Common Places: Migrants in the Shared Spaces of the City

The aim of this work is to initiate discussion on new forms of production of urban space, and neighbourhood relations of the migrants in a historic centre of Palermo and in intersections between roads. The presence and the integration of migrants in cities lead to new forms of urban life. I observed whether the presence of migrants in an urban area traditionally “marginal” has triggered a transformation in its structure and the structure of the relationship with these spaces. To this end, observing the neighbourhoods of the city also lead to reflect on the city and especially to the correlation between immigration and cities. To investigate what happened it seems the categories tracked in the literature are not sufficient so it was necessary to include others. Hence the proposal to use the terms rifunctionalization and risymbolization to study the processes to transform space implemented by migrant residents.

Particular attention was paid to intersections between roads, city spaces, regulated by traffic lights and, today, meeting places between migrants and the occasion to find work for them. Intersections between roads marked by traffic lights is a place where traffic stops and where migrants stay and make it a space for their everyday life. The crossings at traffic lights have become the centre of migrants life in all the cities of Italy, because it is place of work and employment. Another interesting aspect is that intersections between roads become in the cities job opportunities and expression of an informal economy such as window cleaners or itinerant salespeople who sell objects.