IN-PERSON Lisbon Livable Cities. Section B

Abstract

Forced migration processes are rife with traumatic experiences. Many Latine immigrants face conditions that trigger distress and emotional disturbances before, during, and after migration. These circumstances can lead to long-lasting impacts that can harm the individual and their communities, and cause intergenerational consequences affecting migrant families’ mental, emotional, and behavioral health. In this review, we seek to understand how urban planning can adapt and adopt a trauma-informed planning framework to better support migrants’ well-being. We draw from the literature of health-related disciplines, including social work, public health, and psychology, as well as architecture and design, and consider how lessons drawn from this collective literature can be leveraged to address immigrants’ trauma. We find that whereas many scholars are beginning to employ a trauma-informed lens, one that focuses on planning for and with Latine immigrants has not been developed. We recommend a trauma-informed planning framework that integrates the trauma-informed approach, the socio-ecological model, and a planning dimension – emotion, cognition, and place – for planning in immigrant communities. Whereas health-related disciplines, including social work, psychology, and, increasingly, public health, have long traditions of employing trauma-informed practices, there is still insufficient attention to their need vis-à-vis migrant populations. Urban planning has only recently started to pay attention to trauma-informed practices, and it has largely not done so yet concerning migrant populations. The growing number of forced Latine migrants in cities around the world and in the U.S. has created an alarming need for understanding how trauma-informed practices can be adapted and adopted in urban planning. Despite planning’s capacity to support immigrant integration in host societies, insufficient planning literature and precedents exist specific to use