Postmigrant conceptualisations of the city: From hegemonic to urban everyday practice

Abstract

There is a long tradition of drawing boundaries towards migrants not only in media and politics, but also in research. With regard to cities, this has become expressed by a strong focus on segregation, with the underlying assumption being that areas where many immigrants reside are per se problematic. This finds expression in stigmatising terms such as 'ghettos' or 'ethnic colonies'. This paper aims to take a new perspective by discussing the contribution of diversity and migration to urban development (Hill 2020; Geisen/Riegel/Yildiz 2017; Yildiz/Mattausch 2009). It focuses on migration experiences in cities, looking at a number of qualitative studies conducted over the last 20 years. The main thesis is that it is scarcely possible to conceive of cities without migration. People who were recruited as "guest workers" in the early 1960s and well into the 1970s mostly came to European cities, to the industrial centres. Even if they were deemed politically undesirable, they made a significant contribution to the revitalisation of such cities over time, though there was little public discussion of their impact. Reviewing the connection between migration and the city is what we describe as postmigrant in the present context.