Transnational gentrification, tourism and the formation of ‘foreign only’ enclaves in Barcelona

Abstract

<jats:p> In a context of global-scale inequalities and increased middle-class transnational mobility, this paper explores how the arrival of Western European and North American migrants in Barcelona drives a process of gentrification that coexists and overlaps with the development of tourism in the city. Research has focused increasingly on the role of visitors and Airbnb in driving gentrification. However, our aim is to add another layer to the complexity of neighbourhood change in tourist cities by considering the role of migrants from advanced economies as gentrifiers in these neighbourhoods. We combined socio-demographic analysis with in-depth interviews and, from this, we found that: (1) lifestyle opportunities, rather than work, explain why transnational migrants are attracted to Barcelona, resulting in privileged consumers of housing that then displace long-term residents; (2) migrants have become spatially concentrated in tourist enclaves and interact predominantly with other transnational mobile populations; (3) the result is that centrally located neighbourhoods are appropriated by foreigners – both visitors and migrants – who are better positioned in the unequal division of labour, causing locals to feel increasingly excluded from the place. We illustrate that tourism and transnational gentrification spatially coexist and, accordingly, we provide an analysis that integrates both processes to understand how neighbourhood change occurs in areas impacted by tourism. By doing so, the paper offers a fresh reading of how gentrification takes place in a Southern European destination and, furthermore, it provides new insights into the conceptualisation of tourism and lifestyle migration as drivers of gentrification. </jats:p>

Urban tourism and population change: Gentrification in the age of mobilities

“…In this respect, research that looks into the agency of tourism and other dimensions of human mobility in place transformation has been given a strong boost by the ground‐breaking works of Urry (2000) and Sheller and Urry (2004). In particular, several authors examine the mobility and dwelling practices of transnational populations, such as lifestyle migrants, digital nomads and international students, who tend to settle in centrally located tourist areas (e.g., Benson & O'Reilly, 2009; Cocola‐Gant & Lopez‐Gay, 2020; Huete & Mantecón, 2011; King, 2018; Malet‐Calvo, 2018; Novy, 2018; Russo & Capel Tatjer, 2007; Williams & Hall, 2000). The expansion of such forms of temporary migration is noted to have a significant impact on the population restructuring of some neighbourhoods, leading to what authors have called transnational gentrification (Hayes, 2018; Sigler & Wachsmuth, 2016).…”

“…The gentrification of the Gòtic started in the early 1990s. Subsequent censuses show that the mostly Spanish pioneer gentrifiers have been progressively replaced by transnational migrant gentrifiers(Arbaci & Tapada-Berteli, 2012;Cocola-Gant & Lopez-Gay, 2020).Notwithstanding, gentrification is still ongoing, and elderly residents with lifetime tenancy agreements living in run-down apartments do exist in the neighbourhood. At the same time, residents in this area have been complaining about tourism since the early 2000s (Cocola-Gant, 2016).…”

New Municipalism and the State: Remunicipalising Energy in Barcelona, from Prosaics to Process

“…On the one hand, the suggestion is that the easily overlooked, seemingly quotidian, question of bureaucratic relations between different municipalities was the key factor in the low domestic uptake. Yet such prosaic matters were shaped within processes of local electoral politics—themselves of course rich with the kinds of contradictory and improvised practices described by Painter, yet impossible to understand without reference to the processes they are dialectically situated within, from the unfolding crisis of the Spanish state through to the circulation of capital via the impact of gentrification and extractive tourism in shaping the city’s electoral climate (Cocola‐Gant and Lopez‐Gay 2020).…”

New directions in transnational gentrification: Tourism-led, state-led and lifestyle-led urban transformations

“…There is a long historical connection between gentrification and urban tourism (Sequera and Nofre, 2020) which, as Cocola-Gant and Lopez-Gay (2020) note, are highly intertwined. Independent tourists (e.g.…”

“…Indeed, many gentrifying areas also become the sites of tourist consumption (McElroy, 2020) and vice versa. Cocola-Gant and Lopez-Gay (2020) argue that many parts of southern Europe are exploited as ‘vacationland festivals’ (Lefebvre 1991) for the Northern European middle class. As Sequera and Nofre contend, transnational gentrification ‘has also given way to the rise of a newly created Disneyfied touristscape in which local forms of everyday social and cultural practices are commodified and transformed into central elements of global urban tourism as a deterritorialised form of hedonistic cosmopolitanism’ (2020: 3183).…”