why am I seated? I can speak, right?’ I have speech; I can be a broker; I can help my fellow refugees” (Gloria).
60For Sonam and Gloria, the lived experience of displacement and arrival in a new environment form part of their self-understanding as political subjects, allowing them to formulate claims for representation, belonging and participation in shaping North Hill and Akron. However, there is a perceived disconnect between local political leaders or large organizations and the refugee community. While municipal and regional actors’ advocacy is essential for highlighting refugees’ roles in urban and economic development, their efforts are seen as detached from the communities they intend to support. As Mattingly and Jensen argue, “hope is [paradoxically] on intimate terms with despair. It asks for more than life promises. It is poised for disappointment” (38). Conversations with Gloria and Sonam particularly revealed such disappointment which stems from the gap between local action and the city’s welcoming rhetoric. Gloria, for example, recalls attending the Welcoming Week, organized annually by the Welcoming America network:
We are celebrating Welcoming Week this week. One of the biggest shocks to me was that if you go to our city website, there’s nothing. […] That got me thinking, “They were the first to advertise their Welcoming Week, but what are they doing to inform the community about it?” It’s all about putting the [welcoming] stamp without doing the work. There’s a big gap that needs to be filled.
61This “big gap” exposed frustrations as Gloria continued: “It is easy to be informed, it is easy to organize conferences where […] they think they understand, but they haven’t understood anything.” Sonam echoed this mismatch between the city’s welcoming rhetoric and local conditions in North Hill:
You know, I sometimes feel like the city and North Hill are two different cities. We don’t communicate very clearly or very often. Sometimes, if we have an event in North Hill, the city government has no idea what’s going on. Sometimes, when there is a festival [at the city level], nobody from the refugees, especially the North Hill community, goes to the event.”
62Both interviewees regret the lack of engagement with refugees in North Hill and suggest policy and decision makers to “come down” and treat newcomers as equals to other residents—and potential voters of the future: “Refugees have come in as refugees, but five years from now, they will be the ones to vote. If you want to remain in power, look for those [who vote five years from now]! Right now, you ask me for a vote, but you don’t know who I am” (Gloria).
63Yet, at least for some interviewees there is still hope to overcome this gap, as emphasized by Sonam: “So, there is a barrier, a gap there. I want to break that.” In sum, North Hill can be seen as a space from which bottom-up practices emerge that offer hope to newcomers and provide insights into Lister’s everyday citizenship at scales which are intimate and local (55).
64This article sheds light on hope in refugee arrival under conditions of urban decline. The revitalization efforts identified fit into a broader development in the American Rust Belt where cities increasingly opt for inclusive rhetoric to attract newcomers—refugees included. As the analysis shows, the city hopes for newcomers to halt population loss and boost local economies. In part, these hopes have been met: North Hill has seen relatively strong revitalization in recent years thanks to the arrival of refugees, their businesses, and bottom-up efforts to shape the neighborhood and improve social cohesion.
65Yet, the investigation into North Hill raises a question: Hope for whom? While the city puts forward a welcoming narrative, much of its comprehensive planning centers on economic development and housing strategies targeted at attracting middle-class residents. Two out of three refugee community leaders interviewed in North Hill regret the often symbolic nature of the welcoming discourse and criticized the disconnect between action taken by the city and local initiatives in North Hill. It is thus likely that—for now—refugee-related diversity is primarily an element of a larger regrowth strategy so commonly found in declining cities and thus what Pottie-Sherman described as diversity-centered neoliberal growth-strategies (441).
66Nevertheless, our analysis also demonstrated that the specific context of North Hill, where available housing, a welcoming discourse and concerted efforts of local actors come together, provides certain refugee groups with a precarious space of aspiration in which they can strive for political recognition and representation. We consider it precarious for several reasons: primarily, the structural challenges associated with arrival and settlement in a new location, as well as the economic pressures on both the city and newcomers, potentially constrain the possibility of hope as capabilities for newcomers to lead lives they deem meaningful. Moreover, the tensions between established residents and newcomers in a context of systemic disadvantage of Black Akronites who feel excluded from recent investment also expose the limited hope marginalized long-term residents possess. Deep-rooted socio-economic problems in many American Rust Belt cities facing decline thus led some authors to viewing bottom-up initiatives with skepticism (Doucet). In response to this, current strategies of the city are predicated on an integrated approach to local development that prioritizes equity (City of Akron). Local actors working with refugee communities are also actively engaged in cohesion-building, which is crucial in a location that could be characterized as situated in what Rodríguez-Pose described as “geographies of discontent” (2) in a period McQuarrie termed the “age of anger” (120). Future research should investigate the political dimensions in greater detail. These could include examining how local action may be at risk in light of rising extreme-right movements at regional scales, or a closer investigation into local solidarities across groups. As our data suggest a stronger organization among some refugee populations, more research on the intra-group inequalities among refugees in shrinking cities is needed: beyond presumably cultural factors, why are some groups included in local place-making while others are being left out?
67To conclude, there is hope to be found in Akron’s North Hill neighborhood: undoubtedly, interviewed refugees and their allies engage actively in place-making efforts and political action to achieve greater political recognition, making Akron’s International District a space of hope, fragile as it may be, in which “new ways of imagining, inhabiting and constructing the contemporary city are being invented, tested and advanced” (Herscher 2).