Understanding arrival contexts of local refugee reception using a ‘phase space’ perspective

Abstract

Migration is an inherently spatial phenomenon as it depicts the processes and effects of humans' movement from one place to another. Recent debates in geographical migration research highlight the need to adequately understand how the distinct nature of space and place shape migration and arrival processes. Taking up this call, this contribution proposes to bring together more‐than‐relational approaches to space in geography and the ‘local turn’ in research on migration and integration. Drawing on the empirical example of refugee reception and integration in the city of Rostock in Germany, the contribution explores how space, it's persisting and changing elements, impacts migration flows and constrains or supports migrants' arrival processes. The analysis works along three aspects of more‐than‐relational approaches to space, namely the role of persistent spatial aspects, such as the topography or national borders, and their interplay with relational space; the impact of spatially confined administrative units and regional embeddedness; and the temporal depth of space. The contribution closes by proposing two points how a more‐than‐relational approach can enhance the conceptualisation of space in geographical migration studies: (1) the mutual constitution of relational and non‐relational aspects of space into a specific space shaping migration flows through their interplay, and (2) the openness of a ‘phase space’ approach towards future developments admitting that the inner logic of a place can develop and change.