The social front door: the role of social infrastructures for migrant arrival

ABSTRACT

Much research on migrant arrival and settlement has looked at these processes through the lens of ‘integration’, investigating how migrants access societal realms such as the labour market, education, civil society and social networks, and mostly focusing on individual migrants’ processes of incorporation. A complementary body of work has looked at how socio-economic contexts can shape integration and social mobility. This article expands on this work by highlighting the importance of place in migrant arrival and settlement. It builds on an emerging body of literature that has emphasised that where migrants arrive plays a crucial role in their ability to access resources. Drawing on two sets of ethnographic fieldwork in East London, the article presents a micro-analysis of how migrants make their way into the city with the help of publicly accessible social infrastructures (shops, libraries, barbers, parks, etc.) and individuals working within these. The article demonstrates that social infrastructures are a crucial element amongst a range of arrival infrastructures that can be found in urban areas of long-standing immigration and highlights the role of the built environment regarding opportunities for accessing information about settlement.

KEYWORDS:

• Arrival
• social infrastructures
• place
• built environment

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank the participants of this research for taking their time to talk to us. We would also like to thank Emily Paffett, Mateja Celestina and the anonymous peer reviewers for their constructive comments on earlier versions of this article. Thank you also to Aiko Ikemura Amaral, Vasundhara Mathur, Sofia Muñoz Gonzalez and Liza Ryan for research assistance and help with interpreting.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 For literature on the role of encounters for intercultural relations see, among others, Amin (2002), Valentine (2008), Wessendorf (2014), and Wilson (2014).

2 Travel cards for London transport.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Economic and Social Research Council: [grant number ES/T015810/1]; London School of Economics and Political Science; Stiftung Mercator.