Panel 1a : Visible spaces of integration 

Chaired by : Daniela DE LEO & Maria GRAZIA MONTELLA

The challenges of visibility in the multicultural urban urgencies 

Daniela DE LEO (Pr. d’urbanisme - Université Sapienza de Rome - Italie) & Maria Grazia MONTELLA (Doctorante en urbanisme - Université Sapienza de Rome - Italie) 

The visibility of the space is an idea borrowed from Jacques Derrida De l’hospitalité and reshaped in “non-conditional visibility” by two Italian scholars (De Leo; Belli, 2013). It argues that some spaces present multifaceted characters due to the different uses to which they are subjected by the city users. This visibility of a space can be a foremost concern to understand the linkage between urban policies and socio-territorial integration processes of the immigrants. Anthropology and urbanism can collaborate in order to make a more efficient impact on the ground giving a substantial contribution to the making of urban spatial policies for integration. 

Banning religious cult places downtown.  Segmentation of space and sacralization of place 

Mónica IBANEZ ANGULO (Universidad de Burgos - Espana)

All societies are culturally and socially diverse and current global phenomena, such as Internet and transnational migration, have greatly contributed to unveil such diversity.  However, it is often the case that such visibilization is regarded as dangerous for social cohesion and social integration.  Indeed, local people often complain about what they believe to be an excessive presence of immigrant Others in the public space.  Even though in Spain the settlement of transnational migrants constitutes a recent phenomenon, the fast growth of this population did not bring much social unrest; indeed, violent confrontations constitute the exception.  However, it is not so exceptional the development of specific local policies, especially regarding urban planning, that ban the building of new religious places downtown, implicitly banning the building on non-Catholic cult places.  Taking the Programme for Urban Development of the city of Bilbao (Spain) as a case study (the PGOU, Bilbao 2012), I will analyze, first, the extent to which this policy has contributed to the segmentation of the public space, whereby the majority Catholic cult places are located in the historic centres while minoritary non Catholic cult places spread in the outskirts of the city and in industrial areas.  To what extent does this peripheral placement contribute to the sacralisation of such areas?  And second, I will analyze how non-Catholic religious communities have resisted and eventually forced to change this policy.  The paper is based upon interviews with representatives of the city hall and representatives of the main two religious groups affected by this policy: Evangelicals and Muslims (Evangelical Council of the Basque Country and Union of Islamic Communities of the Basque Country).  I will also take into account press references to the PGOU as well as other information that had been posted in the webpages of the main Evangelical and Muslim organizations in Bilbao. 

The effects of immigrant businesses in terms of economic innovation : selected Italian case of analysis 

Juan Francisco ALVARADO VALENZUELA (PhD Candidate - University of Milan - University of Brescia -University of Amsterdam)

This article describes the contextual framework and individual conditions of an urban environment of northern Italy as an attempt to reveal the level of economic innovation in selected sectors. The contextual environment plays a fundamental role to explain the importance of the institutional settings for the location of business (Regini, 2014) as well as the social, economic and political determinants faced by natives and immigrants (Rath and Swagerman, 2015). The individual conditions refers to two kinds : a personal one related to the level of education and work experience meanwhile the business one related to the use of technological development, the funding schemes and the selection of target market.

The key point of this analysis is the introduction of immigrant business into the local economies triggering an interaction between natives and immigrants actors beyond economic transactions. I focus on the introduction of products, marketing strategies and organisational processes inside the companies and their visual and hidden effects into local economies. The case of Brescia is particular due to the large percentage of immigrant entrepreneurs and their visible immigrant shops located downtown. The methodology used for this article is personal interviews with information of the ego-network of the immigrant entrepreneurs. According to previous research, immigrant entrepreneurs are mostly located in wholesale, retail and restaurant (Kloosterman et al, 1999) and also in the sector of food and care-services (Ambrosini, 2012).

Visibilités et invisibilités des Français dans les centres urbains d’Essaouira et Marrakech 

Liza TERRAZZONI (Post-doctorante CADIS - EHESS
Associée au LAMES -MMSH Aix Marseille)

À partir d’un terrain sur les Français au Maroc, mené depuis 2012, cette communication voudrait, en décrivant les modalités d’intégration économique de ces migrants comme les conditions dans lesquels ils vivent (parcours résidentiel notamment), mettre en évidence dans quelles évolutions locales les dynamiques migratoires européennes s’inscrivent et de quels transformations et changements urbains elles participent. Notre enquête, basée sur un dispositif ethnographique, s’est concentrée sur les villes de Marrakech et Essaouira qui ont pour particularité d’être organisées autour de centres historiques anciens (médinas) dans lesquels s’est développé, de manière très récente, mais spectaculaire, un type d’hébergement qui en singularise l’offre touristique : la maison d’hôte. Or, ce type d’établissements est majoritairement tenu par des Européens, surtout des Français, qui ont acheté et rénové des riads, habitats traditionnels de ces médinas, pour les transformer en établissements hôteliers. Localisant leurs activités professionnelles en médina et y habitant, ces Français, en investissant les centres souvent délaissés par les classes moyennes et aisées marocaines, ont d’abord participé à poser les jalons de ce que nous avons d’abord pensé comme relevant d’un cosmopolitisme urbain. Une partie d’entre eux cependant s’est progressivement délocalisée vers la campagne environnante et certains en ont profité pour développer le concept d’hébergement à la campagne dans la région. Ainsi, si leurs activités économiques sont visibles dans les centres urbains puisqu’elle en a modifié le paysage, ces Français restent paradoxalement socialement invisibles dans l’espace urbain, au moins parce qu’ils se confondent avec les touristes, notamment dans les lieux qu’ils fréquentent.