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STUDIES OF THE AMERICAS
Narratives of
Migration,
Relocation and
Belonging
Latin Americans in London
Patria Román-Velázquez
Jessica Retis
Studies of the Americas
Series Editor
Maxine Molyneux
Institute of the Americas
University College London
London, UK
The Studies of the Americas Series includes country specific, cross-
disciplinary and comparative research on the United States, Latin
America, the Caribbean, and Canada, particularly in the areas of Politics,
Economics, History, Sociology, Anthropology, Development, Gender,
Social Policy and the Environment. The series publishes monographs,
readers on specific themes and also welcomes proposals for edited collec-
tions, that allow exploration of a topic from several different disciplinary
angles.
This series is published in conjunction with University College.
London’s Institute of the Americas under the editorship of Professor
Maxine Molyneux.
More information about this series at

http://www.palgrave.com/gp/series/14462
Patria Román-Velázquez · Jessica Retis
Narratives
of Migration,
Relocation
and Belonging
Latin Americans in London
Patria Román-Velázquez Jessica Retis
Institute for Media and Creative School of Journalism
Industries The University of Arizona
Loughborough University Tucson, AZ, USA
London, UK
Studies of the Americas

ISBN 978-3-030-53443-1 ISBN 978-3-030-53444-8 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-53444-8
© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer
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Acknowledgements
This book would not have been possible if were not for the people that
collaborated with us by sharing their experiences of migration, to them all
our sincerest gratitude.
We would also like to thank Prof. Maxine Molyneux, editor of this
series, for believing in this project from the start and for her words of
encouragement when we most needed them. A very special thank you to
Deborah Bowen at Loughborough University for carefully proofreading
our draft chapters. We are eternally grateful to Alejandra García-Vargas
and Ramon Burgos at the Universidad Nacional de Jujuy in Argentina for
hosting Patria Román-Velázquez during her shortened study leave period.
Despite having to rush back to the UK due to the coronavirus outbreak,
she would always be grateful for the intellectual discussions, the fun and
inspiring asados, and the lovely terrace from which parts of this book were
finalised.
We would like to acknowledge the British Academy Small Grant
Scheme for support to Dr. Patria Román-Velázquez with the project Latin
Americans in London; Migration, place and identity (SG090716). We
would also like to thank the Institute for Media and Creative Indus-
tries and Institute of Advanced Studies at Loughborough University for
funding Jessica Retis’ visit to London and the organisation of the inter-
national symposium Latin American Media: Power, Inequality and Repre-
sentation (June 2018) from which some of the ideas for Chapter 6 in this
book emerged.
v
vi ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
A special thanks to our close ones for their encouragement and support
throughout the process of writing this book. Leon and Oscar, Alba and
Alberto, thank you for helping us understand and embrace the chal-
lenges and opportunities of motherhood in academia and in the migratory
experience. To our partners, thank you for your constant support.
Contents
1 Introduction: Narratives of Migration, Relocation

and Belonging 1
2 Migration, Transnationalism and Diasporic Identities 7

2.1 Transnationalism 9
2.2 Super-Diversity and Transnational Networks 10
2.3 Place and Identity 13
2.4 Identity 15
2.5 Digital Diasporas 18
2.6 Latina/o Critical Race and Communication Theories 20
2.7 Understanding British Latinidad 23
References 25
3 Latin American Immigration to Europe: The Case

of London 31
3.1 The Constitution of Contemporary Latin American
Diasporas in Europe 34
3.2 European LAC Diasporas: A Historical Perspective 38
3.3 LAC Diasporas in the UK 43
3.4 Latinos in Global Cities 47
3.5 Latin American Diasporas in London 49
3.6 Latin Migrant and Ethnic Business 54
vii
viii CONTENTS
3.7 Narratives of Migration, Self-Representation

and Belongingness 55
References 56
4 Narratives of Migration and Relocation 63

4.1 Narratives of Migration: Routes,
Routines and Roots 65
4.2 Routes into London 67
4.3 Mobility and Routes Across London 70
4.4 Multiple Feelings of Belonging: Loneliness
and the Idea of Return 76
4.5 Routes and Routines 79
References 80
5 Narratives of Migration Around Work 83

5.1 Social Networks and ‘Migrant Division
of Labour’ in London’s Service Economy 84
5.2 The Role of Social Networks in Getting Work 88
5.3 Workplace Relationships: Integration, Solidarity
and Conflict 90
5.4 Workplace, Home and Family 97
References 99
6 Latino Media Spaces in London: The Interstices

of the Invisible 105
6.1 Diasporic Media Across Europe 108
6.2 Latinos and Their Media in London 113
6.3 The Origins: Ethnic Media for the Newcomers
en español 115
6.4 Print Outlets: Looking for noticias de aquí y de allá 120
6.5 Diasporic Latinx Airwaves and Digital Platforms
in London 126
6.6 Challenges of Mapping Latinx Media in the UK 130
6.7 Latinx Media Dynamics 131
Appendix 1: Latino Media Outlets
and Social Media (July 2012) 132
Appendix 2: Latino Media Outlets in the UK (Dec 2019) 143
CONTENTS ix
Appendix 3: British Latinx Cultural Projects

and Events in London 2019 147
References 152
7 Latin Urbanisms: Resisting Gentrification, Reclaiming

Urban Spaces 157
7.1 Latin Urbanisms Under Review 159
7.2 Latin London: The Making of London’s Latin Barrios 162
References 189
8 British Latinidad as Social and Spatial Justice 193

8.1 On British Latinidad 199
References 201
Index 203
List of Maps
Map 7.1 Migrant, ethnic and independent business directory

Elephant and Castle Shopping Centre, October 2017 164
Map 7.2 Latin American businesses in Elephant and Castle,
October 2017 165
Map 7.3 Latin American businesses in Southwark, October 2017 166
Map 7.4 Brazilian London: Brent, October 2015 169
xi
List of Tables
Table 3.1 European LAC diasporas by nationality and countries

of residence 40
Table 3.2 European LAC diasporas by country of residence (2011) 41
Table 3.3 Latin American diasporas in the UK (2011) 46
Table 3.4 Latin Americans in London (census 2011) 52
xiii
CHAPTER 1
Introduction: Narratives of Migration,

Relocation and Belonging
‘I am Senorita Rita’, so hailed a vibrant self-defined drag queen at the

opening night of the first Festival of Latin American Women in the Arts
(FLAWA) in London. As Senorita Rita made her way to the stage in a
cabaret-style performance, she warned the audience about her accent, act
and dress code. It was a bold act from Peruvian artist Pepa Duarte, with
a strong commentary on gender inequality, racism and cultural difference
achieved by challenging and interrogating preconceived ideas of what
being a Latina is all about.
The first Festival of Latin American Women in the Arts took place in
a range of venues across London between 15 and 19 May 2019, aiming
to celebrate the creativity of Latin American women, ‘whether cisgender,
transgender, queer or non-binary creators’. Organised by a group of four
Latin American migrant women settled in the UK, this group is comprised
of a young generation of professional Latin American women creating a
cultural space and voice for under-represented UK Latinx women in the
arts.
Latin Americans in London gain empowerment through culture and
the arts. They do so by creating cultural spaces to recover and heal their
memories of the past—whether it be positive memories, or memories of
violence related to oppressive dictatorships or civil wars. Such is the case
of Sin Fronteras, a youth group led by Latin American Women’s Right
Services; the Latin American Women’s Aid Change Makers programme;
© The Author(s) 2021 1

P. Román-Velázquez and J. Retis, Narratives of Migration,
Relocation and Belonging, Studies of the Americas,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-53444-8_1
2 P. ROMÁN-VELÁZQUEZ AND J. RETIS
the cultural magazine Ventana Latina by Latin American House; and

more grassroots projects such as Bordando la memoria by Jimena Pardo
and other self-organised poetry and reading groups such as Sonia
Quintero’s Poetry groups across various East London libraries. These
programmes use art and crafts as a catalyst for empowerment, resistance
and healing. They are safe spaces within which discussion about identity
and everyday experiences to enrich and build common ground around
migration can take place. It is about gaining visibility as much as it is about
providing a space for greater recognition, and an opportunity to build
communities of resistance, belongingness and a sense of social justice.
Music and dance are also used as forms of resistance and assertions of
spatial justice. For example, Talentos Group takes over urban landmarks in
the capital (e.g. Tower Bridge or Big Ben) to assert a form of Latin Amer-
ican identity through its dance and colourful folkloric costumes. This
takeover of city space invokes a fusion of styles by overlapping folkloric
rhythms, dance and dress on London’s most recognised urban landmarks.
New generations of DJ’s and music promoters such as Movimientos,
Latinos in London and Latino Life or music groups such as WARA and
music festivals such as Cimarron, all use dance and music as a means of
expressing solidarity through resistance practices by supporting charitable
causes.
The development of local and translocal media outlets is another way of
creating spaces of recognition and solidarity for a group whose everyday
news consumption needs are almost absent from the UK’s mainstream
media outlets. Multimedia consortiums such as Express News and Extra
Radio, for example, appear as a combination of platforms providing
mostly local and transnational news and events. More specialist news
outlets such as The Prisma provide bilingual digital content and in-depth
analyses of current affairs; or the political news magazine, Alborada,
which mostly provides in-depth analyses of Latin American politics.
These expressions are about new ways of belonging by invoking
cultural heritage and fusions in London’s familiar, and less familiar, urban
surroundings. It is about creating spaces of self-representation, of having a
voice and unravelling trajectories of migration. Again, it is about asserting
greater recognition and belongingness to the city that Latin American
migrants now call home.
Whilst cultural and media spaces emerge as a response to past and
current events and as a way of forging networks of solidarity, Latin
Americans also become empowered and bring significant cases in support
1 INTRODUCTION: NARRATIVES OF MIGRATION, RELOCATION … 3
of workers in the cleaning sector, through trade union memberships.

Take, for example, the following legal cases represented by the relatively
new trade union, United Voices of the World.
‘Topshop 2: Victory!’1 ‘Former Topshop cleaner Susana wins bumper
pay-out’2 declared United Voices of the World Union after Carolina
Caceres3 and Susana Benavides,4 two of its trade union members, won
their legal cases for unfair dismissal by Britannia Services Group Limited
due to their trade union activities in demanding the London Legal
Wage for subcontracted cleaners at Topshop’s flagship store on London’s
Oxford Street.
The cases of Ms. Caceres and Ms. S. Benavides (Claimants) against
Britannia Services Group Limited (cleaning services contracting company
for Arcadia group—which includes Topshop) were led by United Voices
of the World (‘UVW’), a relatively new union that represents predom-
inantly low-paid migrant workers—many of whom are Latin American
cleaners. Both cases were heard separately by the employment tribunal,
and, in the case of Ms Benavides, it concluded that: ‘it is clear beyond
any argument that the Claimant was dismissed for the reason that she
had taken part in the activities of the independent trade union’ (Employ-
ment tribunal case 2208186/2016, p. 15).5 The court ruled that both
workers were unfairly dismissed because of their trade union activities.
These two Latin American women found solidarity and were empow-
ered to demand the London living wage, through their trade union
activities. Their gains were significant for workers in the cleaning sector
who were demanding better working conditions and union representa-
tion in a sector that is largely operated by subcontracting firms. Unionism
amongst low-paid workers, and particularly in the cleaning sector, is
almost non-existent. United Voices of the World fills an important gap
in unionist work amongst low-paid, and often subcontracted, work in
1 https://www.uvwunion.org.uk/news/2018/9/top-shop-2-victory. Accessed 24 June

2019.
2 https://www.uvwunion.org.uk/news/2019/2/susana-wins-bumper-payout-topshop.
Accessed 24 June 2019.
3 Ms. Caceres Employment Tribunal case number: 2208251/2016.
4 MS Benavides Employment Tribunal case number: 2208186/2016.
5 https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/5c37606340f0b67c6c8d07eb/
Miss_S_Benavides_-v-_Britannia_Services_Group_Limited_-_Case_2208186_2016_-_
Full.pdf. Accessed 17 June 2019.
the cleaning sector in high street chains, office blocks, hospitals and
universities.
These are just a few examples of the many voices and diverse expe-
riences emerging from politically aware groups of Latin Americans in
London who are challenging institutionalised everyday racism and sexism
via the arts, media, unionisation and protest as a way of asserting their
rights and place in London.
In this book, we try to capture some of the many narratives through
which Latin Americans recognise themselves as such in diasporic and
transnational spaces, and how they develop strategies to navigate the city
and the system whilst also capturing how they claim their space in the
global city. The next chapter provides a conceptual map that allows us to
think through the myriad of spaces, narratives and practices we engage
with whilst doing the research that informs this book. The chapters that
follow capture the journeys undertaken by Latin Americans in their migra-
tory circuits: from arrival through to gaining recognition and claiming
their right to the city. Chapter 3 begins by capturing some of the mega
narratives around migration of Latin Americans to Europe, and London
in particular. The fourth chapter builds upon this by navigating some of
the narratives we encounter whilst exploring routes and routines into and
across London, some of which are traumatic, others, less so. The partic-
ipants of the experiences highlighted in this chapter are often embraced
on economic and political matters that either stimulate or constrain their
movement and thus, possible migratory circuits. We capture a diversity of
experiences that are testament to journeys into London. Some are stories
of enjoyment and adventure, whilst others are stories of resilience and
endurance. We soon realised that most people we spoke to spend a long
time travelling to and from work, and so Chapter 5 explores narratives of
solidarity and conflict in the workplace. Chapter 6 moves into mediatic
spaces to explain how Latin Americans are creating spaces of recogni-
tion, self-representation, production and consumption through digital
channels, now more available than ever, in diasporic transnationalism
conditions. This occurs despite, and because of, the underrepresenta-
tion of Latin American-related issues (whether in London or in Latin
America itself) in London’s media spaces. Chapter 7 captures contempo-
rary struggles over space which are due to gentrification processes that are
affecting London’s largest Latin American business clusters and spaces. It
focuses how cultural expressions are used as tools to resist gentrification
and invoke equity and equality around spatial justice.
1 INTRODUCTION: NARRATIVES OF MIGRATION, RELOCATION … 5
At times when large sections of the population face uncertainty and

displacement due to gentrification, stronger female voices emerge to
capture an active community where, through their activism, women are
the drivers of social change. This is seen in most leading charities in
cases of gentrification where women outnumber men and lead signifi-
cant campaigns against gentrification; it is also seen in attempts to resist
exploitation by multinational corporations, aided by strong unionisation
and also by celebrating the myriad of perspectives emerging from the arts
and cultural spheres.
These contrasting examples capture the diverse experiences and
discourses emerging from Latin Americans in London, whilst asserting
their right to the city from cultural, labour or urban perspectives. These
multiple voices and experiences are presented here as examples of claims
to the right to belong, to assert one’s place in the city, to seek social
and spatial justice, and are testament to different levels of belongingness,
engagement and trajectories of Latin Americans in London.
As we undertake the task of writing about the relatively new and
growing presence of these groups in the British capital, we examine
their narratives on the processes of migration, relocation and belonging.
We seek to provide resources to fill a gap on triangulation of research
methods and theoretical approaches to fuel a much-needed debate on
the invisibility of these communities. We are mindful of the limitations
of this project. Therefore, we intend to present mainly the beginning of
a larger discussion on the economic, social and cultural settings of Latin
Americans in London. Throughout this book, we use the terms Latin
Americans, Latino, Latina, Latino/a or Latinx to refer to these diverse
and heterogeneous communities. Latin Americans are the peoples born
in Latin American countries, although they can relate to different ethnic
or racial backgrounds. Thus, we are not referring necessarily to a common
or unique ethnicity, but to a geographical liaison to a region where our
interviewees trace their origin to. Whilst in the United States the pan-
ethnic terms Hispanic and Latino have been used interchangeably since
the mid-twentieth century, our sources in London use mainly Latino or
Latin American to self-identify. In the United States, the term Hispanic
refers to peoples of Spanish-origin populations whereas Latino is mostly
used to refer to people who trace their cultural liaisons with Spanish- or
Portuguese-speaking countries. At the change of the century, the terms
Latino/a Latina/o were incorporated to denote the masculine and femi-
nine endings and to promote gender inclusion. With the digital era, the
term Latinx was adopted as a gender neutral and alternative to Latino

and Latina and it has had its supporters and detractors. More recently, it
has been adopted by academia to promote inclusiveness and reinvigorate
the intersectional debate. All these pan-ethnic labels have been used in
the United States in various momentums on the one hand by political
administration, marketing discourses or media campaigns whereas they
have been also embraced by various groups in self-identification, coali-
tion building and critical approaches. This was the case of the emergence
and development of the conceptualisation of the US Latinidad. Towards
the conclusion of this book we bring these discussions into our own
understanding of British Latinidad.
CHAPTER 2
Migration, Transnationalism
and Diasporic Identities
Transnational practices capture the diverse geographical, cultural and

political networks that migrants forge across borders. We argue that dias-
poric transnationalism (Georgiou 2006) allows us to consider what we call
the circuits of migration, to capture migrants’ multi-local networks and
practices. The research presented in this book engages with transnation-
ality by exploring multiple narratives, networks and practices emerging
from the experience of migration into London via primary, secondary
and tertiary routes. We seek to contribute to the increased debate on
how multiple and mixed forms of migration and mobility become more
common and demand an interdisciplinary approach (King and Skeldon
2010; Castles 2007; Portes 1997; Retis 2014).
The scale and diversity of transnational practices amongst migrant
populations in London has led to what Vertovec (2007) has called ‘super-
diverse’ cities. Thus, for us it is also important to understand the multiple
dimensions that contribute to increasingly changing and malleable iden-
tities and a sense of belongingness to places. This is compounded by
an ever more complex circuit of migration that ties people to multiple
localities and feelings of belongingness. We extend the concept of transna-
tionalism beyond the two-layered (country of origin and host country)
perspective that has dominated transnationalism studies, to incorporate
multiple migratory circuits. This will lead us to explore the experiences

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-53444-8_2
of those Latin Americans who settled in London via first, second or third
migration routes.
Drawing on Castles (2010), we seek to examine the complexity,
diversity and contextuality of migratory processes. As Castels argues,
researchers should seek to integrate the insights of the various social
sciences to understand the regularities and variations of a range of migra-
tory processes within a given historical and socio-economic contexts
(Castles 2010, p. 1582). In examining Latin American diasporas in
London, we pursue an examination of the factors that influence these
migratory processes and the connections between them.
Transnational migratory circuits are marked by intersectionality. This
approach retains its explanatory power in an increasingly transnational
world in which people’s experiences are shaped within country and
between country structures (Purkayastha 2012, p. 59). By this, we
mean that diasporic movement and resettlement are intercepted by wider
discourses and discriminatory or exclusionary practices based on religion,
gender, class and race. For us, it is important to consider the complex ways
in which intersectionality is played out in people’s narratives of migration,
everyday working practices, the media and urban environments—particu-
larly so in response to asserting their rights to the city in their search for
social and spatial justice.
The exponential growth of new forms of digital communication,
including social networks, amongst international migratory circuits that
led to the twin forces of mass mediation and electronic mediation as
human motion and digital mediation, is in constant flux. As a result, the
circulation of people and mediatised content occurs across and beyond
nation-state borders and provides ground for alternative community and
identity formations (Leurs and Ponzanesi 2011). Scholars have argued
that new theoretical and empirical perspectives meet up at the transdisci-
plinary junction of media and migration research: ‘These include, but are
not limited to, the ways this scholarship understands the symbolic power
of the media in shaping social imaginaries on migration; the increased role
of data in the enactment of security and humanitarian responses to migra-
tion; and, the growing significance of digital technologies in imagining,
organising and surviving migrant journeys’ (Smets et al. 2019, p. XLVII).
In this section, we build a conceptual map to frame the research
material that we include in subsequent chapters. We begin by mapping
out transnationalism; we then link this discussion to super-diversity and
proceed to consider re-conceptualisations of place and identity. We reflect
2 MIGRATION, TRANSNATIONALISM AND DIASPORIC IDENTITIES 9
on the implications of these discussions for our understanding of digital

diasporas in the context of migration and mobility, and we use this
material to map out our understanding of what we call British Latinidad.
2.1 Transnationalism
Transnationalism involves the crossing of borders and the interconnec-
tion of ‘people, ideas, objects and capital across borders of nation states’
(Glick Schiller 2007, p. 449). However, this process does not go unchal-
lenged and ‘it is often accompanied by increased expressions of inequality,
uncertainty, ethnic conflict and hostility’ (Anthias 2010, p. 230). Glob-
alisation, on the other hand, refers to a ‘period of intensified integration
of the world through capitalist systems of production, distribution and
communication’ (Glick Schiller 2007, p. 449). In this sense, globalisation
processes place emphasis on a greater system that regulates, facilitates or
hinders movement of culture, capital, labour and communication (Anthias
2010).
Whilst globalisation is used to describe systems that affect the world
on a global scale, transnationalism is linked to ongoing practices and
processes across specific geopolitical borders. As succinctly summarised
by Anthias (2002), ‘globalisation … with its attendant to transnational
movements of capital and ideas as well as communication flows, has
made issues of location more central to people’s understandings’ (p. 500).
Anthias (2002) implies that globalisation goes beyond the national lens—
for example, financial markets do not depend on physical boundaries for
transactions to occur across nations. Transnationalism, on the other hand,
is about the impact of global processes at a local level and thus the signifi-
cance of place and locality. In this context, transnationalism is ‘the process
by which immigrants forge and sustain multi-stranded social relations that
link together their societies of origin and settlement. We call this process
transnationalism to emphasize that many immigrants today build social
fields that cross geographic, cultural, and political borders’ (Basch et al.
1994, p. 6). Transnationalism allows ‘researchers to take into account the
fact that immigrants live their lives across national borders and respond to
the constraints and demands of two or more states’ (Glick Schiller et al.
1995, p. 54), and to explore ‘simultaneous embeddedness’ amongst those
who live across borders (Glick Schiller 2007). In this sense, transnation-
alism acknowledges multi-local perspectives to migration studies in that it
considers transactions across borders as much as practices linking migrants

to different places, including, but not restricted to, place of origin.
Drawing on Vertovec (2001), our study seeks to examine transnation-
alism and identity as concepts that are in juxtaposition. As we explore
connections between Latin groups in London and back to the Latin
American region, we attempt to contribute to the idea that many peoples’
transnational networks of exchange and participation are grounded upon
some perception of common identity. In other words, we seek to under-
stand how identities of numerous individuals and groups of people are
negotiated within social worlds that span more than one place across the
Atlantic.
2.2 Super-Diversity and Transnational Networks

Transnational networks have intensified and diversified migrant transna-
tional practices across borders (Vertovec 2007). The density and diversity
of transnational networks and practices not only occurs when facilitated
by technological advancements, but also as a response to hostile or unre-
ceptive responses in the countries in which migrants have settled (Glick
Schiller et al. 1995).
Transnational migration is not new. However, it is the increased
density and diversity of transnational networks and practices that deem
them worthy of study. Such exchanges and transactions take place under
increasingly sophisticated technological and financial contexts and in an
ever more complex and, at times, hostile environment towards migrants.
The scale and diversity of transnational practices amongst migrant popu-
lations worldwide has led to what Vertovec (2007) has coined ‘super-
diverse’ cities. These include cities such as London which, according to
the 2011 census, has the smallest percentage of White British people, at
44.9%,1 with 270 nationalities and 300 languages represented.2 However,
super-diversity is not just about country of origin, it also accounts for
other significant differences and forms of identification. Super-diversity
refers to ‘the differential convergence of factors surrounding patterns
1 See https://www.ethnicity-facts-figures.service.gov.uk/uk-population-by-ethnicity/nat
ional-and-regional-populations/regional-ethnic-diversity/latest. Accessed 1 March 2020.
2 See https://www.standard.co.uk/news/270-nationalities-and-300-different-languages-
how-a-united-nations-of-workers-is-driving-london-6572417.html. Accessed 1 March
2020.
of immigration since the early 1990s’ (Vertovec 2007, p. 1049). These

factors include country of origin, migration channel, legal status, human
capital, access to employment, locality, transnationalism and responses by
local authorities, service providers and local residents.
These differences are also captured in the diversity of local and
transnational practices used by migrant populations to assert new and
different forms of belongingness. Transnational ways of belonging refer
to conscious awareness of those practices and actions that signify or enact
an identity:
If individuals engage in social relations and practices that cross borders as

a regular feature of everyday life, then they exhibit a transnational way of
being. When people explicitly recognize this and highlight the transnational
elements of who they are, then they are also expressing a transnational way
of belonging. Clearly, these two experiences do not always go hand in
hand. (Levitt and Glick Schiller 2004, p. 1011)
Thus, a transnational way of belonging is about how activities are

‘represented, understood and translated into an identity politics’, whilst
‘transnational ways of being include everyday life actions and interac-
tions across borders’ (Glick Schiller 2007, p. 458). Transnational living
will include the practices and social relations that individuals engage into
form transnational networks (Guarnizo 2003). In assessing the economics
of transnational living amongst migrants, Guarnizo (2003) calls for an
approach that considers the cross-border relations and practices that link
migrants with different places (in and outside of Britain). Transnational
living is a ‘dynamic social field that involves and affects simultaneously
actors (individuals, groups, institutions) located in different countries’
(Guarnizo 2003, p. 670). It accounts for how migrants’ transnational
practices influence and transform countries of origin and new localities,
but it is equally important for the unintended global economic conse-
quences of such practices (finance, trade, production and consumption of
culture).
Thus, a focus on migrants’ transnational practices provides a different
account of global processes, one that is ‘driven from below by migrants’
(Guarnizo 2003, p. 668). Not all migrant communities participate in
transnational practices on equal terms. Different migrant groups will have
differentiated and unequal access to the exchange of information and
resources. As Portes et al. (1999, 2002) have highlighted, most migrants,
regardless of sharing the same space, have differentiated access to, and
uses for, the technologies at their disposal. This brings power at the
centre of the analysis, in that transnational links are embedded in fields
of interaction which are, as indicated above, not only multi-local, but also
multi-layered (Alexandre 2013; Levitt and Glick Schiller 2004).
The multi-layered and multi-local nature of transnational practices
is best exemplified in the case of business formation by migrant
entrepreneurs whereby their activities involve ties and connections across
a diversity of locations. Their economic transactions are dependent upon
global financial exchange and the importation of goods, subject to local
regulations:
Migrants’ transnational engagement has significant influence and trans-

forming effects not only on the development of their localities and
countries of origin, but also on global macroeconomic processes, including
international finance arrangements, international trade, and the production
and consumption of culture. (Guarnizo 2003, p. 667)
The degree to which migrant entrepreneurs can have an impact upon

new locations and countries of origin is dependent upon the resources at
their disposal and the specific contexts in which they relocate.
Thus, a focus on transnationalism will facilitate our analysis in a
super-diverse city such as London, by considering the complexity of
transnational social fields embedded in our discussion of Latin American
entrepreneurs, media and community organisations. Transnational prac-
tices would include the activities of migrant entrepreneurs in the supply
and demand chain, as much as the activities of organisations promoting
cultural events that would reinforce national identity abroad (Portes et al.
1999, 2002). A focus on transnationalism will also facilitate ‘the analysis
of structures of power that legitimate social inequalities’ (Glick Schiller
2007, p. 449).
So far, we have discussed how globalisation processes and transnation-
alism are better understood from below, that is by the very practices,
transactions and social relations that make possible transnational move-
ments and networks. However, in the context of London, the concept of
‘super-diversity’ has been used to describe how globalisation and transna-
tionalism have accelerated the changing character of global cities, and
particularly relevant for us, the multiple ways in which transnational prac-
tices materialise in cities. What stems from these discussions is a renewed
interest in localities, places and identities—a discussion to which we now
turn.
2.3 Place and Identity

Processes of globalisation, transnationalism and migration have led to
conceptual shifts in understandings of place and identity (Massey 1993,
1999; Giddens 1990; Harvey 1989, 1993; Foucault 1988; Hall 1990,
1995; Butler 1990; Gilroy 1993; Bhabha 1994). If, throughout moder-
nity, places were conceptualised as fixed, bounded and stable, during the
period of late modernity and as part of globalisation discourses, places
are thought of as fluid, porous and open to transformation. This shift
is partly explained in terms of the changes brought about as part of the
spread of modernity around the globe (Giddens 1990) or the develop-
ments of capitalism (Harvey 1989). Ideas about identity have also shifted
from being stable, homogeneous, unified and dependent on society, to
being unstable, fragmented, heterogeneous and displaced—as part of
modern thought, identities were considered to be collective and depen-
dent on territorial belongingness. If modern thought brought stability
to ideas about identity, late modern thought incorporates feelings of
ambiguity, difference and exclusion to contemporary understandings of
identity. However, it is still the case that identity is explored in terms of
the positive relationships developing with and across places, leaving aside
questions about how this relationship might be dominated by feelings of
fear, anxiety, antagonism and non-belongingness.
The bulk of research on place and identity can be divided into two
main strands—one that mainly focuses on the identity of places; the other
sets out to explore the links that different groups of people, defined
by either their ethnic or geographical background, establish with places.
These studies have been significant in that they adopt a progressive
sense of place and anti-essentialist position with regard to identity. Re-
conceptualising place as unbounded, multi-layered and not exclusively
territorial has been a central concern in these writings—whilst identity
is taken to be unfixed and in a continual process of transformation.
Both strands of research tend to regard places and identities as active,
porous and open to transformation and contestation. Some of the work
produced under the umbrella of place and identity (Orum and Chen
2002; Hall 1990) has been pivotal in highlighting the particular ways
in which people establish a link with places, and for understanding the
practices through which places are transformed and, in this process, given
particular identities.
In the first instance, it is often the case that identity is vaguely explored
and illustrated via a series of visible signifiers. Identity seems to be
regarded as the physical characteristics of individuals, groups and places.
In this sense, identity is treated as a matter of representation, and in the
process of de-codification, a series of assumptions are made about certain
people, their practices and their place of origin. What was once regarded
as a novel approach to identity and place has, more than ever, become
a descriptive account of the series of visible characteristics about a place
and the people that inhabit and exist in those places. To rethink places
and identities as unfixed, hybrid and open to transformation, does not
solve the problem of how they have been researched. It is not a matter of
describing places and identities in terms of their conceptualisation—that
is to describe them in terms of being hybrid, unbounded and unfixed—
but to consider the historical and material practices that contribute to
our understanding of places and identities as such. To reduce identity to
its representation will only result in a superficial exploration of the rela-
tionship between place and identity. Instead, we suggest an approach that
considers the way in which identity and place are embedded in longer
historical processes and material practices.
Second, the relationship between place and identity all too often
appears in terms of attachment, solidarity and belonging. We suggest
that feelings of detachment, ambiguity and of not belonging are equally
important for how we are to understand the relationship between place
and identity. Feelings of detachment and non-belonging are positive
forces contributing to further understand how, if at all, the relationship
between place and identity develops. However, further understanding of
how this happens is needed and very little has been done in this area.
The point here is that the relationship between place and identity could
be in the form of attachment, bond and solidarity and/or detachment,
ambiguity and feelings of not belonging.
We suggest the need for an approach that considers identity not just
in terms of its representation, but through a thorough understanding of
the historical processes and material practices which contribute to the
changing character of identities. We also urge a reconsideration of identity
in terms of feelings of ambiguity and detachment as invaluable for under-
standing the often unstable, uncertain and malleable sense of identity or
experience of identity. As such, we argue that feelings of detachment,
ambiguity and of not belonging are equally important for how we are to
understand identity formation or the experience of identity.
2.4 Identity
Identity has become increasingly significant in the social sciences. Modern
identities were thought of as stable, unified and static; in late moder-
nity or postmodernity, these are regarded as unstable, fragmented and
open to transformation. This re-conceptualisation has played a key role
in the pursuit of present and future research projects and agendas across
disciplinary boundaries.
Identities invoke history, language and culture as a matter of becoming
as well as of being. Thus, identities are not grounded in an essentialised
past, but refer to how we position (or understand) ourselves in relation
to historical and cultural discourses, but also, to how that might change
(Hall 1990). In this sense, then, identity, as Gilroy (1993) has expressed
it, is about difference as much as it is about a shared sense of belonging. In
this respect, identification entails the demarcation of boundaries, in terms
of not only what is of common ground or shared characteristics amongst
individuals, but also most importantly what is left outside of those bound-
aries. Thus, identities are constructed through difference. This notion
of identity also points to the idea that identities are constructed within
discourse. This approach is an attempt to move from the idea of identity
as a shared sense of belonging through history, solidarity and allegiance,
to one that considers identities as fragmented, fractured, in a constant
process of transformation and that ‘multiply constructed across different,
often intersecting and antagonistic discourses, practices and positions’
(Hall 1996, p. 4).
A distinction needs to be made concerning the use and application of
the concept of identity that circulates amongst psychoanalysis, sociology
and cultural studies. The problem seems to be that each approach uses
the term in a rather limited and exclusive way. In sociology, identity is
still explored with reference to issues of class, gender, religion, family and
community; in cultural studies, the emphasis is on the discursive, whilst
in psychoanalysis a great deal of attention is paid to the individual, the
self and the body. These traditions might intersect; however, it is often
the case that the psyche and discursive aspects of identity (Hall 1996)—
and we may also add the institutional dimensions of identity—do not
meet. Thus, the call to rethink identity in terms of a meeting point is not
about rejecting the concept altogether, but rather revisiting it with a clear
understanding of what identity is. After all, this seems to have been the
problem, the concept of identity is often taken for granted and reduced
to a label that is illustrated with regard to places, people or practices. We

argue that it is precisely this lack of knowledge about identity per se that
has produced a body of research that reduces identity to its representation
or to the institutional dimension of society (or to how the institutional
dimensions of society contribute to identity formation).
It seems to us that in order to move forward, recognition of the merits
of each approach and an attempt to merge the best of them to form a valid
working concept of identity is required. The most notable attempt made
to do this has been by Stuart Hall. However, the difficulty is that whilst
appreciated on a theoretical level, when utilised, much of the richness of
this argument is lost, most frequently to its representative dimension.
Identity, according to Stuart Hall refers:
… to the meeting point, the point of suture, between on the one hand
the discourses and practices which attempt to ‘interpellate’, speak to us or
hail us into place as the social subjects of particular discourses, and on the
other hand, the processes which produce subjectivities, which construct us
as subjects which can be ‘spoken’. Identities are thus points of temporary
attachment to the subject positions which discursive practices construct for
us … Identities are, as it were, the positions which the subject is obliged
to keep up while always ‘knowing’ (the language of consciousness here
betrays us) that they are representations … (1996, pp. 5–6)
There are three main points to Stuart Hall’s understanding of identities.

First, identities are constituted within discourse in as much as discourse
produces what it names and regulates; second, identities are constituted
through difference in the way in which it is dependent upon that which
it negates; and finally, identities are enacted through the subject positions
made available through language and cultural codes (Du gay et al. 2000).
Identities are understood as the positions we take up and identify with as
subjects of discourse (Woodward 1997).
This is an approach to establish a bridge between the discursive
and psychoanalytical versions of identity: particularly those exploring the
relationship between subject and language. It draws from the struc-
turalist and post-structuralist approaches to languages in that identities are
enacted through the subject positions made available through language
and cultural codes, and that identities are constituted through differ-
ence (Redman 2000). The main difference here is that it places identity
production outside of ideology and amongst the discursive. Placing iden-

tity within the discursive field rather than the ideological is indicative
of the way in which the relationship between the subject and language
has been theorised. We need to only consider Louis Althuser’s (2014)
approach to ideology to find some resonance of his argument on Hall’s
version of identity.
Althusser’s main argument is that we recognise ourselves as subjects
in so far as we are conscious of the practices of ideological recogni-
tion. Recognising ourselves as subjects entails the process through which
ideology interpellates individuals as subjects. In this respect, ideology
transforms the individual into subjects by the process of interpellation.
This necessarily involves a consideration of how individuals are recruited
to the subject positions made available in ideology and of the subject as
constituted from outside. Thus, Hall’s idea that identity does not exist
within the subject but is constituted through the subject positions made
available through language and cultural codes (Redman 2000), owes a
lot to Althusser’s theorisation on the subject and ideology. For Althusser,
ideology interpellates individuals as subjects and produces subject posi-
tions which we get to know through language and cultural codes. That
is, we get to know about the subject positions through systems of
representation. This part of the argument also draws on structural and
post-structural linguistics, in so far as language is a system of representa-
tion, for which the idea of difference and cultural specificity is crucial
to how we understand the production of meaning. So, in this sense
then, ‘discourses and systems of representation construct places from
which individuals can position themselves and from which they can speak’
(Woodward 1997, p. 14).
Stuart Hall does not fully locate identity production amongst the
sphere of the discursive, but also acknowledges the possibilities brought
about by psychoanalysis. The psychoanalysis approach takes on board
the idea of the subject positions by considering the types of investments
that people might take when assuming an identity (Woodward 1997).
In Stuart Hall’s terms, these subject positions are made available to us
through language by a process of representation. This perspective differs
from the psychoanalytical version of identity in that it does not refer
to that type of ‘human material that is always already present’ (Redman
2000, p. 10), that is pre-social, true or essential to the human body, but to
the way in which identities are enacted through subject positions, which
again, we can only get to know through language and cultural codes.
As we have explained, the definition of identity outlined above is

an attempt to bridge different approaches to the concept of identity.
However, it is often the case that identity is illustrated via a series of
visible signifiers resulting in a vague exploration of the concept. Iden-
tity seems to be regarded as the physical characteristic of individuals,
groups and places. In this respect, identity is treated as a matter of
representation, and in the process of de-codification, a series of assump-
tions are made about certain people, their practices and their place of
origin. One of the points we stress is that ‘identities‘ cannot simply be
interpreted, assumed or ‘read’ from the most obvious visible images or
audible codes—television forms, dramatic genres, new musical styles that
draw from a variety of sources, clothing that combines ‘eastern’ and
‘western’ forms of dress, displaced mixed cuisine or fused music sounds
(Negus and Román-Velázquez 2002). Such obvious manifestations do
not in any straightforward way indicate a change of identity, nor a move-
ment towards ‘hybrid’ or ‘cosmopolitan’ identities (García Canclini 2005;
Georgiou 2013). Our point is that cultural identities are established by
people in relation to specific times and places; powerful social forces
enable or allow certain practices and not others. Hence, to understand
identity we need to do more than interpret the signs on the streets or
codes being beamed into homes. We need to ask questions about the
presence and absence of people and things, and the practices that enable
or constrain the endurance or transformation of identities.
It is in this light that we now turn to a more specific discussion on
how these concepts intersect with transformative digital spaces. Consider-
ation of the experiences of digital diasporas allows us to understand issues
of representation and transformative identity practices—a discussion we
develop in subsequent chapters.
2.5 Digital Diasporas

Throughout the last two decades, the concept of diaspora has been central
to debate in a wide range of fields such as cultural, media, post-colonial
and area studies, as well as politics, sociology, international relations and
social anthropology. Not without criticism, the term has expanded discus-
sions on its conceptualisations, meanings and theoretical usefulness. This
is partly the product of a desire and need amongst scholars to explore
new dimensions of human mobility and connectivity:
One needs to explore the multiple ways in which the debate on diasporas
and the very concept of “diaspora” converge with broader contemporary
debates of globalization and late modernity. Such an examination involves
a search for the intersections between a “theory of globalization” or of
“transnationalism” and the study of diasporic cultures. It requires thinking
in terms of transnational and global flows and situating “diasporic cultures”
in their midst, understanding them in terms of their relation to the complex
ethnoscapes, financescapes, mediascapes, technoscapes, and ideoscapes that
make up the global terrain and the networks that populate these. The inter-
section of the complex connectivity that underpins the transnational field
and of the processes of cultural reinvention and reconstruction that the
diasporic condition sets in motion effectively renders media technologies
and diasporic media crucial factors in the reproduction and transformation
of diasporic identities, and of diasporas in general. (Tsagarousianou and
Retis 2019, p. 3)
In communication studies, the term diaspora experienced a revival

due to the link with new technologies and how these enabled transna-
tional migrants to connect around the world (Witteborn 2019). Several
researchers have focused on the discourse of connectivity between
migrants and the relationship to transnational economic, political and
sociocultural formations across borders (Alonso and Oiarzabal 2010;
Brinkerhoff 2009; Georgiou 2006). With the advent of the digital revo-
lution and its implications for migration processes, new concepts and
terms such as the ‘online’, ‘connected’ or ‘co-present migrant’ (Nedelcu
2019; Diminescu 2008; Nedelcu and Wyss 2016) enriched the academic
discussion around digital diasporas. These terms refer to migrants who are
intensively engaged in transnational ways of being and ways of belonging,
who are developing transnational habitus and disseminating cosmopolitan
values, whilst simultaneously engaging in reviving and/or reinventing
narratives of origin (Nedelcu 2019).
The incorporation of the new technologies in the analysis of migration
and mobility also brought light to the conceptualisation of digital dias-
poras—diasporas organised on the Internet—as diasporas may use digital
spaces as instrumental networks to promote and recreate collective and
individual identities (Brinkerhoff 2009). Research on digital diasporas has
evolved to new conceptual developments such as polymedia (Madianou
and Miller 2012) or diaspora and cosmopolitanism (Nessi and Guedes
2014; Christensen and Jansson 2014), and mediatised migrant (Hepp
et al. 2012), amongst others. As researchers have asserted, we are still
confronting two main obstacles. On the one hand, the term digital dias-
pora still lacks a clear definition; on the other hand, the field of digital
diaspora studies has insufficiently accounted for diverging geopolitical
motivations to form communities, the multi-spatial specificities of living
and communicating within and across the Global North and the Global
South, as well as the diversity which is reflected, reinforced and possibly
contested within and across digital diasporas (Candidatu et al. 2019,
p. 33).
We agree with Candidatu et al. (2019) that ‘digital diasporas are
relationally constituted here and there, across platforms, spaces, borders
and networks, online and offline, by humans and data, users and plat-
forms, through material, symbolic, and emotional practices that are all
constitutive of intersecting power relations’ (p. 40). Our approach incor-
porates this relational aspect to our study in order to implement a broader
scope into the understanding of the Latino/a-Latin American diasporic
transnationalism settings in European contexts. Moreover, as we seek to
explore and analyse the concept of ‘British Latinidad’, we incorporate the
contributions from Latin American and Latina/o Critical Race Theory
perspectives into our theoretical approach.
2.6 Latina/o Critical Race

and Communication Theories
Since its inception in the 1980s, Critical Race Theory (CRT) (Crenshaw
et al. 1995) paved the route to the discussion on how race, instead
of being biologically grounded and natural, is socially constructed,
emphasising the importance of incorporating the analysis within histor-
ical and cultural contexts to deconstruct racialised frameworks. Critical
race scholars advanced the discussion through the Latina/o lens when
studying the relationship between race, racism and power (Alemán and
Alemán 2010; Delgado and Stefancic 2001). Latina/o Critical Race
Theory (LatCrit) is concerned with a progressive sense of coalitional
Latina/Latino pan-ethnicity (Valdes 1999), and addresses issues often
ignored by critical race theorists (Delgado Bernal 2013) in the United
States. As Delgado Bernal annotates, ‘LatCrits theorize issues such as
language, immigration, ethnicity, phenotype and sexuality. It’s a theory
that elucidates Latinas/Latinos’ multidimensional identities and can
address the intersectionality of racism, sexism, classism and other forms
of oppression’ (Delgado Bernal 2013, p. 392).
Most of the LatCrit work started from critical educational research

perspectives and moved to other areas of study in the United States.
Solórzano (1998) outlined the main themes that formed the basic
perspectives, research methods and pedagogy of a critical race theory in
education: (1) the centrality and intersectionality of race and racism; (2)
the challenge of dominant ideology; (3) the commitment to social justice;
(4) the centrality of experiential knowledge; and (5) the interdisciplinary
perspective. In this context, and as Anguiano et al. (2012) annotated,
an important contribution of LatCrit has been an explicit focus on the
intersections of oppression that come from multiple parts of identity,
including ethnicity, culture, nationality and language issues. Efforts from
LatCrit scholars are committed to four main aims: (1) the production of
critical and interdisciplinary knowledge; (2) the promotion of substantive
transformation; (3) the expansion and interconnection of antisubordi-
nation struggles; and (4) the cultivation of community and coalition
amongst outside scholars (Valdes 1999). We concur with these critical
perspectives where they urge researchers to highlight the experiences of
people of colour as validated holders and creators of knowledge (Delgado
Bernal 2002).
Moving this discussion into the communication arena, Castañeda et al.
(2017) examined the lack of Latina/os in the academic discipline of
communication in the United States, which affects the production of
scholarship that claims to be politically committed to responding more
broadly to the demographic, political and cultural changes. Despite
these overwhelming challenges and their minimal presence in the disci-
pline, Latinx communication academics have made important scholarly
contributions that bring together communication/media studies with
Chicana/Latina/o studies: ‘through these efforts, these scholars bring
new forms of conocimiento in order to broaden the communication
discipline to include, analyse and draft the public and personal voices,
discourses, stories, and images of Latinx individuals and communities’
(Castañeda et al. 2017, p. 160).
In this context, the theoretical progression of critical Latina/o
communication studies as a framework that can potentially speak to
the material, verbal, visual, and discursive experiences of Latinx in a
globalised world, is increasingly evolving within the discipline. At first
glance, it might seem obvious that the topic of Latinos/as, media and
representation would fit squarely with the work of critical race theorists
(CRT) who are interested in studying and transforming the relationship
between race, racism and power (Delgado and Stefancic 2001). Yet whilst
there has been work in that area, Anguiano and Castañeda (2014) illus-
trate that communication researchers have not been overly enthusiastic
in connecting their work within this tradition. In this globalised world
of digital media, Anguiano and Castañeda (2014) propose a confluence
of the subfields of CRT and Latino Critical Race theory, or LatCrit,
to create ‘Latina/o Critical Communication Theory’, in an effort to
‘contribute to critical communication studies and its commitment to
investigate inequality in order to foster social change’ (p. 109). They
intend to disrupt silos by encouraging a cross-functional bridge that can
potentially ground common theoretical tenets about Latina/o subjectiv-
ities. The Latina/o Critical Communication Theory framework proposes
an effort to move away from the fragmented examinations of Latina/os
as racialised subjects centring the analysis in: (1) centralising the Latino
experience; (2) deploying decolonising methodological approaches;
(3) acknowledging and addressing the racism faced by the Latina/o
community; (4) resisting literacy-colour-blind language/rhetoric toward
Latina/os; and (5) promoting a social justice dimension.
Latina/o Critical Communication Theory requires us to put Latina/o
experiences at the centre and to focus on the racist encounters experi-
enced by Latina/os in media, policy discourse and intercultural inter-
actions in order to uncover the discrimination that exists based upon
Latina/o identity (Anguiano and Castañeda 2014, p. 115). We seek
to explore these dimensions into the Latinx experience in European
contexts. Throughout a decade-long research period, taking both soci-
ological and communication approaches, we have been seeking to build
a comprehensive theoretical approach that uncovers most aspects of the
Latina/o/s condition to conceptualise and understand the dynamics
of these heterogeneous groups (Retis 2019). We seek to engage with
concepts and perspectives that can better help to understand the speci-
ficities of ‘European Latinidad’. By bringing the US Latinidad into the
European discussion on migration and diversity, we seek to draw on
a distinctive and coherent disciplinary core and substantive topics and
theoretical orientations, to explore this new area of scholarship.
2.7 Understanding British Latinidad

In the early 2000s, Angharad Valdivia examined how, within two decades
of the announcement that Latina/os had become the largest segment
of the minority population in the United States, the twin forces of
institutional and marketing needed to construct, survey and sell to an
identifiable ethnic group as well as internal Latina/o community, strate-
gies to forge a pan-national, pan-ethnic political and cultural group from
which to make demands on the state and other social institutions—‘we
now have the category Latina/os, the cultural identity of Latinidad, the
state of being or performing Latina/o identity, and the formation of
Latina/o Studies in within the academy’ (Valdivia 2004, pp. 107–108).
As argued elsewhere, the diverse self-perceptions of what it is to be
‘Latino/a’ or ‘Hispanic’ in the United States reflect the complex and
heterogeneous nature of continuum of collective and individual identities
(Retis 2019). Latina/os, as a group, hold so much internal heterogeneity
and political contradiction when understood as a singular identity, which
is why cultural representation of Latinidad became the terrain where
scholars, critics and educators can approach the question of coherence
(Del Río 2017). Drawing on Laó-Montes and Dávila (2001), it is essential
to understand: (1) how Latinidad became, not only a keyword in the field
of Latina/o Studies in the United States, but also an analytical concept
that signifies a category of identification, familiarity and affinity; (2) how
Latinization constitutes the analysis of practices or historically framed
and situationally located processes of formation and transformation (Lao-
Montes 2001); and (3) how both conform critical perspectives when
studying the structures and dynamics behind its production, circulation
and consumption (Dávila 2001).
Hailing from a wide variety of methodological and thematic
approaches, the relatively new and growing scope of Latina/o Studies
and Latina/o Media Studies in the United States embrace understanding
complex and hybrid realities. Most of the latest work seeks to under-
stand everyday social conditions faced by Latina/os. Both constitutive
and reflective of the political moment within which we are living, they
exemplify the manner in which today’s Latina/o Media Studies offers a
dynamic set of templates for grappling with mediated difference (Cepeda
and Casillas 2017, p. 7). Scholars are also investigating how, despite the
invisibility in most media venues, Latinos/as and most racial ‘majorities’
are no longer numerical ‘minorities’, and how to pay more attention to
the political economy and cultural politics of Latino media within media,
communication and cultural studies whilst encouraging more work to fill
the enormous voids in these growing fields of study (Dávila and Rivero
2014, p. 3).
In this book, our work chronicles contemporary international migra-
tion from Latin America to the UK, addressing the complexities of
invoking a sense of Latinidad in transnational and diasporic contexts
within a larger theoretical and interdisciplinary discussion relevant to our
understanding of hybridisation and heterogeneity (Retis 2019). It also
draws on the specificities that the geopolitical context brings to our under-
standing of the tensions, dissonances and power relations that are built
around manifestations, expressions and practices of ‘Latin London’ and
‘Latin urbanisms’ (Román-Velázquez 1999, 2014). We seek to foster a
comprehensive transdisciplinary approach in an expanded geographical
scope that can contribute to our understanding of territoriality, race, class
and nation as well as how Latinidad is a multidimensional category that
is constantly negotiated, reconstructed and reinvented. In the case of
Britain, we argue that the concept of Latinidad is fraught between a polit-
ical stance to disassociate from a colonial past—mostly evident in groups
that identify as Latin Americans in a concerted campaign for recognition
in local and national monitoring forms—to one that invokes its colonial
heritage as a strategic positioning—evident in the Luso/Ibero-American
campaign.
Whilst every story and crisis around immigration reveals that the
subject of migration is neither linear nor contained within nation-states
(Hegde 2016), neither diasporic identity nor the media should be taken
as a stable and unquestionable reference for people who share the same
origin and similar names or surnames (Georgiou 2006). As Georgiou
demonstrated, critical reflexive adoption of both media and anthropo-
logical ethnographic practice helps examine appropriation of symbols and
active formation of meanings on social relations and identity construction.
In this context, we seek to understand how the British Latinidad has
become a new form of identification, one that constitutes a hybrid imag-
ined community with pieces collected from various countries that make up
the Latin American and the Luso-Iberian region, but that finds common-
ality in the relational context in which they meet—a Britain who, over
time, has transformed into a multi-ethnic culture. Yet, finding Latinidad
in a British culture, as we perceived in our interviews and observation
practices, demands wide-ranging multilevel spaces and sets of belonging-

ness—one that also includes the digital, diasporic and transnational levels.
In looking at both shores of the Atlantic but focusing on the hyperlocal
and transnational realities in the European context, and more specifi-
cally the hyper-diverse global city of London, we seek to compare and
contrast the multiple dimensions of the Latina/o experience in the United
Kingdom, that might resemble some of the patterns faced by Latinas/os
in the United States, but which includes the specificities of the experiences
of non-European and diverse ethnic groups in a multi-ethnic London.
The chapters that follow are an attempt to chronicle the trajectories
of a diverse group of Latin Americans with diverse experiences of migra-
tion. The titles of each chapter capture such trajectories from the point of
migration, to finding work and asserting spaces of recognition in diasporic
media practices and urban spaces.
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CHAPTER 3
Latin American Immigration to Europe:

The Case of London
The refugees and migrants who arrived in Britain in the immediate post-
war years had to develop new ways of making sense of their lives. They
gave up their everyday immersion in the ordinary world of family, village
and small-town life for the sake of a future which they could only dimly
imagine. They left familiar environments and, as they disembarked at
Tilbury, Southampton, Liverpool or London Airport, instantly became
strangers. They were marked as outsiders by their language, accents,
clothes, customs and, sometimes, their skin colour. Even fifty and sixty
years after their arrival in a still mono-cultural Britain, it is rare to
meet post-war immigrants who feel a straightforward sense of belonging,
however happy and successful their lives have been. They will always be
from elsewhere (Wills 2017, pp. x–xi).
Public discourse about migrants has varied since the origins of the
European Union (EU). This has ranged across a number of perspectives
that consider population flows from former colonies overseas; the guest
worker image during the years after World War II when interregional
migration initiated from Southern to Northern European countries; the
establishment of the Schengen Agreement on a common visa policy
and the abolition of systematic internal borders in the mid-1980s; the
so-called refugee crisis in 2015; and, more recently in the context
of Brexit, continuous debates about the presence of non-European

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-53444-8_3
immigrants. However, some groups have remained invisible, under-

represented, miscounted by different European governments, and hence,
have remained understudied in the field of migration research. Over the
last ten years, pioneer researchers have attempted to address these lacunae
in terms of a broad focus on Latin Americans in the European context
(McIlwaine et al. 2011), but there is still a long way to advance. In this
chapter, we intend to provide historical and transnational perspective on
the origins, evolution, current trends and possible future of EU Latin
American diasporas in London.
The invisibility of migrants can affect their rights, protection, treat-
ment, entitlement and recognition. In international settings, irregular
migrants, victims of trafficking, forced migrants, domestic workers or
unaccompanied children are amongst the groups that tend to remain
invisible (Battistella 2017). However, getting to the surface of visibility
means facing several challenges and requires scholars to value its relevance
from different perspectives such as social, legal, political and religious
visibility (Battistella 2017), to name a few. Although invisibility remains
a problem when defending immigrants’ rights, distorted visibility can
signify a challenge. More than a decade ago, the International Organiza-
tion of Migrations alerted us to the fact that in spite of the revolution in
communications, there are many people who have inadequate information
on the magnitude, implications and the socio-economic context of migra-
tion (IOM 2011). Through the analysis of several public opinion surveys,
in 2011 the IOM showed that there has been a gradual decline in support
of immigration in OECD countries, notably in the second half of the
1990s, suggesting that there may be a correlative relation with increased
international immigrant flows (IOM 2011). When a group of immigrants
remain understudied or unexplored, their existence goes unnoticed and
thus, they remain invisible.
As addressed elsewhere, Latin American migration is a collectively
constructed social phenomenon (Retis 2014). Due to the lack of regional
and comparative data in both regions (EU and LAC), it remains chal-
lenging to obtain an accurate picture of Latin American diasporas in
Europe. Moreover, precise documentation on the increasing number
of Latin Americans arriving in the UK, and specifically to London, is
scarce. Consequently, we consulted a wide range of secondary sources
and estimates provided by several researchers who are trying to clarify the
magnitude of migration flows from Latin America to Europe, and to the
UK in particular.
3 LATIN AMERICAN IMMIGRATION TO EUROPE: THE CASE OF LONDON 33
From our previous research projects, we were aware of the growing

numbers of Latin Americans in the UK and Spain during the 1990s and
the turn of the century (McIlwaine 2015; Román-Velázquez 1999; Retis
2006). We argue that the lack of data around these growing communities
in the European scenario demonstrated political disinterest in consid-
ering these minorities within the European region. The fact that there
were no reliable sources that accounted for the growing presence of
Latin Americans in the European region implies a political will to make
them invisible in the context of non-European immigration. In addition,
there were no reliable sources documenting comparative analyses of the
number of emigrants from the Latin American region to the European
region. Henceforth, it was challenging to produce a comparative analysis
at regional level.
More than two decades after the continuous increase of migration
flows from Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) to Europe, the
International Organization for Migration (IOM) published its first report
(Pellegrino 2004). It was the first attempt to examine what was until
then an understudied area after the turn of the century. Whilst numbers
identified flows directed mainly towards the southern countries, there
was also a significant increase to other north European countries—and
we would say, mainly cities—during those years. What explains the peak
of these flows by the turn of the century? Why did it take so long to
start examining EU-LAC relations, particularly those focusing attention
on migratory flows? Why is it that Latin Americans have been mostly
invisible in European immigration discourse? We argue that the expan-
sion of the geographical and historical scope of this scenario is important
to understand not only push/pull factors on both shores of the Atlantic,
but also the transnational essence of LAC diasporas as well as the political
economies at the turn of the century. These would include: the economic
recession and social conflicts in Latin American countries; the tightening
of immigration control in the United States; and the new opening of
European doors to foreign workers during those decades. It is funda-
mental to incorporate a transnational perspective and a wide geographical
scope when examining the contemporary history of LAC diasporas in
Europe.
With the objective of setting the sociodemographic context of Latin
Americans in London, we extend the historical and geographical dimen-
sions of our analysis to put into perspective the specificities of contempo-
rary diasporas in global cities (Sassen 2001). In doing so, we underline
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Narratives of Migration, Relocation and

Belonging: Latin Americans in London

More information about this series at

Studies of the Americas

1 Introduction: Narratives of Migration, Relocation

2 Migration, Transnationalism and Diasporic Identities 7

3 Latin American Immigration to Europe: The Case

3.7 Narratives of Migration, Self-Representation

4 Narratives of Migration and Relocation 63

5 Narratives of Migration Around Work 83

6 Latino Media Spaces in London: The Interstices

Appendix 3: British Latinx Cultural Projects

7 Latin Urbanisms: Resisting Gentrification, Reclaiming

8 British Latinidad as Social and Spatial Justice 193

Map 7.1 Migrant, ethnic and independent business directory

Table 3.1 European LAC diasporas by nationality and countries

Introduction: Narratives of Migration,

‘I am Senorita Rita’, so hailed a vibrant self-defined drag queen at the

© The Author(s) 2021 1

the cultural magazine Ventana Latina by Latin American House; and

of workers in the cleaning sector, through trade union memberships.

1 https://www.uvwunion.org.uk/news/2018/9/top-shop-2-victory. Accessed 24 June

At times when large sections of the population face uncertainty and

term Latinx was adopted as a gender neutral and alternative to Latino

Transnational practices capture the diverse geographical, cultural and

© The Author(s) 2021 7

on the implications of these discussions for our understanding of digital

considers transactions across borders as much as practices linking migrants

2.2 Super-Diversity and Transnational Networks

of immigration since the early 1990s’ (Vertovec 2007, p. 1049). These

If individuals engage in social relations and practices that cross borders as

Thus, a transnational way of belonging is about how activities are

Migrants’ transnational engagement has significant influence and trans-

The degree to which migrant entrepreneurs can have an impact upon

2.3 Place and Identity

to a label that is illustrated with regard to places, people or practices. We

There are three main points to Stuart Hall’s understanding of identities.

production outside of ideology and amongst the discursive. Placing iden-

As we have explained, the definition of identity outlined above is

2.5 Digital Diasporas

In communication studies, the term diaspora experienced a revival

2.6 Latina/o Critical Race

Most of the LatCrit work started from critical educational research

2.7 Understanding British Latinidad

practices, demands wide-ranging multilevel spaces and sets of belonging-

Harvey, D. (1989). From Managerialism to Entrepreneurialism: The Transfor-

Solórzano, D. G. (1998). Critical Race Theory, Race and Gender Microaggres-

Latin American Immigration to Europe:

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immigrants. However, some groups have remained invisible, under-

From our previous research projects, we were aware of the growing

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