Architecture, Space, and Migrant Integration: Introducing a Chinese Case Perspective

Transdisciplinary Workshop

31 March 2026

TU Delft Faculty of Architecture and Built Environment, Berlage Zaal 2

Organizers,

Dr Aleksandar Staničić (TU Delft, Faculty of Architecture and Built Environment) 

Dr Jovan Pešalj (Leiden University, Faculty of Humanities, International Studies)  

Dr Vincent Chang (Leiden University, Faculty of Humanities, Institute for Area Studies)

Sponsored by the LDE-GMD 2026 Seed fund (fully open to the public)

Researchers and scholars interested in how architecture and space shape (Chinese) migrant integration are welcome to join the discussion. The program will follow;

Urban planners, architects, and policymakers often assume that well‑designed public spaces 

foster social cohesion, encourage everyday encounters, and support migrant integration. This assumption is reinforced by work across urban planning and architecture showing that the built environment shapes social life, from Wirth’s early argument that urban density shapes interaction and tolerance, to the myriads of recent architectural studies showing how the built environment mediates visibility, belonging, and identity. But this raises a contrary perspective: Can public space also consolidate ethnic communities into ethnic enclaves or ghettos, reinforce separation, or even hinder integration? After all, decisions about design, zoning, and representation can open pathways to participation or, just as easily, deepen boundaries and exclusions. Understanding how public space contributes to these patterns is essential for grasping the lived realities of community formation and migrant integration in contemporary European cities. 

This workshop turns to an illustrative but underexamined case: the Chinese diaspora in Europe. Despite their long presence and demographic significance, Chinese communities remain marginal in debates on urban diversity, integration, and planning, while presenting a familiar paradox: a strong desire for integration coexists with an equally strong commitment to maintaining a distinct sense of “Chineseness.” Public spaces such as Chinese markets, commercial clusters, and old and new Chinatowns offer a useful lens into this tension. A first set of questions might explore who shapes these quarters – municipal authorities, private developers, Chinese community organisations, or even state representatives – and what aims guide their spatial interventions and adaptations, and how these are negotiated. A second set may consider their consequences: how the resulting built environments influence visibility, identity, and belonging, and whether such spaces function as ethnic enclaves, engines of integration, or hybrid transnational zones that sit uneasily between the two. By tracing both the making of these spaces and their social effects, the workshop examines how spatial intervention and adaptations shape community formation, migrant identity, and integration across contemporary European cities.

Program

14:00–14:05 Dr Reinout Kleinhans (TU Delft and LDE–GMD)

Welcoming Remarks

14:05–14:20 Dr Aleksandar Staničić (TU Delft)

Making Meaningful Spaces for Migrant Integration

14:20–14:35 Dr Jovan Pešalj (Leiden University, LDE–GMD Fellow)

Migration, Space and Identity Between Integration and Transnationalism:

Dilemmas and Questions

14:35–14:50 Dr Vincent K.L. Chang (Leiden University, Leiden Asia Centre)

Comparing Chinese Diasporas in the Netherlands and Serbia: An Exploratory

Inquiry into Migration, Governance, and Spatial Practices

14:50–15:00 Coffee Break

Keynote talk:

15:00–15:15 Prof. Dr Maggi Leung (University of Amsterdam)

Beyond Chinatowns: Chinese Students’ Urban Citizenship and Belonging in

Amsterdam

15:15–15:30 Dr Diwen Tan (TU Delft)

Authentic, Symbolic, or Hybrid Chinese: Spatial Experiences in a Multicultural

City

15:30–15:45 Ran Pan (PhD candidate, TU Delft)

Gestures of the Grass

15:45–16:00 Prof. Dr Pál Nyiri (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam)

Chinese Migrations to Hungary, 1989–2026: A Spatial Perspective.

16:00–16:15 Dr Yan Jia (Maastricht University)

Constructing Chineseness in Public Space: From a Supermarket to Chinese

Migrant Cultural Performances in the Netherlands

16:15–16:30 Bei Wang (PhD candidate, Utrecht University)

Invisible Walls, Visible Faces: Space, Identity, and My Journey as a New

Immigrant

16:30–17:00 Discussion

17:00–18:00 Closing Drinks