Negotiating Belonging: Migrants’ Home-Making Practices in Transitional Urban Spaces

This chapter examines the interplay between migration, identity, and urban belonging through a
three-year research project and a detailed case study of participatory aesthetic workshops
conducted on Gotland Island, Sweden. Positioned at the intersection of migration studies, urban
sociology, and participatory research, it advances a conceptual framework for understanding
home-making as a dynamic and contested process in transitional urban contexts. Migrants’
engagement in sensory and material practices—from constructing traditional bread
ovens to documenting daily life through locative media—reveals the fluid boundaries of ‘home’ as both an emotional construct and a socio-spatial practice. While much of the existing literature on transitory urbanism emphasises macro-level policy responses or large-scale planning, this chapter focuses on micro-level, lived practices through which migrants actively
negotiate belonging in urban spaces. By foregrounding sensory and digital home-making
practices, it highlights migrants’ agency in reimagining and reshaping urban environments.
Building on a critical analysis of sensory memory, cultural hybridity, and digital technology,
the chapter demonstrates how home-making operates as a mode of spatial
negotiation and identity formation in host communities. It underscores the tensions
between cultural continuity and adaptation, showing how these practices contribute to social
resilience amidst precarity. Through this lens, the chapter calls for urban policies and design
strategies that prioritise participatory approaches, cultural sensitivity, and adaptive spatial
frameworks. By framing home-making as a relational, ongoing process that transcends mere
physical space, this chapter underscores the need for integration policies that move beyond
economic and linguistic assimilation to support the emotional and cultural well-being of migrants.