BioSocial walking: digital and embodied methods for understanding migrant belonging

Walking in urban environments can foster a sense of belonging; for migrants, everyday urban walks can trigger emotional attachments, linking memories of their places of origin to new cities. Despite increasing recognition of the importance of mobility and its effect in migration studies, less scholarly attention remains on how belonging and urban walking are registered physiologically or how embodied and emotional responses shape experiences of migrant belonging in practice. This paper addresses this gap by integrating biosocial and digital approaches to explore the embodied dimensions of migrant urbanism in the context of settlement. Using biosensing wristbands, a smartphone qualitative data application, and walking interviews, we examine how migrant’s experiences of urban walking in Leicester (UK) and Stockholm (Sweden). Our analysis demonstrates how the meaning and significance of walking vary across different urban contexts, shaped by the socio-spatial conditions migrants encounter. It also highlights how walking cultivates spatial confidence over time, though experiences remain mediated by embodied difference, shaped through gender, migratory status, and urban inequality. By bringing together physiological, qualitative, and spatial perspectives within a biosocial approach, this paper extends existing debates on migrant belonging and the embodied dimensions of urban life.