Concrete Pathways: An Examination of why Dublin’s Cityspace is Important to Nigerian Immigrants in Ireland

• In Event: 1451 - Community and Urban Sociology Section Roundtables (1 hour)
  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: 17. Structural Inequalities

Abstract

Concrete Pathways to Home explores why Nigerian immigrants in Dublin, Ireland found their local identity as a Dubliner very essential to creating a new home in a Western nation. This article will shows a glimpse of what Nigerians have to embrace presently in Dublin and aims to reveal how the urban space influences their experiences. I exhibit how space alongside time, impacts the incorporation process for Nigerian immigrants. While 'space' and 'place' as an influencer has been brought to light more so in different disciplines in geography and sociology (see Massey 2005; Soja 2000) it has rarely been discussed how 'space' and 'place' is beneficial for Nigerian immigrants.

The past research reveals the change of view towards Africans in Ireland and how ‘Fortress Europe’ denies the opportunities of the welfare state to non-E.U members. While there is a plethora of research to show how blacks are treated negatively within space and place, there is little to show how the notion of place is beneficial for black immigrants. hooks (1990) argues to study resistance in all forms, it is important to not only focus on struggles, but to recognize building of community and home. My study contributes to the existing body of research by examining the influential role space plays on incorporation. Dublin is an attractive setting because, as White (2012) states, it is a unique opportunity to study the cityspace because Ireland’s new global presence offered an unprecedented ‘social laboratory’ in which to examine the persistence of race-based inequalities.

Author

• Vanessa Theresa Stout, Richard Bland College of William and Mary