Contested and interdependent appropriation of space in a multicultural commercial neighbourhood of Santiago, Chile

ABSTRACT

This article examines experiences of making, inhabiting and appropriating space, in relation to the transformations of the political economy in an increasingly multicultural urban setting. Through processes of social production and construction of space, it explores the material, societal and symbolic processes at play. The entry points are memories, images, uses and material connection to Patronato neighbourhood (Santiago, Chile) by people of Korean and Palestinian ancestry. It analyses how claims of space authenticity, processes of ethnicisation and material appropriation of space – commonly understood as given by ‘cultural differences’ – respond to historical, economic and political shifts happening at a global and local level. Moreover, challenging the prism of socioeconomic conflict and separation, it shows emerging dynamics of social interdependence and adjustment, taking place alongside the reorganisation of ethnic boundaries. Such reorganisation allows settled migrants to develop a sense of belonging and control over space in a rapidly changing neoliberal city.

KEYWORDS:

• Ethnic boundaries
• social space
• urban space
• migrant entrepreneurs
• ethnicization
• Latin America

Acknowledgments

We want to thank everyone who contributed their time to participate in this project, to the anonymous reviewers of Identities and to Alejandro Garcés for their suggestions and comments on earlier versions of this article. This work was also supported by the Centre for Social Conflict and Cohesion Studies (COES), Chile (CONICYT/FONDAP/15130009) and CONICYT-PCI, Chile [REDI170315], to whom we grateful too.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Notes

1. This article is framed in a larger research project in which more than ninety ethnographic interviews were conducted with long-settled inhabitants, including people with Chilean, Palestinian, Korean, Chinese, Indian and Syrian ancestry. Sixteen Palestinians were interviewed in Spanish; sixteen Koreans were interviewed in Spanish or in Korean (depending of language fluency in Spanish), with the help of a Korean translator who lived in Patronato. Access to the field was facilitated by long-established business people who contact us with potential interviewees. One of the researcher’s ongoing presence in Patronato increased the rapport with participants and allowed her to expand their conversations in a daily basis.

2. ‘Paisanos’ literally means ‘countrymen’. In Chile it usually refers to Arabs and their descendants.

3. ‘Cousin’ colloquially refers to a sense of familyhood among those of Palestinian descent, especially when their ancestors come from the same town.

4. Regardless of this common perception, our interviewees and other studies (Bialogorski and Bargman 1996, 21) signal that Latin American workers often prefer Korean employers over ‘local’ ones, because of Koreans’ reputation as ‘good payers’ and fair.

Additional information

Funding

This work was funded by Fondo Nacional de Desarrollo Científico y Tecnológico (FONDECYT), Chile [Postdoctoral Grant Number 3160327].