Paris? Melbourne? Public housing doesn’t just look the same, it’s part of the challenges refugees face

The public housing estates built in cities around the world since the first public housing was built in the 19th-century London have long been home to the very vulnerable, including refugees and immigrants. At the level of their lived experience – home and neighbourhood – the architectural and spatial qualities of public spaces and housing affect refugees’ and migrants’ ability to integrate into their new home. We can see this in the public housing estates of two cities on opposite sides of the world, Paris and Melbourne.