Using the city: migrant spatial integration as urban practice

ABSTRACT

This paper explores the idea of migrant spatial integration through an approach focused on urban praxis. Joining other contributions concerned with the continuing significance of place and locality for the study of migrant settlement, this paper examines migrants’ urban apprenticeship and how it shapes their usage of city space. Departing from the idea that to ‘integrate’ urban space involves being able to navigate it and being aware of its resources, I introduce an exploratory tool, which brings together processes normally kept apart in social scientific research, namely urban experience and migrant integration. Drawing from ethnographic interviews carried with migrants in Lisbon, Portugal, I argue that looking at migrants as skilful agents in the practice of city life may capture how the mechanics of migrant emplacement work in the context of urban diversity.

KEYWORDS:

• Urban mobility
• practice
• apprenticeship
• migrant integration
• navigation

Acknowledgements

Earlier versions of this paper were presented at the Rethinking Integration Conference, in Birmingham (2 July 2015) and in several occasions within the framework of the Marie Curie INTEGRIM programme. I would like to thank the JEMS reviewers for their detailed comments and feedback, which significantly strengthened the article. I am greatly indebted to Lucinda Fonseca and Jennifer McGarrigle for their invaluable support throughout the making of the paper. I would also like to thank Françoise Dureau, Caroline Knowles, Louise Ryan, Jenny Phillimore and Amandine Desille for their comments and suggestions.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1 The data derived from the last two methods are explored in other papers.

Additional information

Funding

The research leading to these results has received funding from the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007–2013) [grant number 316796].