A City of Comings and Goings – about the spatial implications of migration

The way countries deal with the current refugee crisis and the locations where refugees are being housed, reveals a wider problem concerning the flexibility and absorption capacity of our cities, say Wouter Vanstiphout and Michelle Provoost. In their new Design as Politics publication they argue that by isolating the refugee crisis a temporary situation, the fact that migration has become a part of life is being ignored. The publication is now available online.

Migration, they state, will only increase in the decades to come and one should look at the broader phenomenon which concerns not only those fleeing war or poverty but also well-paid expats, migrant workers, nomadic students, architects who travel from city to city and even Dutch workers whose existence has been rendered unpredictable by a more flexible labour market. This asks for different ways of planning our cities in order to deal with demographic fluctuations.

The publication is available online.

The articles featured in this publication were originally written for the Dutch urban design magazine De Blauwe Kamer.