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

Abstract

When migrants come in large numbers, they tend to segregate in enclaves where they lead a familiar lifestyle alongside people who can provide a support system. But how do these enclaves come about? This paper engages with migration industries literature, saying that it is ‘the labour involved in managing, facilitating and controlling migration’ that makes it an industry. Relying on the case of privileged Jewish migration to Israel, I argue that while the state remains central in facilitating and controlling migration, migration industries and migrants’ social networks dictate in which urban areas privileged migrants settle, creating unequal urban geographies. To illustrate this, I rely on qualitative data gathered in two research projects I completed in Israel over the past decade, in various Israeli cities relating to migrants and second-home owners from Western countries. I look at how and why people decide where to settle upon migrating and the role of various migration industries actors in their choices. I argue that what seems like individual decision-making is in fact a ‘structured agency’, repeating patterns of the imagined urban geographies produced by agents of migration and various urban stakeholders. The result is unequal patterns of location and consumption, where privileged migrants locate in urban enclaves, distancing themselves from other groups and causing gentrification.

How to develop a realist programme theory using Margaret Archer’s structure–agency–culture framework: The case of adolescent accountability for sexual and reproductive health in urban resource-constrained settings

“…Cultural and moral norms that act upon accountability towards adolescent girls and common to the four settings are patriarchal norms, which in various ways intersect with religion, ethnicity, citizenship status and socio-economic status or perception of wealth. These structural and cultural conditions find expression in various ways and at different levels (Kern, 2021, Zaban, 2022).…”

“…Cultural and moral norms that act upon accountability towards adolescent girls and common to the four settings are patriarchal norms, which in various ways intersect with religion, ethnicity, citizenship status and socio-economic status or perception of wealth. These structural and cultural conditions find expression in various ways and at different levels (Kern, 2021, Zaban, 2022. (d) The initiation of change is in the first instance expected to result from the interaction between two entities: the adolescents and the NGOs supporting them in improving their health and well-being.…”

Making cities through migration industries: Introduction to the special issue

“…In her paper on urban enclaves and segregation, Hila Zaban (2021) explores privileged migration from the Jewish diaspora to Israel. She argues that while the Israeli state remains salient in facilitating and controlling mobility at the national level, migration industries dictate urban areas to which privileged migrants will be channelled.…”