Migration and Cities: An Introduction

This chapter introduces the empirical context and analytical framework within which the volume is inscribed. We discuss how urbanisation processes are differentiated among smaller and larger urban centres and how they take up different forms in different world regions. We also note that migration is part and parcel of urbanisation processes and may be experienced as a challenge or as an opportunity. The chapter and the book are part of the broader southern turn in Urban Studies that invites us to pay more attention to developments in Asia, Africa, and Latin America as well as in drawing comparative perspectives with Europe and North America. The chapter explains how the book is organised and offers an overview of its contents. In the concluding section we also discuss the main analytical findings that bring together this volume and make a contribution to the extant literature on the role of migration in (re)making cities.