SPACES OF MIGRATION

Walking through the streets and neighborhoods of Port-au-Prince the destruction of the January, 2010 earthquake is still eerily evident. There are still tens of thousands of destroyed buildings throughout the city and many appear to have been completely untouched since they collapsed two years ago. Like most things involving rebuilding in Haiti, the process of rubble removal is complex. The costs of hauling away rubble is quite high and even for those who can pay, there is no suitable dumpsite that can absorb the amount of rubble that still needs to be removed. Additionally, owners are reluctant to allow for hauling until rebuilding plans are in place as it is difficult to secure a vacant lot in a city full of squatters where the poor are desperately seeking any space to rebuild their homes outside of the IDP camps.

Despite the challenges rubble removal does offer some opportunities, one of which is now underway in Carrefour Feuilles. Processed rubble can be used as construction material for things like retaining walls, steps, drainage channels and other infrastructure needed to improve and secure neighborhoods built on the steep topography of the Port-au-Prince hillsides. Given the high costs of hauling, it makes sense to process and sell rubble locally allowing for easier access to markets and creating jobs and entrepreneurship opportunities in the community. The rubble processing operation pictured here is located on the site of the former Haitian Red Cross building destroyed in the earthquake. The business operates under a production based payment system and while still in the nascent stages, there are plans to scale up with larger equipment expanding production to meet the growing market for construction materials driven by NGO and Haitian government investment in local reconstruction efforts.

In looking at these five cities our attention was drawn to the relationship between very specific motivations or types of migrants and the spatial agency they (or their presence) exercise in their host cities. What are the policies –global, national or local- that facilitated a move to the host city? How do the migrant groups exercise political agency in their host city? What are the types of pressures and challenges that local governments face? Several of the case studies were focused on internal migration, demonstrating that citizenship of the same country does not necessarily guarantee citizenship of the city. In both case studies along the US-Mexico border a new form of reverse forced migration begins to play a larger role as the US government deports thousands of people each day to the cities south of the border, leaving the local governments with the task to accommodate this unappreciative population. Reverse migration also plays an interesting role of investment in Ramallah, where an increasing number of exiled Palestinians move to the city and feed its vibrant growth. Download the pdf here or order a hard copy from lulu.

[Health Promoters photo; author]
This past week Haiti commemorated lives lost and forever changed by devastating earthquake that struck Port-au-Prince on January 12, 2010. Approximately three million Haitians were affected with more than 222,000 fatalities, 300,000 injured and 1.3 million people displaced. Factors such as overcrowded urban neighborhoods, steep topography, lack of proper land use, poor construction quality in unsafe areas and lack of infrastructure contributed to the overwhelming devastation of the earthquake. Now that relief efforts are coming to a close, Haiti is beginning the long process of rebuilding a safer, more resilient capital city. Baillergeau and Campeche in Carrefour Feuilles is one such community where an integrated approach to reconstruction is planned. Instead of simply replacing houses destroyed in the earthquake, planners here understand that housing must come with improved access to water and sanitation infrastructure, health services, disaster mitigation training, environmental protection and land use regulation to ensure that the neighborhood will remain resilient in the face of not only earthquakes, but other more common disasters such as hurricanes, flooding and landslides.

There are approximately 1,044 houses Baillergeau and Campeche as well as 8 IDP camps where approximately 2,300 displaced families are now living. Only a tiny fraction of the houses are considered safe for habitation. A comprehensive strategy for rebuilding is now underway inclusive of the physical, economic and social needs of Carrefour Feuille’s residents. Given the overwhelming need, this is no small task. But the approach is smart and has the potential to yield the safter and healthier community it’s residents deserve. Stay tuned for more on Carrefour Feuilles and other adventures in Haiti in the coming weeks.

photo:New York Times

Somehow it seems fitting that my first blog post from Port au Prince should be on the topic of Haitian migration. As luck would have it the New York Times is reporting this week on Haitians migrating to Brazil in search of opportunities in construction and other service industries. Brazil is happy to accept Haitian workers due in large part to longstanding cultural and political ties between the two countries but also because of the large unmet demand for labor in Brazil’s growing economy. As Haiti struggles to cope with the impact of the January 2010 earthquake that destroyed much of Port au Prince, Brazil offers opportunities for Haitians that their own country cannot provide. Haiti will commemorate the two year anniversary of the quake this week on January 12. Many are hopeful that as the country begins the long process of rebuilding, Haitians will soon find opportunities for work at home that they are now seeking abroad. Click here for the full text and slideshow.

Stay tuned for more original reporting in the coming weeks as I settle in to life and work in Port au Prince.

photo: Model D

Detroit, once one of the most important industrial cities in United States and the world, has been in a period of slow decline over the past generation as it struggles to cope with the loss of it’s economic base. Despite the challenges, there are innovative ideas emerging as Detroit seeks new resources to help build it’s future. 

One of the most exciting initiatives now underway is Global Detroit which capitalizes on the talent of Metro Detroit’s international community and skilled workforce. A particularly fascinating strategy levegerges Detroit’s close proximity to the U.S.-Canadian border to strengthen the Detroit-Windsor economic region. Global Detroit has developed cross-border partnerships with regional development agencies to aggressively recruit firms that want to expand in the U.S. but are restrained by the visa cap on skilled workers. American businesses in the “new economy” and technology sectors have faced significant hurdles in attracting highly-skilled immigrant workers because of restrictive U.S. immigration laws that place a cap on H-1B visas at 65,000–far below the actual demand for this labor.  Recall that Microsoft opened it’s new software development center in Vancouver, Canada in 2007 pointing to restrictive US immigration laws as a primary cause for locating outside of the United States. Global Detroit’s vision is that Detroit-Windsor will be a leading “nearshoring” base for the New Economy.  To read more, visit the New Economy Initiative of Southeast Michigan.  And for more about good ideas in Detroit go to Model D, a very cool blog by folks who obviously care very much about the future of this great city.

This past week we attended the National Immigrant Integration Conference in Seattle, Washington. The event was hosted by the National Partnership for New Americans, a parntership of twelve immigrant’s rights coalitions across the country, including the New York Immigration Coalition. The nearly 700 participants included researchers, advocates, organizers and local government officials from across the United States and around the world. The event was stongly focused on the roll of receiving communities, and practitioners shared best practices in education, civic participation, health, economic development, rights, safety and enforcement.

One highlight of the conference was the newly initiated Welcoming America Initiative. Based in the knowledge that all immigration is local, Welcoming America is a “national, grassroots-driven collaborative that works to promote mutual respect and cooperation between foreign-born and U.S.-born Americans. The ultimate goal of Welcoming America is to create a welcoming atmosphere – community by community – in which immigrants are more likely to integrate into the social fabric of their adopted hometowns.” Communities across the country shared their successes and challenges in engaging receiving communities in a time political turmoil concerning immigration. In cooperation with the Center for American Progress, Welcoming America recently published a white paper on the role of receiving communities, at the heart of their work. Visit the Welcoming America website for the report and a wealth of other resources on local integration efforts around the country.

Click this link to view the PBS/Frontline special about the Secure Communities program and the private immigration detention system locking up hundreds of thousands of immigrants across the United States.  The post just below this one discusses how New York has chosen to limit participation in this program for the protection of our immigrant residents.

photo: Frontline/PBS.org

We’d like to share an oped published in the New York Times last week about a bill introduced in the City Council limiting the City’s assistance to the federal government with regard to immigration enforcement.  New York has been a leader among US cities in protecting the rights of our immigrant residents and should continue to do so with the passage of this bill.  Full text of the oped published October 13, 2011 below.

photo: ACLU

A Smart Immigration Move at Rikers
October 13, 2011

Mayor Michael Bloomberg speaks often about the need for smart and humane immigration reform. He has now rightly thrown his support behind a City Council bill that would place sensible limits on how far New York City goes to help the federal government detain and deport illegal immigrants who pose no threat to the community.

The bill, sponsored by Speaker Christine Quinn, involves immigrants jailed at Rikers Island. Officials there, as in most of the country, routinely send lists of foreign-born inmates to Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The agency, known as ICE, checks its databases for immigration violators and sends back requests that certain inmates be held until taken into federal custody. The city usually obliges, though no law or agreement requires it to.

The agency issued so-called detainers on 3,506 Rikers inmates in 2009. But were they all dangerous criminals? The City Council found that while about 22 percent of the detainers were placed on inmates with felony records, more than half involved inmates with no prior convictions.

Under Ms. Quinn’s bill, the city would still allow ICE into its jails and would keep firm hold on criminals who threatened public safety. But it would end the voluntary practice of handing over inmates who clearly do not belong in ICE’s dragnet. That is, those who are about to be released because charges have been dropped, who have no prior convictions or outstanding warrants, who have not been previously ordered deported, and who do not appear on watch lists of gang members and terrorists.

It is a sensible approach, nothing like the thoughtless harshness we see in Alabama and Arizona, where radical laws have enabled indiscriminate roundups, without regard to the devastating harm to families, citizen children or the economy. With deportations at record highs under President Obama — partly because of the outsourcing of immigration enforcement to local police agencies — discretion and compassion are needed more than ever. His administration recently declared that it would focus on deporting dangerous criminals, not harmless workers. With this bill, New York would help make sure those good intentions stick. The Council should swiftly pass this bill.

What is happening with the Brooklyn bike path? There have been several miles of moderately successful bike lane installations, and ongoing public debate. The most newsworthy is that over the struggle between Hassids and Hipsters (as the media puts it) in Williamsburg. From Bedford Ave and N 7th, I walked the three parallel bike paths on Wythe, Berry, and Kent Ave that cut through Williamsburg and the residential towers that anchor the large Hasidic community to the south to get a better sense of the use and context of these bike lanes. From the heart of hipster Williamsburg, where Crossroads clothing company and the flea markets were humming with tourists and twenty- and thirty- year olds hunting down the perfect used fashion statement. The streets throng with shoppers and bicyclists. It is interesting to wonder about thisdiverse hipster community not solely as agents of gentrification. These residents are not just alternative, “white” and privileged but also internal American migrants, often working service jobs and perhaps nearly as entrepreneurial as foreign migrants.

This area has an amazing dedication to bike lanes. Berry is a one-way street north, with a dedicated painted bike lane. Wythe is the same, a one-way street south. Along Kent Ave is a veritable bike highway. Here major compromises have clearly been made, the bike lane is unusual in its design. A strip of street parking divides the two-lane bike highway (painted green) from the one-way northbound road. Parking spaces were clearly affected more on Kent by the bike highway than on Berry and Wythe, where parking remains along the curb and the bike lane runs down the middle of the street.

It’s not clear what causes the greatest conflict in the uproar over bike lanes- a reduction in parking spaces, opposition to bike and dedicated bike lanes in general, or specific objections like those by the Hasidic community to the right to the street. The compromise, on the ground, is equally confusing. It seems to me that all three dedicatedbike lanes have essentially similar levels of traffic, although Wythe and Berry seem to be more for cruising and at times have less visible signage. Kent Ave may be for more serious riders, however I passed (or was passed) by a handful of tourists riding rented bikes. Kent Ave, too, is a major thoroughfare for the Hassidic community. There are several nearby schools, religious organizations and the Jewish Center for Special Education. It also has a good sidewalk for baby carriages, of which there are many.

At Kent Ave and Clymer St, the Jacob’s Ladder playground is obviously popular among young Hasidic mothers and children. Kent is on the downhill side, where the bike highway continues unabated, with no median plantings and few parking spaces to block visibility. But on the uphill side, signs of compromise over bike lanesare visible. On Wythe, where the women and children undoubtedly cross to enter the playground, the bike symbols are present, but there is no separate bike lane. On Bedford, the bike symbols themselves are missing, but the dividing line of the bike lane itself is still present. The symbols have been sandblasted away again after the painting battle staged on youtube. From the Hassid perspective, they may have won. For a block or two, their request to “remove”the bike lanes on Wythe and Berry/Bedford has been somewhat fulfilled. But enough paint remains: on NYC bike maps, the streets are still shown as having separate bike lanes, funneling bike traffic through the Hassidic community  regardless of the one or two blocks that lack an inner bike lane line or a handful of bike lane symbols.

Another impact this community has on the neighborhood is the proliferation of temporary structures. Along Kent near Clymer, I began to notice that every porch was built out under a tarp awning, some more permanent than others with windows, wooden walls and more permanent roofing. These same temporary buildings continued along Clymer- sometimes even completely blocking the sidewalk. These rooms expand religious buildings and apartments alike for a community that requires room for expansion. But at the heart of the Hassidic residential area, I saw relatively few signs of commercial activity. There were a couple of grocery stores, a kosher bakery and a few other small shops. But unlike most streets in New York, there were few signs of commerce and immigrant entrepreneurialism. I did see one start-up baby clothing shop offering a wide selection of black children’s shoes, but I think it would be worth going back on a Monday and learning more about entrepreneurialism within Hassidic religious organizations.

A selection of background news articles:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/04/nyregion/04lanes.html?pagewanted=all

http://newsweek.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/guestvoices/2009/12/bedford_bike_lanes_controversy.html

http://blogs.villagevoice.com/runninscared/2010/01/hasidim_v_hipst.php

It is virtually impossible to walk more than 100 feet in the city of Nairobi without stumbling across an M-Pesa point.  They are literally everywhere.  Painted bright green, the M-Pesa signs dot the otherwise grey urban landscape.   M-Pesa is one of the largest the fastest growing companies in Kenya and perhaps all of East Africa.  In just 4 short years, at least 40% of adult Kenyans are M-Pesa customers. The company grossed more than $94 million last year (an increase of 158% from the previous year), and this in a country where close to 38% of the population lives on less than two dollars per day. photo: author

M-Pesa is a financial service where users maintain accounts and transfer funds through mobile phones.  It is owned by Safaricom, the biggest telecom provider in a country where nearly 85% of the adult population uses mobile phone technology. In just four short years, the company has completely revolutionized the way banking is done in Kenya.  Before M-Pesa, the most common way to transfer money from the city to the village was to send an envelope filled with cash with the bus driver and hope it was received by a family member at the other end.  Hardly the safest or most reliable system but one of the few options for urban migrants sending remittances home.

This is how M-Pesa works.  A young migrant worker visits an M-Pesa point in Nairobi and deposits cash into an account which is stored on his mobile phone.  He then makes a transfer directly into his wife’s M-Pesa account which she controls from her mobile phone back home.  Once the transfer is made, she can redeem the “e-float” at an M-Pesa point in her village for cash.  This system eliminates the need for a bank and all of the associated obstacles which leave most of the world’s poor and rural population without access to financial institutions.  The biggest challenge is the shortage of currency in rural areas.  Nonetheless, the cost of waiting a few days to receive cash is still less than that of traveling to the nearest bank which could be a day’s journey away.  In many rural villages, the M-Pesa point is also the general store so many villagers simply use M-Pesa as a credit account eliminating the need for cash transactions altogether.  Fees for M-Pesa transactions are as low as 1 KsH making the service affordable to nearly all Kenyans. 

Safaricom and M-Pesa have combined technology with an innovative business model to reach a vast underserved market. There are plans to expand into neighboring Tanzania and countries further afield like Afghanistan.  With millions of urban migrant sending remittances to villages at home, the model will undoubtedly be replicated around the world.

Ethnic Hmong Vietnamese immigrants began to settle in the city of San Diego during the early 1980′s. An enclave began forming in the inner-city East San Diego communities of City Heights and Talmadge. Most recently, a group of Vietnamese activists have started petitioning city government to recognize a portion of the heavily trafficked El Cajon Boulevard as  “Little Saigon.” The community began to disperse towards the Linda Vista neighborhood of north central San Diego establishing a commercial strip. In the mid to late 1990’s and early 2000’s, the immigrant community started to settle in newly developed tract homes in the northern reaches of the city.

A metropolitan-wide population of 35,000 people makes San Diego County home to one of the largest Vietnamese communities in the United States. Three notable Hmong-centric commercial business districts exist in the city of San Diego: (1) El Cajon Blvd. (East San Diego) (2) Convoy Street/Linda Vista Road ( North Central San Diego) and (3) Mira Mesa Blvd. (North San Diego) Due to relative de-concentrated nature of the community’s migration pattern throughout the city, there is no key central business district for the Vietnamese as is the case with Orange County (Wesminister) and Houston, Texas.

(1) El Cajon Boulevard: As the oldest Vietnamese commercial district in the city, it includes a six-block area with various restaurants, herb stores, grocery  and retail stores that cater to the Vietnamese. Numerous signs in Hmong -Vietnamese can be found along El Cajon Boulevard, as a relatively low rent area of the city this neighborhood serves as a gateway for first time immigrants to the metropolitan region. The first Festival of the Lanterns was held in August of 2010. The community of City Heights is area of San Diego that is home to a decently sized Mexican and Somalian community as well. The recent expansion of San Diego Sate University to the east, in conjunction with the rapid-rate condominium development in North Park to the west is leading to worries that gentrification may soon cause a rise in the cost of housing.Photo Courtesy of the Little Saigon Foundation

(2) Convoy Street/Linda Vista Road: The second intra-city migration of the Hmong in San Diego was towards the north central neighborhood of Linda Vista. As with the case in City Heights,several restaurants, herb stores, retail and grocery stores catering to the Vietnamese community are located at the intersection of two main streets. When the housing boom of the 1990′s swept through the San Diego some families opted to move east to the newly built Mira Mesa/Tierrasanta neighborhoods.

Photos Courtesy of San Diego Reader

(3) Mira Mesa Boulevard:  Hmong  families began to settle in new homes as whole communities were constructed. This is a key element that sets the Vietnamese in Mira Mesa/Tierrasanta apart from the sister communities in other parts of San Diego as they have been integral part of the community since its inception. Whereas in other areas the Hmong were newcomers to neighborhoods with an established population. Shopping malls with Vietnamese-centric establishments. It is worthy to note that some English language ads portraying Vietnamese persons is indicative of the large second and third generation descendants that remain in the area.

Photo Courtesy of “mmm-yoso!!!” food blog

What initially began as a Senegalese community in the 1980’s gradually attracted other migrants from neighboring countries in West Africa such as Sierra Leone, Togo, Guinea, and Cote d’Ivoire among others. Although there has been steady growth from these other African countries, the Senegalese still account for the majority of West Africans in Central Harlem. According to an article featured in the New York Times, from 2000-2005 the African immigrant population in Central Harlem increased by nearly two-thirds to 6,500 people.

With no detectable boundaries, Little Senegal, or “little Africa” is distinguishable from its surrounding context (Central Harlem) not by unique Architecture or differentiated store fronts (though they do exist) but from the people that dominate the street life. This area between Manhattan and Adam Clayton Powell along 116^th St. has developed as a retail and gathering strip for this community. During the evening, African music can be heard drifting into the street from the various shops. Hair braiding salons act as social gathering spaces for women and are extremely active even into nightfall. Women wearing traditional West African garb are a fixture in this small neighborhood. The neighborhood is not confined to the blocks immediately surrounding 116^th street, as small West African shops can be found along Adam Clayton Powell up to 124^th street, albeit more intermittently placed.

Migration to New York City in the 1980’s led many Senegalese to become street vendors of artisanal crafts and counterfit watches, which are common livelihoods in their home country. Throughout the 20+ years, Senegalese have adapted to the context of New York City by becoming store owners, cab drivers, professionals, jewelers, and travel agents. However, once educated and with a higher earning potential, most residents move to the suburbs in New Jersey. So, the Senegalese population in Central Harlem remains mostly the working class.

Most inhabitants speak French, English, and their native African tongue (Wolof in Senegal) which is used for greeting and transactions in shops. This sense of shared language seems create a sense of cohesion within the Senegalese community that is nested within broader West African one, and retains their sense of culture in this foreign context.

Senegalese are primarily Muslim and Animist and although they don’t claim to have strong affiliations with Islam due to their Animism beliefs, it does seem to have perceivable impacts on the built environment of the neighborhood. There are three mosques in the neighborhood, two of which are on 116^th street, Masjid Salam and the Malcom Shabazz. Also, since a majority of West African countries were colonized by the French (known as Franco-Africa) this appears to have translated into the urban street scape as several residential buildings are of French neo-classical style.  However, this is from a purely observational standpoint as there could be other underlying factors.

However, in a theme central to much of Harlem, gentrification is encroaching into the neighborhood. Brand new developments with big box retail are appearing, catering to the middle-class professional demographic. Expensive Italian restaurants and French bistro’s have been propped up in corner spaces (most expensive real estate). During my visit, a film crew was setting up the scene in one of these restaurants for an upcoming moving starring Gwyneth Paltrow. In April, a Senegalise Diaspora group, Union of African Workers/Senegal, helped to organize a protest in Central Harlem lobbying for the ability to participate in the Senegalese presidential election, as well as the “unbearable cost of living”. This indicates a shift in demographics of the community, as rent prices increase and push out Senegalese businesses and residents. Will West Africans be able to preserve their community in Central Harlem or will external market pressures force them out?

Looking at the West African community of Central Harlem, most pronounced between Frederick Douglass and 116^th, one often sees men chatting outside of shops and passerbys peering curiously into the aromatic restaurants. However yesterday, around eight p.m., sidewalks were largely unpopulated and storefronts unoccupied. Checking my watch, thinking, “maybe this city does sleep”, I realized that it was still relatively early, that something else was accountable for the sleepy street. Walking a bit further, I saw about thirty men praying in the Masjid al-Aqsa mosque.

The grocery store next to the mosque was just as quiet as the rest of the block. The clerk confirmed that many of the men currently praying were shop-owners, and that I should not be surprised if some of the businesses were temporarily closed. Behind her sat shelves of incense and prayer rugs, positioned in the same way as candy and magazines in traditional American stores. However, unlike the pop culture magazines and sugar coated candies which typically serve as grocery owners’ last ploy to entice customers to buy something, the prayer rug and incensed reflect the values of the community served.

Other than the front section of the store, the rest of it was stocked by food and home cleaning supplies. The contrast of goods sold is striking, for in very few non-immigrant stores will one find religious related articles of equal, if not greater, prominence to secular goods that make up the majority of the store items. In fact, someone had placed stickers on the store front, under a “T-Shirt” neon sign no less, saying things such as “Allah is greater than our need”. Additionally, within one hundred meters of the mosque there is a halal meat market, which allows adherents of Islam to purchase food prescribed under religious requisites.

While the presence of the West -African community in Central Harlem continues to be visibly prominent for a few more blocks east on 116^th, none so prominently evince religious beliefs or practices as the Frederick Douglass and 116^th intersection. There are Senegalese restaurants, notary offices specializing in West- African dialects, West- African apparel stores, and other shops selling West- African commodities such as black soap. These spaces reflect cultural and ethnic identity, but in the absence of faith. Though they are no further than a ten- minute walk from the mosque, they seem to serve a distinctly secular population. This leads me to wonder how religious institutions in migrant communities affect composition of local economies, and to what extent they regulate them.