Multilocational Householding: Implications for Urban Development in Pakistan

Encouraged by this era of a globalized world, international migration is continuously increasing and is thus generating a complex of interconnected, multi-scaled spaces of varying influence spheres. This necessitates the investigation of much assumed local phenomena in a broader context. The broader context of globalisation also includes the processes partly formed by transnational networks of migrants. Such transnational migrant’s networks and connections still need to be conceptualised to better analyse their implications for various multi-scaled spaces. This study, by employing a qualitative research approach, engaged Pakistani long-term migrants (in Germany) to investigate their transnational spatial practices in their respective origin places (in PakistanPakistan) and the associated implications for the urban development in PakistanPakistan. It has been found that Pakistani migrants, through the joint planningPlanning character of multilocational householding, mainly perform transnational spatial practices in the human capacity development sector and the housing marketHousing market of PakistanPakistan. It has been assessed through a constructed Urban Development Index (UDI) that the performed spatial practices had positive implications for the urban development sector in PakistanPakistan, though at the micro-level. Moreover, the practices performed in the housing marketHousing market exerted the largest positive impact within the constructed frame of UDI. Thus, the study concludes that the international migrants, through housing sector investments in the original places of developing countries, contribute significantly in shaping the urban places, particularly the built environment.