“Welcoming” Cities: A Geographic Approach to Understanding the Discourses Surrounding Immigrant and Refugee Place-Making and Policy Initiatives

Keywords: refugees, immigrants, welcoming, place-making, policy, ethnographic
Session Type: Virtual Paper Abstract
Day: Sunday
Session Start / End Time: 2/27/2022 09:40 AM (Eastern Time (US & Canada)) - 2/27/2022 11:00 AM (Eastern Time (US & Canada))
Room: Virtual 60

Abstract

For years, the media and other institutions have bombarded the public with the concept of “welcoming,” used with both positive and negative connotations to critique cities, policies, and communities of immigrants and refugees. What does it mean for a city or a region to “be welcoming?” Why is the term important for geographers to understand? This research pulls from different disciplines, including geography, philosophy, and hospitality studies, to explore different contexts where the term “welcoming” is used in regards to immigrants and refugees, specifically in terms of place-making and policy initiatives. At the local scale, cities use representations of immigrants in an attempt to generate economic growth (McDaniel, 2016). In addition, narrative practices of welcoming highlight agency and place-making attempts (Woodrow, 2017/2016). At the national scale, Welcoming America, a non-profit organization, serves to create dialogue and policy change (Rodriquez et al., 2018). Preliminary findings in the case study of Clarkston, Georgia, suggest the city uses the term “welcoming” as an early sociopolitical strategy for the inclusion of refugees and immigrants, particularly for economic gain, whether the infrastructure to actually provide for refugees and immigrants is present. Further, the term is distinct from the receptivity of immigrants within the city and can illustrate where migrants are “unwelcome.” This research contributes to understandings of agency, place-making, and inclusion.