Temporality and Permanency in the Study of Border Cities and Migration

Abstract

This chapter synthesises the analytical reflections from three chapters in this volume’s fourth part on Border Cities and Migration (Chap. 13, Darling; Chap. 14, Carpi; Chap. 15, Merlín-Escorza) and links them with broader scholarly research on forced displacement, asylum, and cities. It first shows how the intersection of governance approaches with urban and humanitarian studies provides rich insights into, and novel concepts about displacement and asylum. It argues that the arrival of diverse actors related to asylum leads to physical, economic, and socio-cultural transformations in urban neighbourhoods and border towns, sometimes temporal, other times permanent. The chapter then identifies four main dynamics at play in the urbanisation of asylum: extraction, frictions, temporality, and spatial changes. It concludes with questions to consider in developing a more elaborated research agenda on politics of urban and asylum from a relational perspective.