Migration, cities and spatial justice: a successful Track 3 at EURA 2026
The EURA 2026 Conference “Cities Under Strain: Rethinking the Ungovernable”, hosted by Iuav University of Venice on 17–20 June, provided a lively setting for discussing how cities are responding to growing social, spatial and political pressures.
Within the conference, the SSIIM UNESCO Chair co-organised and co-chaired Track 3 – “MIGRATION FLOWS. Migrants’ Struggles for Socio-Spatial Inclusion: Local Policies and Practices in Times of Pressure”, together with Martina Bovo (Iuav University of Venice) and Cristiana Rossignolo (Politecnico di Torino). The track was conceived to bring migration studies into closer dialogue with urban and planning research, looking at international migration not simply as an additional “challenge” for cities, but as a lens through which to question contemporary processes of urban transformation, inequality and socio-spatial inclusion.
The strong response to the call resulted in three well-attended sessions and eleven presentations, bringing together researchers working across different disciplinary perspectives, geographical contexts and scales.
3.1 Bordering, Mobility and Migration Infrastructures
The first session explored the spatial and territorial dimensions of migration and border regimes, from everyday migrant practices in cities to the infrastructures and spaces through which mobility is governed, enabled and constrained. The contributions showed how borders and migration infrastructures materialise at different scales – from commercial spaces in Naples to Mediterranean routes and Alpine border areas – while also examining how migrants themselves appropriate, use and re-signify these spaces through everyday practices.
Papers presented:
Antonia Arena & Giovanni Laino – Naples in transition: an examination from the perspective of migrant flows
Carlotta Giordani – Borders, migration infrastructures and territory: the Eastern Mediterranean route as a multi-level space for experimentations of migrants’ mobility
Cristiana Rossignolo, Silvia Aru, Francesca Bragaglia, Arianna Locatelli & Luca Ramello – Migration stories from the Italian-French border. Drawings and words at the Rifugio Fraternità Massi in Oulx
download here the abstracts of session 3.1
3.2 Housing, Reception and Spatial Justice
The second session focused on one of the most pressing dimensions of migrants’ socio-spatial inclusion: access to adequate and affordable housing, connecting housing pressure and demographic change with reception systems, spatial fragmentation, migrant agency and alternative forms of refugee accommodation. Across different European contexts, the papers questioned how housing markets, institutional arrangements and reception policies shape unequal access to the city, while exploring practices and alternative housing models that can counter segregation, prolonged temporariness and socio-spatial exclusion.
Papers presented:
Rishabh Anand – Institutional Limits of Affordable Housing Provision in a Migration-Driven City: Evidence from Hamburg
Tomas Brabec – The Role of Foreigners in the Population Development and Transformation of Prague
Marina Volpe – Negotiating Inclusion from Below: Housing, Fragmentation, and Everyday Agency in Italy’s Reception System
Philipp Piechura & Mica Maltzmann – From Spaces of Exception to Arrival Infrastructures: Strategies of Micro-Spatial Integration, Co-Habitation, and Everyday Negotiations between Locals and Refugees in Mixed Housing Projects
download here the abstracts of session 3.2
3.3 Everyday Practices of Belonging and Urban Citizenship
The final session shifted attention towards the everyday production of inclusion, citizenship and belonging, addressing the role of urban spaces, civic engagement, local practices and governance in shaping migrants’ experiences and claims to the city. The contributions approached belonging not as a given condition but as something continuously negotiated and produced through encounters, representations, solidarity networks and local governance practices, revealing the multiple ways in which citizenship and the right to the city are enacted – and contested – from below.
Papers presented:
Francesco Chiodelli, Alberto Vanolo & Senyo Dotsey – Polyrhythmic Marginalities and Chronopolitics: A Rhythmanalysis of a Railway Station
Nausica Pezzoni – Territorial belonging as a means of reconnecting displaced communities with the places they are to inhabit
Francesca Pegorer – Gift economy in the city: pro-migrant and migrant volunteering and civic engagement in Trieste, Italy
Khaoula Oubi, Adela Romero-Tarín & Jose-Manuel Canales-Aliende – Local Migration Governance in Morocco: Urban Strain, Adaptive Practices, and the Politics of the “Ungovernable”
download here the abstracts of session 3.3
Across the three sessions, a common thread clearly emerged: migration is not external to urban change, but one of the processes through which contemporary cities and territories are continuously reshaped. Borders and infrastructures, housing and reception, everyday practices and local governance all revealed the deeply spatial character of migration and the need to understand inclusion through the concrete places, actors and negotiations through which it is produced – or denied.
For the SSIIM UNESCO Chair, the success of Track 3 was also an important opportunity to consolidate a field of exchange that lies at the core of its research agenda: bringing together migration, urban studies and planning to investigate how cities and territories respond to increasing diversity, and how institutional and grassroots practices can contribute to spatial justice, the right to the city and more inclusive forms of urban citizenship. This was precisely the ambition behind the original call for the track, and the breadth and quality of the contributions received showed how productive this dialogue can be.
A warm thank you to all the presenters and participants who contributed to three stimulating sessions and to the rich discussions that continued well beyond them!
