Transnational gentrification: The crossroads of transnational mobility and urban research

Abstract

This introduction to the special issue introduces the contributors’ articles and identifies key themes relating to how increased transnational mobility has affected urbanisation processes in many cities, resulting in the globalisation of rent gaps. A mix of local and transnational real estate interests work to attract higher-income lifestyle migrants and tourists, often from higher-income countries to lower-income urban space in order to increase its exchange value. In the process, however, they act to reduce the use value of urban space to lower-income residents. The introduction notes that the acceleration of lifestyle mobilities moving through urban spaces, and the development of transnational lifestyles of urban place consumption, have produced new forms of gentrification – not merely the spread of an urban strategy to new cities, but the planetarisation of rent gaps. Transnational gentrification is the form of contemporary urbanisation that occurs as a result of closing these rent gaps through attraction of higher income, transnational migrants, often from high-income countries in Northern Europe and North America.

Platform-mediated tourism: social justice and urban governance before and during Covid-19

“…Professionalisation and densification of STRs thus constitute a threat to residents' right to affordable housing, paving the way towards built spaces without residents, or "short-term cities" (Salerno & Russo, 2020, in this issue). Empirical studies show the global dimension of these effects, e.g., in New York City (Wachsmuth & Weisler, 2018), Barcelona (Garcia-L opez et al, 2020), Raglan in New Zealand (as illustrated by Ryan & Ma, 2020 in this issue) Cuenca in Ecuador, (Hayes & Zaban, 2020b), Jerusalem (Zaban, 2020), and San Miguel de Allende in Mexico (Navarrete Escobedo, 2020).…”

Vivir en la incertidumbre: burbuja de alquiler y olas de gentrificación entre crisis en Madrid

“…Por tanto, un proceso similar al de los pioneros gentrificadores de la primera ola, pero ahora en situaciones más excéntricas, es protagonizado ahora por hogares con alta formación que son, a la vez, gentrificadores en destino y desplazados en el origen, donde se darían nuevas rondas de gentrificación (regentrificación, supergentrificación, gentrificación transnacional, etc.) (Hayes y Zaban, 2020;Lees, 2003).…”

Urban ethnic enclaves and migration industries: The urban choices of mobile people

“…The desire to live in geographic proximity to fellow migrants and ethnic amenities pressures property markets, inflicts physical and cultural transformation, and – when migrants have financial power – increases rents and leads to gentrification and displacement of locals. Scholars have noted that lifestyle migrants’ enclaves impact property markets and local communities, and cause transnational gentrification – when the drivers of gentrification are foreign, rather than local (Hayes and Zaban, 2020; Sigler and Wachsmuth, 2016). Migrants’ privileged economic stance and enclave preference affect housing markets, create segregation or even gated communities, and cause dramatic cultural changes – in religion, education, commerce or community services (Cocola-Gant and López-Gay, 2020; Rainer, 2019; Spalding, 2013; Zaban, 2017a).…”