ABSTRACT
It has long been recognised that a multicultural city such as London comprises complex and dynamic cartographies underpinned by waves of migration that fashion the nature, function and boundaries of the city in economic, political, cultural and social ways. The ways in which those living in the city are at once visible and invisible are mutable. Global cities in particular both welcome and reject arrivals in ways that influence the visibility of new migrant groups (as well as more established ethnic minorities). This chapter explores the experiences of one of London’s newest and fastest growing migrant groups in the city. Although Latin Americans have been arriving for several decades, since 2000 they have emerged as an important new population that make-up a substantial element of ‘super-diverse’ London. The discussion engages with conceptualisations of visibility among migrants, in part because the research on which the chapter is based draws on a report entitled No Longer Invisible (McIlwaine et al., 2011), and also because visibility has become an important dimension of the nomenclature for migrants and ethnic minority groups in the city more widely. In particular, it examines the ambiguities surrounding the presence of Latin Americans where on the one hand, they need and demand to be recognised, yet on the other hand, it is often in their interests to remain invisible, especially in cases where they are irregular. It examines the ways in which the community has been constructed over time, as well as the range of invisibility practices developed from below by Latin Americans before concluding with a brief discussion of the ethnic recognition campaign.
