Migration and social transformation through the lens of locality: a multi-sited study of experiences of neighbourhood transformation

Abstract

Starting from Castles’ argument that contemporary international migration is part of ‘step-change’ transformations brought about by neoliberal globalisation, this article analyses the local impacts of global transformations by undertaking a comparative analysis of the myriad ways migration shapes three urban localities in South Korea, Turkey and Australia. The article explores how migrants and non-migrants in each locality make meaning about social transformation from everyday material and social changes around them. Urban social change is examined as engaging processes and actors across multiple scales to illuminate the often obscured entanglements of government (dis)investment in infrastructure, national migrant incorporation policies, and migration histories. The article argues that analysing local responses to migration through this lens provides insights into the complex nexus of social transformation, place and global mobility.