ReROOT: Arrival infrastructures as sites of integration for recent newcomers

About the project

Europe has been built and continues to be rebuilt at the convergence of innumerable migration trajectories. In the long run, the traces of migration processes are often effaced and sedimented into ‘native’ society. But many communities, civil society actors, public authorities, small businesses, religious institutions, leisure organisations, etc. have records and living memories of these migration processes, or indeed, are actively engaged in forging the integration of relatively newly arrived migrants.

These actors, we submit, produce and co‐constitute living ‘arrival infrastructures’ throughout urban, suburban and rural communities in nine different pilot sites in Turkey, Greece, Hungary, France, Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, and the UK.

Beyond the assumption that scaffolding and channelling of arrival and settlement processes come through formal channels, agencies and programmes, ReROOT brings into view a wider constellation of actors, most notably previous generations of migrants who, together with ‘natives’ are co‐creators of shops as information hubs, religious sites (churches or mosques), local labour offices, language classes, hairdressers, leisure clubs etc.

Transfer of knowledge, methods and analytical tools

ReROOT investigates the interactions, the transfers of knowledge and resources between first‐comers and late‐comers, the sedimented practices, organisations and provisions (whether private or public), as well as the transformations of all these through the recent, post‐2015 arrival processes.

ReROOT is dedicated to analyse, diagnose and learn lessons from past and recent transformations of arrival and integration processes, with the explicit goal of fostering sustainable, evidence‐based integration practices, policies and public imaginaries.

ReROOT is dedicated to unpack – with the help of migrants and a wide range of stakeholders – the nexus of migratory mobility and societal transformation in order to further inclusive and redistributive integration processes.

Most importantly, ReROOT situates its impact in the transfer of knowledge, methods and analytical tools and reflexive methods to civil society and public service stakeholders.

To that end, ReROOT develops and tests mapping toolkits and platform prototypes for policymakers and civil society – for them to continue the work ReROOT can only begin to do.