Milan Chinatown: economic incorporation and the contentious uses of urban space

This paper will look at Chinatown’s incorporation in Milan, its transformations in the years following the April 2007 riots and how these have been affecting by conflicting interests. More specifically, I look at the political economy of the urban space and the role of Chinatown in the dynamics of urban
restructuring in Milan. Milan’s Chinatown today is neither a Chinese residential area, nor a tourist district: rather, it is an ethnic economic and commercial enclave in a semi-gentrified area near the citycentre, where businesses owned by Italians and foreign nationals coexist. Since the riot, Chinatown has
become an increasingly contested space characterised by the presence of conflicting agendas. On the one hand, the Italian businesses, the autochthonous population and local authorities who, although from different angles, regard Chinatown as a ‘problem’ and claim the area back. On the other hand, the Chinese retailers and workers who claim the right to use this urban space and carry their businesses.

This paper was presented at the Proceedings of the International Conference on “Changing Cities”: Spatial, Morphological, Formal & Socio-Economic Dimensions, which took place on Skiathos island, Greece, 18-21 June 2013.