City of Go(l)d

What is it about?

The article discusses how privileged migration to Israel by Jews from western countries, and to Jerusalem in particular, influences the place in which it settles. The way Diaspora Jews imagine Israel and Jerusalem plays a crucial role in their decision to move there. Many immigrants choose to live near other expatriates and enjoy the comforts of the ethnic enclave. The paper deals with the spatial and cultural implications that privileged lifestyle migration has on the space in which it settles. It focuses particularly on the case-study of English- and French-speaking Jewish immigrants who live in the Baka neighbourhood in Jerusalem and on their effects on the neighbourhood’s gentrification process, its real estate market and issues of consumerism and belonging.

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Why is it important?

This paper aims to contribute to the understanding of the effects lifestyle migration has on cities, neighbourhoods and housing markets and to elaborate the understanding of who lifestyle migrants are, what motivates them and how they live in their destinations. This case-study demonstrates how lifestyle migration links with urban transformation, particularly gentrification. While gentrification has more often been studied in the global north, this paper shows that neoliberal processes, like gentrification or the global flow of capital and investments, are indeed much more encompassing.

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