Digital Arrival Infrastructures: Housing Platforms and Residency Governance in Berlin’s Rental Sector

Abstract

This article explores how notions of formality and informality in housing are produced in relation to digital infrastructure and localized bordering regimes. Drawing on a research diary project conducted with “International” migrants in Berlin, Germany, I draw on scholarship in Digital Geography and Migration Studies to frame digital platforms as “arrival infrastructures,” which allow “Internationals” to negotiate the legal process of becoming formally resident in the city. Rather than entry into the long-term “formal,” rental sector, the opportunity to codify residency status becomes the decisive factor in determining housing choices. It also determines the type of housing platforms which are used to seek accommodation in the city and influences digital behavior. My contribution in this article is twofold. Firstly, I advance an understanding of housing in/formality as a concept which is formed according to one’s own positionality in relation to State mobility regimes. Secondly, I describe how the interface of platform-mediated rental sites becomes a site of knowledge production about norms and behavior within an unfamiliar housing system. This is accomplished through the proposal of a typology which classifies platform services according to the ways in which they used to negotiate residency governance regimes: large and long-term housing platforms; “medium-term” platform-mediated rentals; platforms rented and shared; and supplementary tools. I conclude by highlighting the need for further research into the role of rental platforms as a bordering technology, especially in the European context.