Arrival infrastructures and migrant newcomers in European cities

This is a comparative project investigating arrival infrastructures in three European urban neighbourhoods: one in the London Borough of Newham (UK), one in Brussels (Belgium) and one in Dortmund (Germany).  It will focus on the area of Nordmarkt in Dortmund, Cureghem in Brussels and Newham in London.  The cities have been chosen on the grounds of their differing scales, while having similar historical trajectories of ongoing immigration since WWII.  The aim of this comparison is to identify parallels and differences regarding opportunity sturctures for social mobility within each area and city.  Furthermore, the comparison will enable us to examine whether Als are differentially shaped due to different national migration and integration regimes and differences in welfare provision, but also demographic composition both in terms of concentrations and backgrounds of migrants.

Comparing three contexts which are similar in regards to the over-layering of 'old' and 'new' immigration as well as their relative deprivation, but different in regards to city scale, integration policies and national migration regimes will help identify whether there are similar types of Als and common processes of arrival and settlement of newcomers, or whether there are important contextual issues, contributed to local economies, national migration policies, local political structures, citizenship regimes, legal processes, and welfare policies which differentially shape these processes.