Rats, Rooms and Riots: Usage of Space by Immigrants in the Dutch Town Utrecht 1945–1970

Immigrant access to space depended on the activities of local authorities, claim makers, journalists and firms. Together they shaped policies regarding immigrant housing, and more indirectly community formation. Local actors played a key role in migration governance, although they mostly did not work together. This article focusses on the Dutch town Utrecht, where housing was a major issue and immigrant housing was considered to be the worst in the Netherlands. When the number of immigrants was low, when employers arranged housing, and when the immigrants could be presented as much-needed workers, there were fewer protests. This article shows that immigrants lived where they were housed, where they could afford to, or were allowed to live, and only partly where they chose to live. Authorities attached value to the input of immigrant organisation, but most initiatives were for immigrants, rather than by immigrants.

Exploring the influence of transnationalism on the immigrant integration process: The case of Ghanaians’ transnational housing activities in Toronto, Canada

Many studies of immigrant housing and integration do so within the borders of a nation-state without reference to transnationalism. Using a mixed-method approach, this study demonstrates that immigrant groups, like Ghanaians in Toronto, with strong ties or attachments to their homeland will invest in housing in the country of origin because investment in housing in the country of origin confers high social status among these immigrants. Investments in housing in the homeland affect immigrants’ settlement and integration process. The study prompts for international social work practices to have a deeper understanding of the nuances of transnational practices when delivering services.

The Housing Struggle in Milan in the 1970s: Influences and Particularities

The article examines the housing occupation movements in Milan in 1969-1975, relating them to the restricted supply of cheap housing—a situation that created difficulties for newly arrived immigrant. Housing occupation activists were influenced by the experience of squatting in other European cities, a phenomenon that particularly fascinated the educated young, who participated in the movement, supported by organizations of the radical left. The movement’s political project was to take the class struggle outside the factories, to attack “urban income growth” as a tool of capitalist domination. Compared with other Italian experiences, there was less involvement from the underclass, and the aim of obtaining a house was secondary to the project of maintaining political conflict at a high level. The movement waned in the late 1970s, due to the fact that the revolutionary groups’ drive for political mobilization no longer coincided with the social housing needs of young people.