ABSTRACT
In cities and regions around the world, movement and migration of people have continued to shape the makeup and making of neighborhoods, districts, and communities. In North America, new immigrants have played a critical role in revitalizing many decaying urban landscapes, creating new and renewed cultural ambiance and economic networks that transcend borders. In Seattle, for instance, Vietnamese businesses have transformed a declining urban area with vacant warehouses and storefronts into a vibrant commercial center at the edge of downtown. In Los Angeles, Latina/o immigrants turn front yards and streets into social gathering places and building façades into canvases for murals and cultural icons. In Richmond, BC, Canada, an Asian night market has become a major cultural event that draws visitors throughout the region and across the US/Canadian border. Across the Pacific, guest workers in Hong Kong transform the deserted office district in Central into a site of carnivalesque gatherings every Sunday. In Taipei, the Songkran Festival has become an annual event celebrated not only by immigrants, refugees, and foreign workers from Burma, Thailand, and Cambodia, but also by local residents and civic leaders.
