Sanctuary Cities and the Right to the City: Rethinking belonging through cities

Abstract

In times of migration criminalization, urban space (re) produces a myriad of strategies and control mechanisms that deny immigrants, as non-citizens, the possibility of belonging and participation in modern cities. From the dialogue with Henri Lefebvre's writings on the right to the city, I argue, however, that the urban brings possibilities to construct alternative forms of belonging that challenge the processes of exclusion imposed on them. Through the sanctuary city movement, we illustrate how cities harbor processes that challenge the criminalization of migration and the limits imposed by the traditional definition of citizenship.