Arriving Home

Abstract

Immigration a process of all times. This is certainly visible a city such as Rotterdam. Nowadays, Rotterdam is one of the largest harbour cities in Europe, with a strong and prosperous harbor industry. On the other hand the city is also a place of contrasts. A key characteristic of port cities is the wide range of nationalities and cultures. People whose families once arrived in the city hoping to build a future for generations after them regard their living environment as an area with poor living quality and poor perspectives. Previous research has pointed out that it is hard for non-native inhabitants in Rotterdam to feel connected to their living environment. The aim of this thesis was to develop a toolbox on how to transform the existing immigrant neighbourhoods into places in which these groups of people feel home, welcome, and able to take their position in the city (thus increasing place attachment). It includes the work of Doug Saunders ‘The Arrival City‘(Saunders, 2018), which elabourates on possible scenarios for areas in order to create perspective, attraction, and a vibrant living place for its existing and new inhabitants with a migration background. The ‘Arrival City‘ is a book written by an American journalist, and is written from a more sociological point of view. In this thesis, this phenomenon is connected with the current challenges of place attachment, and the actual wishes and needs of people in Rotterdam South. By doing so, the outcome of the thesis is a toolbox on how to transform an immigrant neighbourhood into an Arrival City neighbourhood in a Dutch context, at the same time increasing place attachment among people with a migration background. This thesis describes an approach on how to translate the sociological ideas into a toolbox for urban designers. Because of the challenges European cities face nowadays with regard to immigration, this toolbox is also useful for other, international, Arrival cities.