Super-diversity, austerity, and the production of precarity: Latin Americans in London

Abstract

Intensified globalisation, upheaval, conflict and inequality are creating new patterns of global migration and mobility in the 21st century. As a result, the dynamics of urban diversity is changing: global cities like London are increasingly characterised by the super-diversity of their residents, including increasing complexities of legal status. ‘New’ diversity interacts with ‘old’ ethnic diversity to create complex patterns of difference, the impact of which is felt at local level, including sites of service provision. This article draws on research on barriers to service access for Latin Americans in London, to examine the intersections between super-diversity and super-austerity. Latin Americans constitute a new migrant group in London with considerable internal diversity. The article discusses the interlocking challenges they face in accessing services. I argue that focusing on barriers to service access for this particular group provides a window onto new inequalities in super-diverse austerity Britain and the production of precarity.