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Reeling in Newcomers: Urban Competition around Migrant Reception in Brussels

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  • Eva Swyngedouw

Abstract

The management of ethnic diversity and its various forms of institutional articulation and implementation are increasingly taking place at the urban level. At the same time, urban scholars consider cities to be battlegrounds where competing groups contest the meaning and articulation of citizenship. In this article, I build on these insights to argue that competition over newcomer reception between different, linguistically divided political coalitions in the city of Brussels are mainly battles over establishing their own definition of citizenship and asserting their political influence. Building on an eighteen‐month ethnographic study in three reception offices (two Dutch‐speaking and one francophone) in Brussels, I analyse the different strategies these offices mobilize to recruit and retain newcomers. I argue that recruitment is a deliberate tool used to influence the political‐cultural demographics of the city and destabilize the linguistic power balance in Brussels. In this way, recruitment becomes a means to attract newcomers to the reception offices in the hope that they will develop a deep connection and loyalty to, and eventually identify politically with, the agency's respective political community. Theoretically, this article develops a perspective that regards the city as a field that becomes constituted in and through the contest between different urban institutions to ‘reel in’ newcomers. In this space, these institutions take up positions for and against each other and assemble strategies to influence the urban populations.

Suggested Citation

  • Eva Swyngedouw, 2020. "Reeling in Newcomers: Urban Competition around Migrant Reception in Brussels," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 44(3), pages 395-414, May.
  • Handle: RePEc:bla:ijurrs:v:44:y:2020:i:3:p:395-414
    DOI: 10.1111/1468-2427.12844
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    1. Romain Garbaye, 2002. "Ethnic minority participation in British and French cities: a historical–institutionalist perspective," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 26(3), pages 555-570, September.
    2. Ash Amin, 2002. "Ethnicity and the Multicultural City: Living with Diversity," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 34(6), pages 959-980, June.
    3. Justus Uitermark & Ugo Rossi & Henk Van Houtum, 2005. "Reinventing Multiculturalism: Urban Citizenship and the Negotiation of Ethnic Diversity in Amsterdam," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(3), pages 622-640, September.
    4. Nir Cohen & Talia Margalit, 2015. "‘There are Really Two Cities Here’: Fragmented Urban Citizenship In Tel Aviv," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 39(4), pages 666-686, July.
    5. Thomas Swerts, 2017. "Creating Space For Citizenship: The Liminal Politics of Undocumented Activism," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 41(3), pages 379-395, May.
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    Cited by:

    1. Inês Cabral & Thomas Swerts, 2021. "Governing Precarious Immigrant Workers in Rural Localities: Emerging Local Migration Regimes in Portugal," Politics and Governance, Cogitatio Press, vol. 9(4), pages 185-195.

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