Migration and Cities: Conceptual and Policy Advances

This open access book brings together different perspectives on migration and the city that are usually discussed separately, to show the special character of the urban context as a territorial and political space where people coexist, whether by choice or necessity. Drawing on heterogeneous situations in cities in different world regions (including Europe, North America, the Middle East, South, Southeast and East Asia and the Asia Pacific) contributions to this volume examine how migration and the urban context interact in the twenty-first century. The book is structured in four parts. The first looks at cities as hubs of cultural creativity, exploring the many dimensions of cultural diversity and identity as they are negotiated in the urban context. The second focuses on what lies outside the large urban centres of today, notably suburbs, while the third part engages with migration and diversity in small and mid-sized cities, many of which have adopted strategies to welcome growing numbers of migrants. Last but not least, the fourth part looks at the challenges and opportunities that asylum-seeking and irregular migration flows bring to cities. By providing a variety of empirical cases based on various world regions, this book is a valuable resource for researchers, students and policy makers.

Anna Triandafyllidou holds the Canada Excellence Research Chair in Migration and integration at Ryerson University in Toronto, Canada. She is a sociologist of migration whose interdisciplinary research focuses on the governance of migration and asylum; the management of cultural diversity, nationalism and identity issues; and overall, the contemporary challenges of migration and integration across different world regions. Prior to her CERC at Ryerson University, Triandafyllidou was based in Florence, Italy, where she held a Robert Schuman Chair at the European University Institute and directed the Cultural Pluralism Research Area as part of the European University Institute’s Global Governance Programme. Since receiving her PhD from the European University Institute in 1995, she has held teaching and research positions around the world, including the London School of Economics, the College of Europe in Bruges, and the Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche in Rome. She has served as a national expert on migration policies for the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, and has acted as project evaluator for ministries and foundations, such as the European Commission’s Directorate General for Migration and Home Affairs and the European Parliament. In 2021, the University of Liège awarded Triandafyllidou an honorary doctorate in recognition of her contribution to migration scholarship.

Melissa Kelly is Research Fellow, CERC Migration, Ryerson University, Canada. She was a Research Associate at the Institute for Housing and Urban Research in Uppsala and a Postdoctoral Fellow with the Borders in Globalization project at Carleton University. She holds a PhD in social and economic geography from Uppsala University in Sweden. Her research interests include comparative immigration policy, the social and economic integration of immigrants, and immigration to rural and remote areas. She is currently looking at the factors influencing immigrant retention in small and medium-sized cities in British Columbia, Saskatchewan and Ontario.

Amin Moghadam is Senior Research Associate, CERC Migration, Ryerson University, Canada. He holds a PhD in human geography and urban studies from the Lumière Lyon 2 University. His research and publications have focused on migration policy and practices, diaspora studies, and circulation and regional integration in the Middle East, with a focus on the Persian Gulf region (Iran and United Arab Emirates). Amin acted as Associate Research Scholar at the Center for Iran and Persian Gulf Studies at Princeton University between 2016 and 2020. Prior to this position, he was a Lecturer at Sciences Po Paris, Aix-Marseille University, and at the Institut National des Langues et Civilisations Orientales. Amin’s current research explores ways in which the dynamics of space production in global cities intersect with the politics of housing and home making and the role both forces play in migration trajectories, transnational practices, and class formation in the host society.

Zeynep S. Mencütek is Senior Researcher at the Bonn International Center for Conflict Studies, Germany, where she leads a comparative project on return and reintegration. She is also Research Affiliate with CERC Migration, Ryerson University, conducting joint research on transnational governance of migration. She held the prestigious Alexander von Humboldt Research Fellowship for Experienced Researchers (June 2020-May 2021) and an international fellowship at the Centre for Global Cooperation Research in Duisburg (2019-2020). She also served as Senior Researcher for the Horizon 2020 project RESPOND: Multilevel Governance of Mass Migration in Europe and Beyond. Previously, she served as an Assistant Professor in Turkey, and in 2018 achieved the rank of Docent in the field of international relations. Her research examines the governance of migration, return migration, diaspora politics and Middle Eastern politics. She received her PhD in politics and international relations from the University of Southern California in 2011.