Migration and the Formation of Kampungs in Surabaya: Historical Dynamics and Typologies of Inner-City Settlements

DOI

10.2991/978-94-6239-632-6_14How to use a DOI?

Keywords

Migration; Kampung Formation; Typology; Informal Settlement

Abstract

This study examines the historical role of migration in shaping the formation of kampungs within urban contexts in Indonesia. Strategically located as a coastal port city, Surabaya has long served as a migration hub, attracting traders, laborers, and settlers from across the archipelago and beyond. The diverse migration flows have played a central role in the emergence, expansion, and persistence of kampung settlements. Drawing on historical archives, secondary literature, and urban studies frameworks, this research analyzes how migration patterns have shaped kampung formation.

The analysis identifies economic opportunity, political transition, and environmental constraint as key drivers of migration that have shaped where and how people settled. These forces produced diverse kampung forms and settlement behaviors that adapted to both opportunity and limitation. The study proposes a typology of migrant, indigenous, and instant kampungs to explain how migration generates distinct socio-spatial logics and morphological patterns. Findings reveal that kampungs are not residual or transitional spaces but evolving urban systems shaped by long-term mobility, adaptation, and collective agency.

By foregrounding migration as a central driver of kampung urbanization, the paper contributes to broader debates on urban informality and settlement morphology. It challenges static understandings of kampungs as residual or transitional spaces, instead framing them as active sites of city-making shaped by historical mobility and socio-economic change. This study recognizes migration as a generative force of urban morphology, underscores the need to embed historical and migratory perspectives into inclusive urban and housing policy in rapidly urbanizing cities of the Global South.

Copyright

© 2026 The Author(s)

Open Access

Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Tanti Satriana Rosary Nasution
AU  - Zuhrotul Mawaddatil Ula
AU  - Mutia Sulistiastuti
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/04/13
TI  - Migration and the Formation of Kampungs in Surabaya: Historical Dynamics and Typologies of Inner-City Settlements
BT  - Proceedings of the International Conference on Architectural Research and Design (ARDC 2025)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 209
EP  - 228
SN  - 2667-128X
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-94-6239-632-6_14
DO  - 10.2991/978-94-6239-632-6_14
ID  - Nasution2026
ER  -