Who we are
SSIIM UNESCO Chair on the “Social and Spatial Inclusion of International Migrants – urban policies and practices” is a research center established in 2008 at the University IUAV of Venice, with the aim of investigating local policies and practices promoting or preventing the urban inclusion of foreign residents, in both the Global North and South.
Urban governance and space are at the core of the research work carried out at the Chair. On the one hand the focus is on the daily interface between society and space in cities characterized by growing (ethnic, religious, cultural, linguistic, etc.) differences: spatial practices and representations, new forms of appropriation, re-appropriation and claim of urban spaces; diversification of the senses of place. On the other hand, the attention is turned to how policies and politics can have tangible effects on the right to the city for all.
The main issues on which the SSIIM UNESCO Chair carries out research, training, counseling and scientific dissemination activities are:
- URBAN SPACES: uses, meanings and appropriation of public/collective spaces in increasingly diverse urban societies;
- RESIDENTIAL SEGREGATION: practices, policies and perceptions concerning spatial clustering of migrants in urban areas and socio-spatial stigmatization;
- MIGRANT’S ACCESS TO ADEQUATE HOUSING: local policies and practices to promote migrants’ access to adequate housing and to tackle ethnic discrimination in the housing market (public and private);
- SERVICES: local policies and practices to promote migrants’ access to public services (empowerment) or to foresee specific migrant oriented services, included those provided by the third sector;
- SMALL AND MEDIUM-SIZED CITIES: urban policies and governance of difference in Italian and European small and medium sized cities;
- SOUTH-SOUTH MIGRATION AND TRANSIT MIGRATION: impacts of migrant resident growth in urban contexts where the phenomenon is recent hence local society and policymakers are not yet acquainted with it.
Cross-cutting issue is the role of urban planning (and planners) in managing cities of differences.
Research Group
The SSIIM UNESCO Chair brings together researchers with different backgrounds who share the common interest for ‘immigration as an urban issue’.
Visiting Researcher
The SSIIM UNESCO Chair periodically hosts foreign researchers providing substantive and innovative contribution to the advancement of scientific research on the issues the Chair focuses on.
View profile and products of the researchers who carried visiting periods at SSIIM
