ABSTRACT
In this chapter, I examine the role that public spaces play in creating positive “contexts of reception” for immigrants in arrival neighborhoods. Using the case of el Raval, a long-time immigrant arrival neighborhood in Barcelona’s Ciutat Vella, I use a variety of methods to explore why immigrant integration tends to thrive in certain contexts over others, and what lessons planners and designers can learn from this rich and complex neighborhood. I ask whether certain types and combinations of spaces might create the potential for the types of exchange and encounter that support immigrant integration and find that the neighborhood’s combination of both bridging and bonding spaces may contribute to its identity as a thriving arrival neighborhood. I conclude that planners and designers seeking to support immigrant integration should focus not only on creating diverse spaces of encounter that bridge difference but also more socially homogenous places where affinity groups can share concerns, claims, and interests.
