Placemaking -the importance of kinship for migrants’ habitus and territorial integration

Abstract

This article delves into the evolving significance of kinship among non-Western migrants residing in Western Europe. In the migrants’ countries of origin, kinship generally encompasses a rule-based and normative way of life, hinging on each individual member’s adherence to kinship values. In contrast, life in their new Western host countries is expected to revolve around the individual’s personal engagement in education, employment, and healthcare within the context of the nuclear family. This shift is often framed in integration policies and practical social work as a transition from viewing migrants as passive recipients of their homeland traditions to recognizing them as active agents responsible for shaping their own lives. However, this transformation raises the question of whether kinship diminishes in significance in these new surroundings or if it can assume a new role as a foundation for complex individual lives. In this context, active participation (and integration) would be built upon a secure base strengthened by kinship.

Our analysis focuses on how migrants grapple with two equally crucial systems: the kinship of their home country and the nuclear family structure of the host country. Upon their arrival in the host country, migrants confront a weighty choice: Should they relinquish their kinship relationships because they seemingly serve no purpose in the host country? And must the migrant assimilate into a nuclear family structure where welfare is guaranteed by the welfare state, but where each individual citizen is expected to contribute to community-building and a sense of belonging? These questions should be considered by both migrants themselves and within the domain of social work.

This analysis revolves around a single concept central to migrants, namely kinship, and how it evolves through their experiences in the host country. Migrant relations encompass group dynamics and cultural values not always comprehensible to most people in the host country. However, following migrants’ experiences, kinship emerges as a crucial bridge to integration within a Western welfare state. In our analysis, we primarily draw upon Pierre Bourdieu’s distinction between official and practical kinship. We perceive kinship as a tool of power for managing social and cultural conflicts (Bourdieu 1979, Brighenti 2010) due to kinships serving as bastions of emotional and value cohesion among their members. Nevertheless, kinship can also serve as a secure foundation for migrants in novel surroundings, characterized by foreign demands and expectations (Carsten 2020).

The article concludes by briefly outlining how educational practitioners can monitor migrant families’ percep-tions of and attachment to their new locale.