Migrant Housing and Transnational Heritage

Migrant housing occupies a pivotal position at the intersection of mobility, material culture and collective memory. As migrants settle, invest and maintain ties across borders, the houses they build or refurbish become tangible embodiments of transnational heritage. These dwellings not only meet practical needs for shelter but also serve as repositories of identity, signalling origins, aspirations and social status. From rural highland villages transformed by remittances to urban apartments refurbished with objects imported from abroad, migrant houses materialise complex narratives of belonging, return and political claim-making. They evoke vernacular building traditions while adapting to new regulations, technologies and aesthetic preferences. At the same time, many public institutions are rethinking heritage frameworks to incorporate forced migrations, refugee experiences and diasporic narratives into national histories, experimenting with hybrid curatorial strategies and small-scale interventions. Together, these dynamics reveal the global significance of migrant housing as both a driver of socio-economic change in origin regions and a resource for intercultural cohesion in destination societies.

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Migrant Housing and Transnational Heritage publication trend

The graph below shows the total number of articles in migrant housing and transnational heritage across all publications each year (not limited to Nature Index journals).

Technical terms

Remittance house: Dwelling financed through migrants’ monetary transfers, reflecting economic ties and cultural identity.

Transnational citizenship: A form of belonging and political membership that spans national borders.

Vernacular architecture: Building traditions shaped by local materials, environmental context and cultural practices.

Diaspora: Migrant communities maintaining collective ties and cultural connections to their homeland.

Intercultural cohesion: Strengthened social bonds and mutual understanding among diverse cultural groups.

References

1. From "mud houses" to "wasted houses": remittances and housing in rural highland Ecuador. REMHU Revista Interdisciplinar da Mobilidade Humana (2014).
2. Forced Migrations as a European Heritage and Resource for Enhancing Intercultural Cohesion. Heritage & Society (2024).
3. The Bosnian House: Trajectories of (Non‐)Return Among Bosnian Roma in a Roman Shanty. Social Inclusion (2024).
4. Remittance Houses and Transnational Citizenship: Mapping Eritrea’s Diaspora–State Relationships. Africa Spectrum (2021).