NEW URBAN FRONTIERS
Periurbanization and (Re)territorialization in Southeast Asia

By Prof. Michael Leaf
School of Community and Regional Planning (SCARP)
University of British Columbia (UBC), Vancouver, Canada

Wednesday 26 of May 2010 - 3.00 pm
aula Consiglio, Ca’ Tron
Santa Croce 1957
30125 Venezia
more information

In the last decades many cities in Latin America have received a growing number of international migrants, mostly from neighboring countries. Inside several of those cities some neighborhoods or zones present high concentration of foreign residents and/or economic activities guided mostly to the immigrants’ final consumption and managed by them too. This research conceptualizes the immigrants’ residential concentration as segregation by national origin, and their economic clustering as ethnic markets.

This immigrant’s intraurban spatial pattern seems to be similar to that present in countries of the North, however in countries of the South the reasons of the immigrants’ spatial concentration look different in type or intensity. Even more, an interpretation does not exist on that spatial concentration emergence neither of its localization, for Latin American cities. The few cases that appear in the scant literature are the “China towns” in almost each great city, the concentration of Bolivians in Sao Paulo and of the Peruvians in Santiago.

This research proposes for Latin American cities explanatory models for, first, the particular social marginalization that immigrants experiment generated by the local social structuring conditions; second, the mechanisms that produce the immigrants’ residential segregation and its localization inside the city; and third, the determining mechanisms of the formation of ethnic markets and its localization inside the urban area.

With the end of the apartheid regime and despite the strict immigration policies introduced since 1994, the number of foreign workers in Johannesburg, South Africa, has increased significantly up to approximately 7 percent of the city population. The Census 2001, recorded approximately 220.000 international migrants (6.7%) around 10.000 from Mozambique. In South Africa, one of the main obstacles to constructive thinking about international migration is the growth of xenophobic intolerance (Crush, 2005). Policy response is greatly influenced by the strong public perception that immigration is a threat to the economic and social stability of the local population.

Starting form this assumption, the paper looks at some critical aspects of the relationship between Mozambican migrants and urban inclusion in Johannesburg. The paper wants to analyze the issue of citizenship looked at from the point of view of the practices immigrants put in place ‘to access’ the city, with special focus on security and public space. Self-governing initiatives that are neither planned nor provided by the local government poses major challenges to urban policies that address issues of social and spatial inclusion and has important implications for urban governance (Toner, Taylor, 2008).

Dialogue 1: Taking Forward the Right to the City

Tuesday, 23 March 2010
Room: W4-1
09:00 - 18:30

This paper focuses on the trans-local migration processes from Cochabamba (Bolivia) to Bergamo (Italy). It explores a deep rooted and complex international migration system which led to a very high concentration of Bolivians in a limited territory as the province of Bergamo is. About 20 thousand Bolivians are settled in Bergamo today, i.e. more than half of all Bolivians living in Italy. Over the last ten years this phenomenon started to emerge as a relevant social issue at the local level. The paper try to explain that such a migration system is based on two apparently independent processes that are instead strongly interconnected. On the one hand the Diocesan Cooperation of Bergamo is working in Bolivia since 1962; on the other, the migration process from Bolivia to Bergamo started during the early ‘70s. Through reference to theories on ‘transnationalism’, the paper aims at demonstrate how these two processes led to the creation of a ‘migratory territory’ made up of a ‘population’ (i.e. the Bolivian community in Bergamo plus all the people with whom they keep connections back home) and ‘actors’ structuring an international migration system.

The closing conference of MIUM-TIE project, “Managing International Urban Migration: Turkey, Italia, España”, which is conducted under the program “Promoting Civil Society Dialogue between EU and Turkey” will take place on 16 November 2009 at Koç University Research Center for Anatolian Civilizations. MIUM-TIE is a joint project realized by SSIIM Unesco Chair of Universita IUAV di Venezia in Italy, Koç University in Turkey,  and Universidad de Cadiz in Spain. The Migration Research Center at Koç University (MiReKoc) is the coordinator of the MIUM-TIE project.
Besides carrying out scientific comparative research in cities of the three countries, the project aimed to bring together the main urban actors - from the local government, civil society organizations and academia - that are either interested in, or work with, migration related issues. Therefore, through the collaborative work done, MIUM-TIE provided platforms for the actors in each country to share their knowledge and experiences. To this end, the project hosted various capacity development activities.
The first activities were realized under the Awareness Raising and Networking Workshops in Italy, Turkey and in Spain and the intermediate conference “Strengthening TIEs” hold in Venice in May 2009.
Now, following the closing conference, the three days Pilot Training Course, “managing international migration in our cities” which is intended to NGOs, governorships, municipalities and local authorities, will be organized in order to discuss and develop sound policy methods.
In the Pilot Training Course, good practices that are observed and discovered throughout the project research activities in Italy and Spain will be shared by relevant stakeholders, and field research visits will be realized in the context of Istanbul. Challenges and experiences of the Istanbul case will be analyzed in place through these field research visits. In this context networks among international and local actors working on migration related issues will be established, which will be useful for each to learn about the experiences of the other.
Lastly, the Pilot Training Course will provide a platform for discussion on the rights of the migrants in urban settings.
Participants will share their experiences regarding international migration’s effects on urban governance through their presentations and focus groups. In focus groups, the issues at stake will be 1) Information, Orientation and Awareness Raising 2) Housing and Healthcare services 3) Education and Employment. The aim in all of these works is to analyze and exhibit the extent migrants are included to/excluded from the urban setting in different localities and develop sound policies for a better urban governance of international migration

Through the scientific contribution of individual authors, SSIIM Paper Series intends to disseminate research results on the urban dimension(s) of international migration, both in cities of the global North and of the South.

La hipótesis de la metrópolis transfronteriza. Revisión conceptual y evidencias en el caso de Tijuana y San Diego

Prof. Tito Alegría
Departamento de Estudios Urbanos y Medio Ambiente, El Colegio de la Frontera Norte, Tijuana, México

Wednesday 14 October 2009 - 3.00 p.m.
aula Tafuri, Palazzo Badoer
San Polo 2468
30125 Venezia

SSIIM Unesco Chair is contributing to the events on Inclusive Urban Policies that will take place during 5 days in New Delhi, India, among which:

- Habitat Summit 2009: Towards Alternative Urban Futures for India

- Social Inclusion in Urban Areas: A Comparative Perspective between Italy and India (UNESCO – IIC Lecture)

- Towards Inclusive Society: Urban Policies and Practices (UNESCO – ISS Round-table)

- Social and Sustainable Revitalisation of Historical Urban Areas in India (UNESCO UN-Habitat SPA International Workshop)

for more information on the events: Download Program