Creating a Sense of Belonging Through Everyday Urban Practices: The Case of Migrant Small Business Owners in the Bonfim Neighbourhood of Porto, Portugal

This chapter aims to explore the centrality of everyday urban practices in creating a sense of belonging and community for migrant small business owners in Bonfim, Porto, Portugal. I conducted ethnographic research and semi-structured interviews with migrants originating from inside and outside Europe, coming from cities such as London, Paris, and Rio de Janeiro, to open small shops in the Bonfim neighbourhood. Bonfim is a former industrial zone with an artistic ambience that creates a middle ground between the tourist city centre and stigmatised East Porto. What attracts foreign shop owners to this zone is its ordinary daily life, marked by a residential atmosphere with lots of regular shops and long-standing inhabitants. Following the idea that sense of belonging is not just a sentiment but a practice, I intend to show how these migrants produce belonging and community through urban practices and performances. I focus on everyday urban practices that occur in the public space and inside/outside small shops, such as walking in the street, parking the car, or having a beer with the bar owner. I explore how migrants’ narratives reveals urban representations and life aspirations while describing the city transformations that they are both producing and contesting.