"Immigrantification" (n.) - Gentrification by Immigrants

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"Immigrantification" (n.) - Gentrification by Immigrants

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Started 1 year ago by Walker
Latest reply from rus

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Walker
The KLD / Downtown
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Spotted this word twice in the local news, and I kind of like it. Coined by a David Walker, a cultural geographer at The Ohio Wesleyan University. Anyone think it has a shot at eventually making it into the dictionary?

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Ethnic businesses ending vacancies
Friday, August 20, 2010
BUSINESS FIRST OF COLUMBUS - BY Carrie Ghose

The Morse Road commercial corridor past the former Northland Mall is likely the only place in Columbus where you can get a temporary henna tattoo and then cross the street for a pinata. ItÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s immigrant-owned businesses along Morse Road that are credited with preventing the widespread vacancies that were feared when the mall closed in 2002. According to neighborhood groups, ethnic stores sprinkled amid national discount chains have created a diverse destination that is attracting traffic and thus more businesses.

David Walker, a cultural geographer at Ohio Wesleyan University, has a word for it: Ã¢â‚¬Å“Immigrantification,Ã¢â‚¬Â or gentrification by immigrants.

READ MORE: http://columbus.bizjournals.com/columbus/stories/2010/08/23/story2.html

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Urban Ã¢â‚¬ËœImmigrantificationÃ¢â‚¬â„¢
by Linda OÃ¢â‚¬â„¢Horo

During the summer, Ohio Wesleyan University student Jack Schemenauer Ã¢â‚¬â„¢11 worked with assistant professor of geography David Walker, Ph.D., to study how an influx of Somali and Latino residents and merchants is helping to revitalize the Northland area of Columbus. Once a thriving Ã¢â‚¬Å“go-toÃ¢â‚¬Â spot, the Northland area began to deteriorate when shoppers and merchants migrated to adjacent suburban areas.

Walker and Schemenauer coined the term Ã¢â‚¬Å“immigrantification,Ã¢â‚¬Â to describe how immigrants can revitalize blighted neighborhoods affected by businesses and residents seeking suburban development and by Ã¢â‚¬Å“white flight.Ã¢â‚¬Â Walker says investments made by the new small businesses and the re-creation of vibrant urban landscapes has provided an excellent laboratory for study.

READ MORE: http://connect2.owu.edu/issues/20100909/newsAndViews/immigrantification.html

Posted 1 year ago #
cc

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Sadly, I think they are looked down on and missed for their true entrepreneurship. I guess Andrew Carnegie was seen in the same way. Necessity is often the true business incubator.

Posted 1 year ago #
Fusion Cafe

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I believe that word about sums it up. That corridor has become one of the new "immigrant-ized" area's of Columbus. It's just unfortunate that the big box retailers and Northland had to shut down to give the new breed of entrepeneur's a chance. Hell, not too long back Columbus was so segregated that there were only certain neighborhoods where certain races & nationalities could live--let alone operate a business. Moving forward and inch and still moving backward a foot..progress at it's finest!

Posted 1 year ago #
Walker
The KLD / Downtown
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cc wrote >>
Sadly, I think they are looked down on and missed for their true entrepreneurship.

Looked down upon and missed by who? Small Business resource providers or the general public?

I've found the former to be untrue, as many small business resource providers have programs that specifically target and assist minorities and specific impoverished or dilapidated areas.

If you're talking about the latter, well... to some extent I agree. There are a lot of people out there who probably either don't feel comfortable, or have some sort of preconceived notions about the environment in these types of businesses along Morse Road, or the new flea market out east. Unfortunately, this is nothing unique to Columbus. There are ethnic enclaves to some extent in just about every city across the world and they often contain a business community that serves their immediate community and not the greater region.

Any ideas on how we could work to change this? I have to imagine that these business owners would love new customers of all varieties.

Fusion Cafe wrote >>
Hell, not too long back Columbus was so segregated that there were only certain neighborhoods where certain races & nationalities could live--let alone operate a business. Moving forward and inch and still moving backward a foot..progress at it's finest!

I don't think these entrepreneurs are setting up in this area because of any sort of ethnic or racial segregation. It sounds more like it's attracting small business owners because of the extremely affordable prices.

Posted 1 year ago #
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I was referring to the already 'assimiliated' general public.

I think it is also hard for new ethnic minority immigrants to find 'regular' jobs (due to illegal but still existent hiring prejudices and lack of networking beyond their ethnic community), which is a catalyst for a lot of these small individually owned businesses. I believe Fusion Cafe is correct that immigrant populations do tend to settle in pockets. Which makes sense as many are learning the a language and have to rely on others who have immigrated before them for asssistance. There are very good programs/incentives for minority owned businesses and they help to address these social needs.

This is not something new though, just the cheaper rents and dead malls are more suburban now. I think it is part of the American experience which many ethnic immigrants of various nationalities have gone through.

Posted 1 year ago #
Walker
The KLD / Downtown
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Retail centers in secondary markets attract eclectic mix of tenants
Business First - by Dan Eaton
Date: Friday, March 4, 2011

Retailers and restaurateurs often clamor to locate in strip centers anchored by traffic-driving grocery stores.

READ MORE: http://www.bizjournals.com/columbus/print-edition/2011/03/04/retail-centers-in-secondary-markets.html

Posted 1 year ago #
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Posted 1 year ago #
Parker
Franklinton
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I think the term itself is a little silly (we already have terms like population change, and ethnic turnover), but this process happens all over the US. In the Salinas (CA) area, Hispanic culture has grown exponentially with supporting shops, churches, organizations and other cultural establishments.

Brooklyn, NY, is another excellent place to see this as it occurs in generational succession. Some parts have changed from one generation to another across groups so that a predominately Chinese area that was Italian, became Pakistani and is now Russian.

It's a good thing.

Posted 1 year ago #
cc

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I agree the term is lacking as it lacks the historical narrative. Shame on them. I think it is a case of the new media defining 'new'.

Posted 1 year ago #
somebuckeye
Franklin Park
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I heard a similar thing is happening in Detroit. Many of the new businesses in the urban core are immigrant owned.

Posted 1 year ago #
Walker
The KLD / Downtown
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Parker wrote >>
I think the term itself is a little silly (we already have terms like population change, and ethnic turnover), but this process happens all over the US. In the Salinas (CA) area, Hispanic culture has grown exponentially with supporting shops, churches, organizations and other cultural establishments.
Brooklyn, NY, is another excellent place to see this as it occurs in generational succession. Some parts have changed from one generation to another across groups so that a predominately Chinese area that was Italian, became Pakistani and is now Russian.
It's a good thing.

To that extent then, this term could be more aptly used to describe this new "wave" of what has already happened multiple times in the past.

I think the biggest difference for this wave in Columbus is the suburban settlement. Previous generations of immigrant/in-migration settlement was more urban (German Village, Italian Village, even Flytown to an extent) and this time around the settlement is occurring in the semi-aged suburban parts of the city.

Semantics aside, it's an interesting movement, and worthwhile of discussion.

Posted 1 year ago #
drew

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Walker wrote >>

To that extent then, this term could be more aptly used to describe this new "wave" of what has already happened multiple times in the past.
I think the biggest difference for this wave in Columbus is the suburban settlement. Previous generations of immigrant/in-migration settlement was more urban (German Village, Italian Village, even Flytown to an extent) and this time around the settlement is occurring in the semi-aged suburban parts of the city.

The most interesting part, to me, is that the new wave of immigrants don't tend to self-segregate. This snippet, from a NYT article, says it well:

The old model of American immigration resulted in cloistered inner-city neighborhoods defined by ethnicity and race: Chinatown, Little Italy, the barrio, the bottoms, Greektown. Through the middle years of the 20th century, these communities were places apart, where new arrivals shared burdens and planned assimilation into the melting pot.

In the 1960s, the historian Carl N. Degler of Stanford University popularized another metaphor: the salad bowl, in which each population group contributes ideas and textures to the cultural composition. Tom Hanchett, the staff historian at the Levine Museum of the New South in Charlotte, N.C., coined the useful term Ã¢â‚¬Å“salad bowl suburbsÃ¢â‚¬Â in 2008 to describe post-World War II suburbs where, as he writes on his Web site, Ã¢â‚¬Å“newcomer and native-born intermingle without ethnic boundaries.Ã¢â‚¬Â

That sure feels to me like what's happening in Columbus. Just look at the composition of restaurants in Columbus Square (161 and Cleveland Ave) - Vietnamese next to Somali next to Middle eastern next to Mexican, with Nigerian across the street and Puerto Rican and Persian just a bit farther north.

To the last point in the quoted section - when we talk with owners of immigrant kitchens, they generally go out of their way to make the point that they welcome everyone and actively work to make a cross-cultural connection through food. One Pakistani restaurant owner said, "People here don't think much good about Pakistan. It's in the news and the news is all bad. I'd like to show them something good about it,"... as he hands me a taste of some delicious chicken curry.

When new waves of immigrants feel comfortable seeking interaction with and support from outside of their own ethnic communities, it seems to indicate a level of optimism and comfort with their adopted hometowns that perhaps hasn't been there with past waves of immigration. That, to me, seems to be the big story, and seems truly indicative of something new.

Posted 1 year ago #
rus

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drew wrote >>

Walker wrote >>
To that extent then, this term could be more aptly used to describe this new "wave" of what has already happened multiple times in the past.
I think the biggest difference for this wave in Columbus is the suburban settlement. Previous generations of immigrant/in-migration settlement was more urban (German Village, Italian Village, even Flytown to an extent) and this time around the settlement is occurring in the semi-aged suburban parts of the city.

The most interesting part, to me, is that the new wave of immigrants don't tend to self-segregate. This snippet, from a NYT article, says it well:

The old model of American immigration resulted in cloistered inner-city neighborhoods defined by ethnicity and race: Chinatown, Little Italy, the barrio, the bottoms, Greektown. Through the middle years of the 20th century, these communities were places apart, where new arrivals shared burdens and planned assimilation into the melting pot.
In the 1960s, the historian Carl N. Degler of Stanford University popularized another metaphor: the salad bowl, in which each population group contributes ideas and textures to the cultural composition. Tom Hanchett, the staff historian at the Levine Museum of the New South in Charlotte, N.C., coined the useful term Ã¢â‚¬Å“salad bowl suburbsÃ¢â‚¬Â in 2008 to describe post-World War II suburbs where, as he writes on his Web site, Ã¢â‚¬Å“newcomer and native-born intermingle without ethnic boundaries.Ã¢â‚¬Â

That sure feels to me like what's happening in Columbus. Just look at the composition of restaurants in Columbus Square (161 and Cleveland Ave) - Vietnamese next to Somali next to Middle eastern next to Mexican, with Nigerian across the street and Puerto Rican and Persian just a bit farther north.
To the last point in the quoted section - when we talk with owners of immigrant kitchens, they generally go out of their way to make the point that they welcome everyone and actively work to make a cross-cultural connection through food. One Pakistani restaurant owner said, "People here don't think much good about Pakistan. It's in the news and the news is all bad. I'd like to show them something good about it,"... as he hands me a taste of some delicious chicken curry.
When new waves of immigrants feel comfortable seeking interaction with and support from outside of their own ethnic communities, it seems to indicate a level of optimism and comfort with their adopted hometowns that perhaps hasn't been there with past waves of immigration. That, to me, seems to be the big story, and seems truly indicative of something new.

+1

Posted 1 year ago #
Andrew Hall
Dennison Place (The Circles)
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What Drew said and said very well.

A.

Posted 1 year ago #
Walker
The KLD / Downtown
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Agreed. Well put, Drew.

Posted 1 year ago #
Walker
The KLD / Downtown
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Immigration's effect on Morse Road is subject of lecture
Wednesday, March 30, 2011
By KEVIN PARKS
ThisWeek Community Newspapers

Ohio Wesleyan University assistant professor David M. Walker has studied contemporary urban issues while conducting extensive research in Mexico.

But the instructor in urban, economic and cultural geography found fertile soil for his research practically just around the corner, along the Morse Road corridor that was devastated by the 2002 closing of the Northland Mall.

In the years since, immigrant entrepreneurs from Somalia and Latin America have filled some of the voids left by the departure of businesses from strip centers all along Morse Road.

READ MORE: http://www.thisweeknews.com/live/content/westerville/stories/2011/03/30/immigrations-effect-on-morse-road-is-subject-of-lecture.html?sid=104

Posted 1 year ago #
Walker
The KLD / Downtown
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Immigrants lead the way on Morse Road
Thursday, April 7, 2011
BY MARK FERENCHIK
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

Since 2002, the majority of business licenses granted along Morse Road have been to people with Latino or African surnames. Recent census figures show the Latino population has doubled in some areas along the busy road.

Travel no farther than Morse Road to witness the melting pot Columbus is becoming. Once one of the city's premier commercial corridors that featured national retail chain stores, Morse Road is beginning to more closely resemble the immigrant populations that have moved into the area in the past decade.

READ MORE: http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2011/04/07/immigrants-lead-the-way-on-morse.html?sid=101

Posted 1 year ago #
News
Columbus Underground
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Suburbia: Land of Immigrants
NATE BERGOCT 18, 2011

The foreign-born population is growing in the U.S., and spreading. About 40 million foreign-born residents live in the U.S. as of 2010, according to a recent Brookings Institution analysis of American Community Survey data. Roughly 8.8 million were added to the population between 2000 and 2010. But unlike counts in the past, more and more of these immigrants are living outside typical immigration hotspots like Los Angeles and New York. They’re moving to smaller cities and the suburbs of larger cities.

READ MORE: http://www.theatlanticcities.com/neighborhoods/2011/10/suburbia-land-of-immigrants/309/

Posted 7 months ago #
Andrew Hall
Dennison Place (The Circles)
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Relevant :

But not a single Republican candidate has spoken up for the idea that America is an under-populated country. In terms of population density, it is, at 83 persons a square mile, an impoverished country, barely a quarter of the rich density of China, which is running way behind India. America just has enormous room for population growth.*

Got it from :
http://www.freakonomics.com/2011/10/21/america-the-underpopulated/

Original article :

http://www.nysun.com/editorials/a-gop-default/87528/

A.

Posted 7 months ago #
Walker
The KLD / Downtown
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Wouldn't most Republican candidates prefer to see America continued to be populated by "Americans" and not "Immigrants".

Kidding, kidding... sorta... ;)

Posted 7 months ago #