A practical guide with a fresh, bottom-up perspective on integration

This Integration Otherwise Inspiration Kit invites us to move beyond the polarised debate on integration - one that either portrays newcomers as failing to integrate or blames society as insufficiently welcoming. Using a bottom-up approach, it offers a new perspective that highlights how integration is already taking place in everyday life. The authors introduce the concept of 'arrival infrastructuring': the interactive process through which newcomers, together with others, actively shape and transform their arrival situations. Through stories from the ground with concise takeaways, alongside tools for reflection and action, this guide equips practitioners, policymakers and community builders with a deeper understanding of the diverse forms of arrival infrastructuring, as well as the successes and challenges of everyday integration processes. It aims to inspire future policies and practices.

This book complements 'Infrastructuring Arrival: Envisioning the Migration-Integration Nexus Beyond Crisis', edited by Karel Arnaut, Luce Beeckmans, and Bruno Meeus (Leuven University Press, 2026).