Building Bridges Across Difference: How Women Refugees and Volunteers Foster Solidarity in Cyprus

Across Europe, refugees and asylum seekers often find themselves in precarious situations, facing limited access to housing, employment, education, and legal protection. While government responses have frequently proved inadequate, grass-roots movements have emerged to fill the gaps. These citizen-led initiatives represent more than simple charity; they embody new forms of political engagement where refugees and volunteers work together across differences to create useful change. This issue is particularly pressing in the Republic of Cyprus (RoC), where the island’s own history of division and displacement shapes contemporary responses to newcomers. Since 2015, the RoC has experienced a dramatic increase in refugee arrivals, making it the EU member state with the highest number of asylum applications per capita in 2021. Yet despite – or perhaps because of – this pressure, women in the Cypriot city of Paphos have created remarkable spaces of collaboration and mutual support.