Paper short abstract:

This paper calls for urban planners, practitioners, and policymakers to take the temporality of the livelihood of translocal migrants and their needs into consideration while developing policies and planning cities. The research takes Kanyama informal settlement, in Lusaka, Zambia as a case study.

Paper long abstract:

Migration, development studies, and urbanization are frequently studied in isolation. In recent decades, however, experts have demonstrated that these themes are connected and interdependent. Migration in the context of Sub-Saharan Africa is inter-regional, multi-directional, multi-sited, multi-active, connected across the rural-urban divide, and characterized by strong rural-urban impersonal networks. Urbanization and translocalization are therefore concurrent processes, and it is impossible to think of African urbanity without translocality, which is best defined as "situatedness during mobility." Consequently, what happens to urban spaces/settlements where 'temporary/transitional' populations reside? Using Kanyama informal settlement as a case study, this research seeks to deconstruct the causes for 'situatedness' during the migration of translocal migrants dwelling in Lusaka, Zambia. To comprehend how transitory settlements become permanent habitats, one must first comprehend the dynamics of the livelihood of "temporary" urban residents‘. How do they occupants create and re-create permanent spaces? The research identifies 10 typologies of translocal migrants and their livelihood strategies by studying their livelihood capitals (financial, social and spatial). The development of livelihood typologies aids in comprehending the fundamental needs of translocal migrants in Lusaka's urban agglomerations. The purpose of this study is to demonstrate that production space and the transformation of temporary spaces into permanent homes are significantly linked to the following translocality parameters: Multi-locality; Exchange and interdependencies; Temporality and transition; Hybridity and Belonging. Finally, the research calls for urban planners, practitioners and policy makers to take this temporality into consideration while developing policies and planning cities.