Description

This Integration Otherwise Inspiration Kit invites us to move beyond the polarised debate on integration – one that either portrays newcomers as failing to integrate or blames society as insufficiently welcoming. Using a bottom-up approach, it offers a new perspective that highlights how integration is already taking place in everyday life. The authors introduce the concept of ‘arrival infrastructuring’: the interactive process through which newcomers, together with others, actively shape and transform their arrival situations. Through stories from the ground with concise takeaways, alongside tools for reflection and action, this guide equips practitioners, policymakers and community builders with a deeper understanding of the diverse forms of arrival infrastructuring, as well as the successes and challenges of everyday integration processes. It aims to inspire future policies and practices.

Luce Beeckmans is a research professor at the Department of Architecture of KU Leuven and vice-director of the Leuven Urban Studies Institute (LUSI).

Dounia Salamé is a social worker and PhD researcher at the Department of Architecture of KU Leuven.

Martina Bovo is a post-doctoral researcher at IUAV University of Venice and a contract professor at the Department of Architecture and Urban Studies of Politecnico di Milano.

Mary Hogan is a scientific collaborator at the Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology and the Department of Architecture of KU Leuven.