Living together in multi-ethnic cities: People of migrant background, their interethnic friendships and the neighbourhood

Abstract

This paper explores the extent to which people of different origins, natives and migrants, come together in everyday life in Europe. Instead of looking at overall ‘perceptions’ and ‘stances’, which are context-dependent and mediated through political-ideological currents and discourses as well as broader patterns of prejudice, we focus on sustained close contacts that suggest meaningful and organic relationships. Since it is most often people of migrant background who are blamed for leading ‘parallel lives’ and ‘not integrating’, we chose to focus on them and their interethnic friendships. Moreover, we seek to understand the relevance and role of the neighbourhood context in the development of those relationships. Despite the expressive fears in public discourses about the supposed negative impact of the presence of immigrants and ethnic minorities on social cohesion, our findings indicate that close interethnic relationships are not uncommon in diverse European cities. They further highlight that the neighbourhood context plays an important role in the first years of migrants’ settlement. Relationships in the neighbourhood develop in less formal social settings and are also less demanding in terms of host-country cultural skills on the part of the migrants, thus giving the opportunity to newcomers to develop close interethnic relationships with natives. Finally, the analysis supports the positive role of diversity at the neighbourhood level in the development of interethnic friendships and stresses the importance of the neighbourhood’s socio-spatial characteristics and its location in the wider urban net.

Neighbourhood-scale public spaces, inter-group attitudes and migrant integration in Beijing, China

“…The empirical analysis used data from a 2017 questionnaire survey of 1280 residents – supplemented with field observations and interviews – in 36 neighbourhoods (estates) in Beijing, to investigate whether the presence of open spaces and commercial facilities in neighbourhoods contributes to a more supportive attitude towards migrants’ equal access to citizenship and government welfare. We focus on neighbourhood-scale public spaces because the neighbourhood constitutes a major site for everyday encounters through enhancing social mixing and providing various public and quasi-public spaces that bring people together (Havekes et al, 2014; Liu, 2019; Pratsinakis et al, 2017; Wang et al, 2017b).…”

Multiculturalism, biosemiotics, and cross-cultural friendship: An essay review of Olteanu’s multimodal semiotics of culture

“…This study provides a harmonic blend of original research and theoretical reflections showing how friendship studies may provide a lens to reflect better upon the issues of multiculturalism. Contributions like those of Pratsinakis et al (2017), Harris (2016), and Vincent Neal and Iqbal (2018) remind us that you can come a long way using common interpretative skills and ordinary human reasonableness, even without expertise in the science of signs and interpretation.…”

Segregação Socioespacial E Características Socioeconómicas Da Área Metropolitana De Lisboa: O Caso Dos Imigrantes Dos Países Africanos De Língua Oficial Portuguesa

“…Parece indiscutível que as cidades e áreas metropolitanas, sobretudo as que se projetam numa escala global, são cosmopolitas e diversas em termos culturais e étnicos, constituindo também os espaços mais internacionalizados. Porém, contrariamente às cidades do norte europeu, o nível de diversidade de países de origem dos imigrantes (cidadãos nascidos em outros países) nas cidades do sul europeu, incluindo Lisboa, tende a ser mais reduzido (VERTOVEC, 2007;PRATSINAKIS et al, 2017). Contudo, desde o final dos anos 1970, a diversidade de imigrantes de diferentes países de origem tem aumentado em Portugal, e, em 2011, a proporção de indivíduos imigrantes residentes na Área Metropolitana de Lisboa (AML) 3 ascendia a 13,9% (INE, 2011).…”

“…Por isso, nos últimos anos, a discussão sobre a dimensão inclusiva das cidades tem-se acentuado (AMIN, 2002;PRATSINAKIS et al, 2017;VALENTINE, 2008;VERTOVEC, 2007 O acesso à habitação deve ser analisado como um problema de integração, uma vez que o emprego informal e baixos salários ou a situação de desemprego limitam as opções habitacionais (FONSECA, 1998;MALHEIROS, 2002). Figura 4 -Scores do fator "Étnico e estrutura etária" por freguesia na Área Metropolitana de Lisboa, 2011.…”