Broadening the Urban Planning Repertoire with an ‘Arrival Infrastructures’ Perspective

Bruno Meeus, Luce Beeckmans, Bas van Heur and Karel Arnaut
Additional contact information
Bruno Meeus: Human Geography and Planning, Utrecht University, The Netherlands / Interculturalism, Migration and Minorities Research Centre (IMMRC), University of Leuven, Belgium
Luce Beeckmans: Department of Architecture and Urban Planning, Ghent University, Belgium
Bas van Heur: Cosmopolis Centre for Urban Research, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium
Karel Arnaut: Interculturalism, Migration and Minorities Research Centre (IMMRC), University of Leuven, Belgium

Urban Planning, 2020, vol. 5, issue 3, 11-22

Abstract: In this article we propose an arrival infrastructure’s perspective in order to move beyond imaginaries of neighbourhoods as a ‘port of first entry’ that are deeply ingrained in urban planning discussions on migrants’ arrival situations. A focus on the socio-material infrastructures that shape an arrival situation highlights how such situations are located within, but equally transcend, the territories of neighbourhoods and other localities. Unpacking the infrastructuring work of a diversity of actors involved in the arrival process helps to understand how they emerge through time and how migrants construct their future pathways with the futuring possibilities at hand. These constructions occur along three dimensions: (1) Directionality refers to the engagements with the multiple places migrants have developed over time, (2) temporality questions imaginaries of permanent belonging, and (3) subjectivity directs attention to the diverse current and future subjectivities migrants carve out for themselves in situations of arrival. This perspective requires urban planners to trace, grasp and acknowledge the diverse geographies and socio-material infrastructures that shape arrival and the diverse forms of non-expert agency in the use, appropriation and fabrication of the built environment in which the arrival takes place.

Keywords: arrival infrastructures; immigrant neighbourhoods; migration; urban diversity (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.cogitatiopress.com/urbanplanning/article/view/3116 (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:cog:urbpla:v5:y:2020:i:3:p:11-22

DOI: 10.17645/up.v5i3.3116

Access Statistics for this article

Urban Planning is currently edited by Tiago Cardoso

More articles in Urban Planning from Cogitatio Press
Bibliographic data for series maintained by António Vieira () and IT Department ().