Rust and reinvention: Im/migration and urban change in the American Rust Belt

Abstract

Immigration represents a promising counternarrative for Rust Belt cities in the 21st century. Increasingly, both immigrants and refugees are part of the comeback stories of Northeastern and Midwestern cities from Buffalo to Dayton and Pittsburgh. This review explores recent research in urban geography and allied disciplines focusing on the international migration patterns, processes, and politics reshaping the urban geography of the American Rust Belt. Recent research sheds crucial light on how im/migrant lives are reshaping urban landscapes of Rust Belt cities, and conversely, how local immigration policies in these cities are rearranging the uneven geographies of immigrant receptivity across the United States. Overall, this review highlights the limitations of the singular spatial imaginary of the Rust Belt advanced previously by many urbanists. Rather, this review illustrates the rich, complex, and tangled contemporary spatial nuances associated with international migration in this region. These spatial nuances are complicated by increasingly exclusionary immigration policy and rhetoric at the federal level since January of 2017.

Temporary migration and regional development amidst Covid‐19: Invercargill and Queenstown

“…Migration, then, is articulated with processes of uneven development, not least because of the way in which smaller cities and towns in North America, Europe and Australasia have often borne the brunt of neoliberal restructuring, in reducing employment opportunities, outmigration and population decline. In such contexts, the growth of migrant communities is sometimes positioned as a counter‐narrative to representations “‘defined by loss’—of industry, population and status” (Pottie‐Sherman, 2020, p. 2). Çaglar and Glick Schiller (2018) suggest that “disempowered cities” present unique configurations of migration–urban intersections where migrants have different opportunities to create new economic endeavours, solidify community networks and contribute to local politics in ways that may not be possible in larger metropolises dominated by global elites (Çaglar & Glick Schiller, 2018).…”

“…While these accounts draw attention to diversity in the locations and impacts of migration, they are less clear on the role of migration governance. Yet, there are significant differences between the opportunities available to seasonal and other temporary migrant workers (Corrado et al, 2018; Duncan et al, 2013) and to new settlers in smaller settlements who have long‐term rights of residence (Çaglar & Glick Schiller, 2018; Pottie‐Sherman, 2020). As Triandafyllidou (2020) argues, there is also a need to decentre our understanding of migration governance, recognising that multiple actors (local authorities, community organisations, employers, educators amongst others) contribute to shaping migration flows and management.…”

Remaking the obsolete: Critical geographies of contemporary adaptive reuse

“…Overall, these research trajectories reflect a wider movement to decenter geographic research and engage with the “plurality of experiences in the so‐called urban age” (Derickson, 2015; Pottie‐Sherman, 2019; Pottie‐Sherman & Graham, 2020: 5; Robinson, 2011). In smaller cities and rural areas, spaces ‘beyond the metropolis’ (Bell & Jayne, 2006), outmoded and historically valuable properties of all kinds are being reused in entrepreneurial projects and as placemaking tools for various forms of community, economic and cultural revitalization (Goyvaerts & Keere, 2020; Lugosi et al., 2010; Lynch & LeDrew, 2020; Mathews & Picton, 2014; Reid, 2018).…”

Refugee Arrival under Conditions of Urban Decline: From Territorial Stigma and Othering to Collective Place-Making in Diverse Shrinking Cities?

“…Immigration societies, however, are heterogeneous, and emplacement of migrants in a given society is a multi-dimensional and multi-directional process. Authors working on refugee-led revitalization are increasingly focusing on the negotiations of belonging, which new forms of diversity bring about, and voice criticism over the underlying utilitarian rhetoric connected to the concept [4]. While high vacancy rates and a strong need for new inhabitants are a reality in most shrinking cities, considering refugee communities exclusively in terms of growth prospects for cities feeds into the dichotomous categorization of 'good' vs. 'bad' refugees, i.e., those who are 'useful' and those who are not, groups that are 'deserving' and those 'undeserving' of hospitality.…”