My research will explore the experiences of refugees and asylum seekers in the UK and Germany by examining housing policies, settlement patterns and integration outcomes. The ‘refugee crisis’ and the integration of new refugee arrivals has caused complex challenges for policymakers and communities that are often not yet fully understood. Thus, my research will, for example, explore the distribution of housing of refugees across provincial regions and the countryside, and their impact on the success or failure of integration in a context of governance arrangements that work across multiple scales. The research will contribute to a growing scholarship on new immigration destinations, that is areas with limited experiences of immigration. This project links with my interest and engagement in volunteering with refugees, supporting them to find housing.