Manual of Hospitality : learning from migration

Abstract

The number of asylum seekers, refugees and displaced persons is increasing globally at an alarming, unprecedented rate. According to the United Nations, displaced persons are more likely to live in a city than in a rural area or camp, and more than 60% of the world's refugees live in urban settlements. The migration crisis is an urban question. Although cities theoretically present opportunities for jobs, shelter, and a better future, migrants face a range of threats, such as discrimination, detention, exploitation, and human trafficking. In addition, most urban migrants are prone to spatial exclusion, manifested as an absence of legal clarity on spatial rights and protection spaces, insufficient shelter, and discriminatory practices that prevent them from moving freely around the city. This crisis is particularly severe in Mexico, where more than 69,000 asylum seekers and refugees are living, most from the north of Central America.

Expelled from home by violence and poverty, and rejected by the United States, Central American migrant persons have no choice but to stay in México, living in a state of fear and uncertainty. The Manual of Hospitality describes the migrant's experience, using a vocabulary of urban design to reconceptualize the displaced person's daily life. Using urban ethnography, I represent the experiences of central American migrants, drawing on field research conducted in three Mexican cities: Monterrey, Matamoros and Guadalajara. A series of multiscalar maps and diagrams -from territory to architectural object- reveal spatial dynamics, zones of exclusion, mobility patterns, and areas of conflict and possibility. I further extrapolate from theories of hospitality to analyze the migrants' experience, examining existing practices and challenging traditional host-guest relationships.

The manual includes insights from migrants' perspectives, and proposes a series of design interventions that create more hospitable cities for both migrants and local residents.