Reflections on the variations and spatialities of (un)welcome – commentary to Gill

Abstract

In this reflection, we seek to develop some of Professor Gill’s inspiring ideas on the notion of (un)welcome further. We do this, in particular, by problematizing his largely dualistic conception of the emotionally-invested, inter-personal forms of welcome contra a bureaucratic tendency to abstract welcome, to hollow it out emotionally. We argue that if applied too rigidly, this dichotomy can be unwieldy for making sense of the actual socio-spatial and emotional dynamics of (un)welcome. To elaborate this criticism, we expand on the notion of welcome from three interrelated perspectives. First, we argue that besides the opposite poles of people who welcome refugees, and forces that attempt to exclude them, great many actors convey more ambiguous and contextually varying attitudes to (un)welcoming immigrants. In the light of Lefebvre’s conceptual triad of social space, we next point out that Gill’s conceptualization pays inadequate heed to the practiced and societally recompensing aspects of everyday spatiality and welcoming. Finally, we take a cue from Gill’s suggestion to analyze welcome from the emotional geographies perspective, and reflect on exclusionary and inclusionary socio-spatial processes related to refugees’ emotions (lived space) and coping tactics (practiced space).

Religious Land as Commons: Buddhist Temples, Monastic Landlordism, and the Urban Poor in Thailand

“…There are many indexes of faith-based collective formations emerging, mainly in cities, as evidenced by burgeoning forms of religious Religious Land as Commons fundamentalism, uses of religion for exclusionary practices, appropriation of religion for marketing and for-profit purposes, and humanitarian actions by faith-based communities in sheltering otherwise unwelcome asylum seekers and deportees (Eade 2017;Al Amoudy 2014;Mitchell 2017;Vuolteenaho and Lyytinen 2018). Meanwhile, more or less radical voices, like some Muslims attempting to "challenge the most dominant reactionary tendencies within Islam," or dissident propoor evangelicals demanding that "the church of Christ needs to be liberated from being co-opted by the new religion of the market" are crucially made manifest in and through public spaces in cities (Benson and Heltzel 2008;Hardt and Negri 2008).…”

The Grandhotel Cosmopolis – a concrete utopia? Reflections on the mediated and lived geographies of asylum accommodation

“…Spatial practices are "the physical city, its maintenance, redevelopment and the daily routines of everyday life" (Leary, 2009, p. 196). The value of taking a Lefebvrian approach for this case study lies within the emphasis on the production of space which turns asylum accommodation into a space that is physically and socially produced and makes societal relations within this process visible that would otherwise remain hidden (see also Conlon, 2011;Hartmann, 2017;McAllister, 2015;Vuolteenaho & Lyytinen, 2018).…”

Recognition and attunement in migration research

“…I also have in mind the social processes of welcome/unwelcome, recognition/disregard (or even erasure), and hospitality/hostility which affect migrants materially and psychosocially (e.g. Gill 2018; Vainikka and Vainikka, 2018; Vuolteenaho and Lyytinen, 2018). Many irregular and undocumented migrants are repeatedly informed that they do not belong, for instance, through governmental and other administrative processes, and are made to feel unwelcome in their everyday interactions.…”