Posted on 15 September 2025
Alejandra Guerrero-Rondon - Te Herenga Waka Victoria University of Wellington
Migration reshapes not only lives but also the landscapes people inhabit. In Aotearoa New Zealand, the Latin American community now numbers more than 38,000 (Stats NZ, 2023). Many arrive seeking adventures, better opportunities or safety. Yet the process of settling can be challenging, especially in the current context of harsher migration regimes, environmental degradation and increased hostility against migrants. Against this backdrop, the everyday spaces of Aotearoa’s cities take on new importance for migrants rebuilding their lives. These spaces can function as sites of resistance through everyday practices, where migrants, including former-refugees, affirm their presence and reimagine belonging. In this sense, resistance is embedded in everyday negotiations, by choosing where to walk, where to pause, how to appear or disappear in public space, and how to support others navigating similar exclusions. These micro-political acts may seem mundane, but they constitute meaningful challenges to dominant spatial orders. My work, Using walking interviews as an ethnographic method, focuses Latin American migrants experiences with public urban green spaces (PUGS) and how they can foster a sense of belonging, survival and resistance through adaptation, care, and presence in them.
PUGS such as parks, reserves, and waterfronts are more than places for leisure. They help foster belonging, identity, and wellbeing. For migrants, these spaces offer ways to continue familiar practices, explore new surroundings, and recognise elements of the landscape. Plants, streams, birds, and sea views weave into daily life, becoming meaningful anchors that contribute to people feel grounded (Braga Bizarria et al., 2022). For the Latin American migrants I interviewed, encountering familiar or new natural elements created opportunities to reinterpret the city and reimagine themselves within it. Places, however, are never neutral. As Escobar (2000) reminds us, they are shaped by history, power, memory, and culture. Glynn (2009) adds that visual symbols found in landscapes, whether plants, streams, or crafted houses, communicate social meanings. For migrants, moving through these layers can bring moments of welcome but also experiences of exclusion. Beyond theory, lived stories show why these Public Urban Green Spaces matter.
For instance, during a walking interview, Mara, who arrived in Aotearoa as a refugee after defending rivers and ecosystems in Colombia, shared how she found deep spiritual meaning in her encounters with streams and plants here.
Mara:
Her experience is a clear example of how emotional responses to flora and water can mediate transnational attachments, memory and belonging, allowing Mara to root herself in new landscapes while carrying layered memories from past ones.
Such experiences also point to the potential of Nature-Based Integration (NBI). Rai et al. (2023) describe NBI as policies that not only guarantee access to PUGS but also use them to foster social attachment and promote agency for migrant communities, where they can actively lead and contribute to their adopted home. For Latin American migrants, whose wellbeing often depends on rebuilding networks and identities, PUGS provide a stage for encounters with people and the more-than-human world, and a chance to participate in decision-making through everyday forms of political agency. This highlights PUGS as spaces where social relations and imaginaries are woven together with plants, birds, rivers, and other physical elements, thus acknowledging the agency of nature in migratory experiences, recognising it as an entity with the capacity for action (Ulloa, 2011).
The experiences and reflections from the interviewed Latin American migrants go beyond academic discussion. They carry implications for urban planning and community development. Inclusive PUGS can counter feelings of isolation and make visible the cultural contributions of migrant communities. By valuing migrant narratives in the design and governance of PUGS, policymakers can ensure these spaces remain sites of encounter, care, and shared identity.
Looking forward, Latin American migrants’ experiences remind us that belonging is not given but cultivated. In the current times of climate uncertainty and shifting migration policies, cities that intentionally integrate cultural diversity with ecological wellbeing can model new ways of inclusion. PUGS, when planned with also migrants' voices, become more than leisure areas. They are vital grounds where resilience, justice, and solidarity are practiced.
This piece was selected as the winner of the 'Voices for Change' writing competition.
Alejandra is currently studying towards her Master's in Environmental Studies at Te Herenga Waka – Victoria University of Wellington. Alejandra is currently located in Wellington, Aotearoa New Zealand
To get in contact with Alejandra, send her an email at the following address: m.alejandra.guerrero.r@hotmail.com or add her on LinkedIn