Volume 18: Migration is now available!
For its 18th volume, Critical Planning explores migration with a particular focus on its causes, consequences, and responses. Migration is rarely a painless process, and almost never a voluntary one. People move from the countryside to the city, from the city to the suburbs (and back), and from the developing world to the developed world in order to seek employment, to flee political oppression or war, or to escape the impending ravages of climate change. Such human flux produces fertile ground for creative interactions among people of diverse languages, cultures, and experiences. At the sametime, it can inspire adverse reactions, as seen in recent immigration enforcement legislation in Arizona and the proscription of minarets and headscarves in Europe.
The innovative forces of global capitalism have manifested themselves geographically through depopulation and disinvestment in former leading centers of manufacturing. Reactions to these shifts are multifaceted and multi-scalar, encompassing immigrant civil rights movements, government economic stimulus policies, and redevelopment plans for shrinking cities. These significant global changes have visibly raised several crucial questions, which our authors confront: How do migrants experience their new environment? How do planners deal with rapidly shifting populations? Can planning provide solutions for concerns related to housing, social equity, and the built environment in a time of global flows? How do newcomers contribute to the local economic and cultural environment, and does this influence the development of new planning policies? Can policies be fair both to citizens and to potential migrants? Finally, is it possible to effectively plan for urban expansion and contraction in relation to infrastructure, technology, sustainability, and housing?
In this volume of Critical Planning our authors question whether the issues stemming from migration can inform urban research and if so, how can it become an integral part of planning practice? The articles explore migration in a variety of locations and time periods, which allows for the study of a variety of perspectives, and a deeper theoretical and practical understanding of the topic.
The first feature article by Christopher Riley examines the immigration journey of Somali refugees from Mogadishu to Columbus, Ohio, and the subsequent relocation process that occurred. The author provides an analysis and critique of the politics and planning decisions behi
Lisi Feng provides a case study of Chinese immigrants in Vancouver, Canada as a means of highlighting the importance of citizen engagement within local civic culture and institutional structures as a means of successful immigrant integration. The author calls on planners specifically to become active facilitators in helping migrants and others to become active, empowered local citizens.
Thomas Feldhoff takes us to Japan, a country faced with an aging and decreasing population. This paper provides some policy lessons with regard to retiree recruitment as a strategic approach to fostering local community resilience.
Julie Behrens and Kaja Kühl explore immigrant integration in suburban America and uncover the importance of housing, transportation, public space and commercial development as four areas where strategies for integration and long-term sustainability in suburbs can overlap to benefit all residents.
Janette Young presents a case study of post-World War II British immigration to Australia, in which she argues that planners with a commitment to social justice need to be alert to the presence of multiple players and interests concerning migration. She further argues that a complete reliance on ethnically centered analyses of migration may hide many non-ethnically defined injustices.
In “What the Market Bares,” Dara Greenwald and Sarah Kanouse share the results of their creative and revealing video installation investigating the relational impacts of labor migration in one town in eastern Serbia.
Critical Planning’s Shadrach Pilip-Florea’s interview with the University of Geneva’s Dr. Alexander Babak Hedjazi focuses on the 2010 United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) conference, which dealt with the topic of climate change and migration.
Carlos Amador reveals a student activist’s perspective of the Development Relief and Education for Alien Minors (DREAM) Act, a grassroots political movement that would provide a pathway to citizenship for youth who immigrated to the U.S. before the age of 16.
Finally, the volume is rounded out by a book review. Gilda Rodriguez reviews Paul Apostolidis’ Breaks in the Chain: What Immigrant Workers Can Teach America about Democracy (University of Minnesota Press, 2010).
As always, this volume of Critical Planning was crafted through the dedication and energy of our staff. Our editorial board – Ian Elder, Orly Linovski, Deirdre Pfieffer, Shadrach Pilip-Florea, Francis Reilly, and Karna Wong - were instrumental in guiding the development of this volume’s content. They spent numerous hours engaging in debate, working with individual authors, and guiding the direction of the journal. The members of our large review board were invaluable in carrying out a rigorous double-blind review process. A special note of thanks goes to our Design Editor, Francis Reilly, who was integral to the production of this year’s volume.
Critical Planning would not be possible without the substantial institutional and individual support provided by UCLA and the Department of Urban Planning. Stacey Meeker and Evelyn Blumenberg have been especially encouraging of our work. I am also pleased to report that in addition to our worldwide individual and academic subscribers, Critical Planning also has a network of friends and supporters that help sustain the journal’s activities. Lastly, we would like to extend our sincere appreciation to the UCLA Graduate Students Association, the Dean’s Office in the School of Public Affairs, the Lewis Center for Regional Policy Studies, and the Urban Planning Department for generously funding the journal.
As scholars continue to debate and integrate concepts of migration in their own research, I hope this volume will provide a framework for an engaged, critical perspective on how this topic can inform planning theory and practice.
As scholars continue to debate, as well as integrate, concepts of resilience in their own research, I hope this volume will provide a framework for an engaged, critical perspective on urban resilience.
Karolina Gorska
Editorial Note: Migration
From Mogadishu to Columbus: Somali Refugee Resettlement, Segmented Assimilation and Policy Implications
Planning and Local Citizenship: How Migrants Become Active Citizens in Vancouver
Retirement Migration and the (Re)population of Vulnerable Rural Areas: A Case Study of Date City (Hokkaid?, Japan)
The Changing Face of the American Dream: Planning Strategies For Immigrant Integration and Sustainable Growth in Suburban America
Immigration as Domestic Housing Market Expansion and Planners’ Dream Fulfillment: 1960s British Migration to South Australia
What the Market Bares
Coming Tide of Climate Migrants? An Interview with the University of Geneva’s Dr. Alexandre Babak Hedjazi on the 2010 University of Geneva and United Nations Environment Program Conference on Climate Change and Migration
This is Our Country Too: Undocumented Immigrant Youth Organizing and the Battle for the DREAM Act
BOOK REVIEW: Breaks in the Chain: What Immigrant Workers Can Teach America about Democracy