(Im)Mobility and Belonging of Migrants and Local Residents in the Context of Urban Transformations

Migration and urban studies have focused on localities as multi-layered spheres in which economic, political, and cultural forces are embedded in order to capture migrant incorporation and exclusion, as well as to challenge the binary between mobility and stasis. Along these lines, this presentation explores how migrants and local residents without migration backgrounds cope with the urban transformations brought about by neoliberal restructuring and expanding border controls by taking up the case of Ikuno-ward, Osaka, Japan. It also examines how their practices interact with their (im)mobility and belongings.

Osaka is the second largest city in Japan and is undergoing urban transformations. It is a so-called “post-colonial” city, where many descendants of colonial-era migrants from the Korean Peninsula have long lived there. Specifically, Ikuno-ward is known for having the highest percentage of Korean residents in Japan. At the same time, the ethnic composition of the local population has recently changed with the influx of Chinese, Vietnamese, Nepalese, and other migrants. Moreover, the local government has been actively implementing neoliberal restructuring to address economic recession. In addition, migration control is increasingly being carried out at the local level, as in other migrant-receiving societies.

Using the data from the fieldwork at Ikuno-ward as well as approximately 60 in-depth interviews with migrants and local residents, this presentation argues that while some migrants can find opportunities for upward mobility through entrepreneurship, others have become immobile and are in precarious situations that may jeopardize their belongings, even after long-term settlement. It shows that the ways of coping with urban transformation are stratified, and that stasis is not always the basis of belonging. Based on these considerations, it discusses the complex relationships between (im)mobility and belonging.