The role of cities in migrants' self identification and spatial integration: the case of Turkish immigrants in Aachen and The Hague

Abstract

Spatial perspectives in migration studies have mainly focused on the distribution and housing of migrant populations or the effects of different places on wellbeing. Places provide a sense of belonging and allow migrants to develop positive feelings about the locations where they live. In this article, we analyse the significance of cities in the process of migrants’ self-identification. Rather than focusing on neighbourhood or country, we point at the significance of the scale of the city. In the case of Turkish migrants, empirical results from two different cities, The Hague (The Netherlands) and Aachen (Germany), showed that a well-developed urban-related identity among migrants leads to strong positive attitudes towards the country. Despite the fact that predictors of urban-related identity differ in the two cities, we found that the effect of strong urban-related identity as a contributor to positive attitudes towards the country they live in is the same. Thus, we argue that a well-developed urban-related identity can be seen as an indicator for a higher sense of belonging’ to the country as a whole.