Housing Migrant Workers An exploration of the Rotterdam-Venlo logistic corridor

Abstract

The research investigate the unobserved topic of workers’ housing located within the Rotterdam-Venlo corridor, a strategic trajectory of the global logistics. Mobility and housing of labourers are studied as “analytic borderlands,” a theoretical tool developed by Saskia Sassen that suggests to look at overlapped global and local operations. The purpose is far greater than describing the most obvious and conspicuous aspects of capitalist exploitation, such as the speculation of real estate developments of logistics, and it aims to shift the interest from production to producers, namely the migrant workers. Disclosing contexts where migrant flows are less tangible and visible, the larger questions guiding this research revolve around the relationship between the rigorous regimes of logistics, the implemented strategies of corporates, and the bottom-up tactics of migrant workers.

Keywords: workers’ housing, architecture of logistics, borderlands