Migrant infrastructure: Transaction economies in Birmingham and Leicester, UK

Abstract

Original citation:Hall, Suzanne M., King, Julia and Finlay, Robin (2016) AbstractInfrastructure convenes social relations, thereby revealing how city dwellers access shared resources in the context of growing inequality. Our exploration of migrant infrastructure engages with how highly variegated migrant groups develop a 'transaction economy' (Simone, 2004) within marginalised city streets, exchanging goods and services, and information and care. In the context of ethnically diverse and deprived urban places, where state resources are increasingly diminished, we explore how a precarious yet skilled resourcefulness emerges through the street. Our empirical exploration of migrant infrastructure is located on Rookery Road in Birmingham and on Narborough Road in Leicester, and draws on qualitative surveys with 195 selfemployed proprietors from many countries of origin. The streets reveal transaction economies that intersect local and migratory resources, eluding the categorisation of cities associated with either a global North or a global South. Further, the lively nature of street transactions decentres western-centric measures of economic value. From the street, we develop a postcolonial analysis of infrastructure that relates properties of historic depth (power), socio-spatial texture (materiality) and locality (place).

Social infrastructure and the public life of cities: Studying urban sociality and public spaces

“…Mattern (; np) has written about the unique functionality of hardware stores and how they can serve as a site of “competence, intention, utility, care, repair, and maintenance.” These are all kinds of commercial outlets that a well‐stocked and vibrant high street might provide. Hall () and Hall, King, and Finlay () have studied the way that a successful high street can serve as a vital function and foothold for migrant communities in cities like London. There is an important role for planners here in ensuring a diverse range of stores and land uses (Jacobs, ; Talen, ).…”

“…These are all kinds of commercial outlets that a well-stocked and vibrant high street might provide. Hall (2012) and Hall, King, and Finlay (2017) have studied the way that a successful high street can serve as a vital function and foothold for migrant communities in cities like London. There is an important role for planners here in ensuring a diverse range of stores and land uses (Jacobs, 1961;Talen, 2019).…”

Multicultural Engagements in Lived Spaces: How Cultural Communities Intersect in Belleville, Paris

“…To quote Hall et al. (:1325), ethnic shopping streets in particular are “edge spaces in which planetary flows intersect.” Following Zukin et al. (), we might point to the role of the “authors” who shape the ecosystem of these “edge spaces”: building owners, business owners, employees, and customers.…”

A diasporic right to the city: the production of a Moroccan diaspora space in Granada, Spain

“…Financial precariousness and structural inequalities embedded in the urban fabric frequently require migrants and diasporas to find a foothold in the city (Hall, King, & Finlay, 2017), such as access to cheap and underused properties. It is urban spaces that are underused and ripe for transformation that are most readily accessible to the formation of 'new' diasporas.…”

“…Paradoxically, this lack of local government interest was another favourable condition for the diaspora. As highlighted in the work on highly diverse streets in the UK by Hall et al (2017), spaces that are not overly regulated can function as a foothold to the city for new migrants. It allows diasporas to gain a presence and take shape with little interference from the local government, reducing complications and costs.…”