This contribution focuses on the implications of an enquiry on return migration in a border region. The northeastern region of Trás-os-Montes in Portugal is a paradigmatic area of out-migration, from ...colonial migrations to the ones to western and northern Europe during the Estado Novo, and the more recent migrations post-2008 crisis. The area went through dramatic demographic losses, accounting for a third of its population between the 1960s and 2000s. But it is also one of the areas with the highest rate of new residents - many of them coming (back) from France. The back and forth of inhabitants is only one form of mobilities in the history of the peninsula: as a border region, Trás-os-Montes is recently revisiting its transcultural heritage, such as the one of the Sephardic Jewish community, the Mirandese minority and more. Enquiring at the border hence holds many meanings, both in time and space, and both for those who stay and those mobile. Based on Pratt (1991) or Cohen & Sheringham (2017)'s understanding of “contact zones”, I explore the dynamics of place production in such a cultural space of encounters, conflicts, and renewal between several communities, in a region which has historically functioned as a transitional space. The theoretical reflection is accompanied by preliminary results of an ethnographic fieldwork conducted between 2018 and 2020 in the region. The case study of a village embedded in various networks, through out-migration and return migration, shows the extent to which the regional efforts to promote the area as “open to the outside” deny the potential of Portuguese migrants and returnees as active place-makers.
This open access book explores the use of visual methods in migration studies through a combination of theoretical analyses and empirical studies. The first section looks at how various visual ...methods, including photography, film, and mental maps, may be used to analyse the spatial presence of migrants. The second section addresses the processual building of narratives around migration, thereby using formats such as film and visual essay, and reflecting upon the ways they become carriers and mediators of both story and theory within the subject of migration. Section three focuses on vulnerable communities and discusses how visual methods can empower these communities, thereby also focusing on the theoretical and ethical implications of migration. The fourth section addresses the issue of migrant representation in visual discourses. Based on these contributions, a concluding methodological chapter systematizes the use of visual methods in migration studies across disciplines, with regard to their empirical, theoretical, and ethical implications. Multidisciplinary in character, this book is an interesting read for students and migration scholars who engage with visual methodologies, as well as practitioners, journalists, filmmakers, photographers, curators of exhibitions who address the topic of migration visually.
The scientific production dedicated to the study of Portuguese emigration, whether in Portugal or abroad, continues to predominantly consider those who left the country as “emigrants,” and not as ...“migrants.” Despite the change that has taken place since the late 1980s with the sociologist Abdelmalek Sayad (1999a, 1999b), who saw the absolute need to reestablish the integrity of the emigrant/immigrant by reconciling these two apparently different figures into one, the Portuguese. Those who left continue to be referred to today as “emigrants.”
The Portuguese city of Amadora hosts the first national registry of an immigrant Intangible Cultural Heritage to this day: the Kola San Jon celebration in the self-built neighbourhood of Alto da Cova ...da Moura. Many other practices, events, manifestations, and arts could be recognised as immigrant cultural heritage in this city, yet only a few are indeed recognised and supported by the municipality. Through the analysis of four 'vignettes', I suggest that municipalities shape a soft policy for immigrant integration by harnessing such apolitical, folklore traditions celebrated by the various immigrant groups present in the city as part of its city branding strategy and policy internationalisation. In other words, cultural heritage is exploited to serve purposes other than communal tradition, to promote the city's profile. To that aim, this article examines local migrant cultural heritage policies in relation to urban development using the concept of 'intercultural heritage' as a critique. By intercultural heritage, I mean heritage practices that are adopted by public institutions to rebrand and legitimise their immigration agenda in cities with a very heterogenous demographic.
In this article, we aim to identify the actors and unpack the discourses and administrative practices used to increase current mobilities of people (Jewish immigrants, investors, tourist visitors, ...and evicted residents) and explore their impact on the continuity of the settler-colonial regime in pre-1948 Palestinian urban spaces which became part of Israel. To render these dynamics visible, we explore the case of Acre—a pre-1948 Palestinian city located in the north-west of Israel which during the last three decades has been receiving about one hundred Jewish immigrant families annually. Our findings reveal a dramatic change in the attempts to judaise the city: Mobility policies through neoliberal means have not only been instrumental in continuing the processes of displacement and dispossession of the Palestinians in this so-called ‘mixed city,’ but have also recruited new actors and created new techniques and opportunities to accelerate the judaisation of the few Palestinian spaces left. Moreover, these new mobility policies normalise judaisation of the city, both academically and practically, through globally trendy paradigms and discourses. Reframing migration-led development processes in cities within a settler-colonialism approach enables us to break free from post-colonial analytical frameworks and re-centre the native-settler relations as well as the immigrants-settlers’ role in territorial control and displacement of the natives in the neoliberal era.
This paper proposes a critical appraisal of the intersecting phenomena of diversity (and particularly immigration-induced diversity) and urban development. It examines the extent to which immigration ...participates in the “neoliberal remaking, reimagining, and competitive marketing of cities” (Glick Schiller & Çağlar, 2010) in the particular case of Israel peripheries. Based on the analysis of immigration policies formed in the towns of Acre, Arad and Kiryat Shmona, I aim at unpacking the position of municipalities towards immigration. Findings show that city officials and agents in municipalities proactively engage with immigration policymaking because of the perceived benefits of immigration for urban development. However, two substantial limits emerge: firstly, local immigration policies aim at selecting immigrants on the basis of their perceived economic utility, following a logic of “neoliberal multiculturalism” (Kymlicka, 2015); secondly, the neoliberal logics at work stand alongside other political projects, related to national frames of citizenship. The ethnocentric character of Israel immigration policies remains, and is ever more limited by economic criteria.
Abstract This paper adds to the literature on urban diplomacy by focusing on the role of smaller cities with an active international engagement in migration matters. What are the motives driving the ...involvement of these “ordinary” cities in international groupings? What role do these cities play in the circulation of policies related to migration integration? How does it translate into local policies? To do so, we rely on a quantitative analysis of 64 networks around the world and on the case study of Amadora (Portugal). It is argued that “ordinary” cities may gain visibility when participating in transnational networks of cities. However, the research also shows that the city involvement is driven by the search for financial capacities, thereby nurturing a form of dependency from international subsidies. In addition, Amadora's involvement in city networks is not necessarily connected with actual activism in favor of migrant integration. The research shows the tensions between political discourses at national and local levels, and the loopholes of the “transnationalization” of migration governance.
This paper proposes to explore the role of immigration in the making of places. Departing from the assumption that “… the reconstruction of spaces and places within the City is an active part of the ...reordering of the wider relations within which the City is set …” (Massey et al. in City worlds. Routledge in association with the Open University, London, p 107, 1999), it addresses the relations between place, placemaking and immigration. The article draws on an empirical study carried out in an Israeli town located at the border of Lebanon, which was established in the 1950s with the purpose of settling new Jewish immigrants. It stages the life stories of various informants to the research, and the embodied character of these experiences, which all contribute to the production of the place under scrutiny. This microhistory of a place enables to identify the current immigration policy in place, and the motives which underlie it. As the article demonstrates, the narratives of each informant, inscribed in collective patterns, show the extent to which immigration is a crucial issue through which the city repositions itself within national narratives of nationbuilding. Additionally, they inform the transformations of power relations both in and out of the city, and the way the ‘imaginaries of place’ (Walker and Leitner in Urban Geogr 32(2):156–178, 2011) have shifted.
This article unpacks the making of immigrant policies in ordinary cities from the point of view of the various actors involved in it. Based on ethnographic work conducted in Israeli cities located ...away from the Tel Aviv-Jerusalem axis, yet involved since the establishment of the State of Israel in the welcoming of Jewish immigrants, it focuses on the actors' intentions and actions producing new scalar arrangements for the purpose of newcomers' settlement. Data gathered during observations, participation in activities and encounters with key actors were mobilized to produce abstract visualization of social networks. These visuals and their analysis inform the rescaling of immigrant policies, and of statehood: far from gaining autonomy and forming policies that are disengaging from national policies, actors in these peripheral cities are still dependent on the central administration to carry out their activities, limiting the possibility to produce alternative immigrant integration paths.
Introduction À quelques kilomètres de Gaza, Kiryat Gat est une localité « périphérique » israélienne d’environ 50 000 habitants. Fondée ex-nihilo, sur les terres des villages palestiniens ...d’Iraq-al-Manshiya et Al-Faluja, elle fait partie des 30 villes nouvelles établies entre 1948 et 1962 pour disperser les immigrés juifs arrivés en masse après l’établissement de l’État d’Israël : le gouvernement contrôle leur installation dans ces villes dites « de développement », souvent stratégiquement si...
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