‘The library is like a mother’: Arrival infrastructures and migrant newcomers in East London

Abstract

It is often assumed that migrants settle into contexts populated by national majorities or co-ethnics. Yet, new migrants often move into ‘arrival areas’, sites settled by earlier migrants of various backgrounds. Such arrival areas can typically be found at the margins of ‘arrival cities’ which have seen immigration (and emigration) over many decades. Past movements bequeath a wealth of ‘arrival infrastructures’, consisting of institutions, organisations, social spaces, and actors which specifically facilitate arrival. These include, for example, shops as information hubs, religious sites, language classes, and hairdressers established by people with migration backgrounds. This article looks at the interactions and transfer of knowledge and resources between long-established migrants and more recent newcomers through arrival infrastructures and within a marginalised urban area. By drawing on ethnographic fieldwork in East London (UK) and using the example of two recently arrived female migrants, it investigates how newcomers access settlement information and the role played by arrival infrastructures in this process. It specifically focuses on newcomers who arrive with few social contacts and for whom physically visible arrival infrastructures like libraries and shops are particularly relevant. The article aims to open up debate about arrival infrastructures, their manifestation in different urban contexts, and their relation to both new forms of solidarity and new and ongoing forms of exploitation between long-established residents and newcomers.

Education‐migration brokers, international student mobilities and digital transformations in pre‐ and post‐pandemic times

“…While Beduschi's research (2021) on artificial intelligence's role in international migration management focuses primarily on AI's influence over migration policies, the growing significance of digital tools also has important implications for migration brokers (p578). Likewise, Wessendorf's study (2022) acknowledges the important existence of new digital forms of communication and transnational social networks in the context of migration, while emphasizing that physical‐spatial infrastructures still play a crucial role in catering to migrants (p175). From this perspective, a deeper exploration into the role of migration brokers in aiding migrants' access to digital platforms for information, communication, and support would shed light on how physical‐spatial infrastructures remain relevant amidst progressively digitalized migration processes.…”

(Non-)Institutional Manifestations of Migrant Infrastructures for Refugees in Rural Greece

“…Another line of research focused on the arrival of new migrant groups in Europe has developed the concept of 'arrival infrastructures' by combining two aspects: a) the focus on the arrival processes associated with the new needs of, and arrangements for, the migrant groups, and b) the infrastructural perspective on the arriving populations in terms of state management of migration (Meeus et al, 2019). This approach focuses on the continuous 'infrastructural practises' of different actors in the urban environment and on the so-called 'arrival cities' by taking a closer look at the 'politics of arrival' and city-related infrastructures (Meeus et al, 2019;Bovo, 2020;Hanhoester & Wessendorf, 2020;Wessendorf, 2021). This line of research remains anchored in the recent 'migration and refugee crisis', which has had a major impact in the EU post 2015, and in the view that urban environments provide an appropriate context for engaging with infrastructures.…”

Human Routers

“…Just like Um Faisal, who practiced charity in person at home, Farhan strove to be seen by his community as a successful entrepreneur—and thus as a trusted business contact. In living rooms, community spaces, and at Syrian events, considerable relational work takes place, meant to reactivate and maintain the channels of communication that bind refugee brokers to their clients (Wessendorf 2022). It occurs in gendered meeting spaces, such as women's homes or men's cafés, informed by the broker's own gender and that of their targets, be it cleaning ladies in Turkey or male workers in the United Kingdom.…”

“…Syrian smugglers in the Mediterranean, for example, frame their activities in terms of aid and kinship rather than ”business“ (Achilli 2018). After arrival, brokers with a migration background help new migrants access resources, for example through religious sites, language classes, and migrant‐led businesses (Hall, King, and Finlay 2017; Meeus, Arnaut, and van Heur 2018; Wessendorf 2022). Together, these studies highlight brokers' use of material and virtual technologies of circulation (Lindquist 2015b), as well as the role of (former) migrants as intermediaries, challenging simplistic distinctions between brokers as violent predators and migrants as their hapless victims.…”