The making of a global neighbourhood in China

Abstract

Global neighbourhood, as a new immigrant settlement pattern, has been confirmed to benefit residential diversity and civic engagement in the United States. Based on fieldwork in Yiwu City, the world’s largest small-commodity distribution centre, we examine the formation of a global neighbourhood in China as a new immigrant destination country. Through field observations and in-depth interviews with immigrant residents, social workers and restaurant owners, we identify several factors contributing to the neighbourhood evolution, including immigrants’ market-driven rational choice, the local government’s multi-faceted service and the bridging role of Chinese ethnic minorities. This Yiwu model suggests a new way to think about immigrant settlement patterns that deserves more attention from urban scholars. Moreover, the patterns we discovered reveal new immigrant settlement mechanisms outside the US context, which enriches the current literature on global neighbourhoods and new immigrant destinations.