Commentary: ‘Profitability’, Curated Narratives and Spatial Governance and their Impacts on Urban Migration and the Lives of Migrants

Abstract

This commentary reviews ‘The ‘Badlands’ of the ‘Balkan Route’: policy and spatial effects on urban refugee housing’, by Gemma Bird, Jelena Obradovic-Wochnik, Amanda Beattie and Patrycja Rozbicka; ‘Walking in Jozi: Guided Tours, Insecurity and Urban Regeneration in Inner City Johannesburg’ by Lena Opfermann, and ‘Curating (im)mobility: Peri-urban agency in the Lwandle Migrant Labour Museum’ by Stefanie Kappler, and explores common threads running through the three articles, namely ‘profitability’, curated narratives and spatial governance, and their impact on ‘othering’ migrants and entrenching inequality.