ABSTRACT
Since the ‘Migration Crisis’ of 2015, a dominant discourse in heritage management has focused on the preservation of at-risk and destroyed built heritage of Syria and Iraq, along with neighbouring regions. This chapter proposes an alternative to this popular place-based and material-focused approach by looking at the personal and intangible migratory heritage accumulated by ‘people on the move’ within the context of two cultural projects: Making Waves, a boat-building workshop for newcomers in Berlin, and Pages, an Arabic-language book store and caf in Amsterdam. Interviews with the project participants support how ‘people on the move’ understand their own heritage and how heritage evolves during the process of migration. With a view towards proposing creative practice, collaboration and cultural exchange as forms of heritage preservation, this chapter aims to contribute to future discussions on integration, diversity and new approaches to community engagement within the field of critical heritage studies.
