Planning with Migrations to Overcome Crisis: The Case of Ararat, Rome, Italy

Europe has leveraged the so-called ‘migration crisis’ of 2015 to justify implementing stricter border controls and more intricate asylum procedures. Nevertheless, migration ‐ the movement of people and goods ‐ continues to be a defining characteristic of global society. Propelled by war, climate change, genocide, and the pursuit of security and opportunity, human mobility is persistent, and cities function as central nodes of these flows. The paper examines Ararat, a Kurdish socio-cultural centre in Rome’s Testaccio neighbourhood. Despite redevelopment under Italy’s National Recovery and Resilience Plan, Ararat endures as a hub of political and cultural life. Its history and continuous presence underscore the need to embed migrant perspectives within planning. Although interest is growing, urban planning has often reduced migration to demographic data, excluding migrants as active participants. Planning processes typically privilege citizenship and ownership, casting migrants as a temporary presence within crisis-driven narratives and leaving them outside long-term planning strategies. To address this gap, this paper advances a framework that situates access to urban resources rooted not in ownership or citizenship but in presence. From this perspective, even migrants in transit or awaiting documentation should have access to more than minimal services, extending beyond health care and housing. These considerations, often externalized from planning and confined to policy, warrant deeper integration into urban planning.