ABSTRACT
Global cities are paradigmatic sites for visual and symbolic competition, and as noted by Saskia Sassen they are sites for the contradictions of the globalization of capital. The powerful as well as the disadvantaged are concentrated therein and the marginalized also find ways to claim 'contested terrain'. The global city heightens diversity by concentrating migrants and immigrants. In New York City, as in other global cities, immigrant and migrant ethnic groups are often attracted to the same localities. The Belmont section of the New York City borough of the Bronx has attracted immigrants for more than a century. As part of an interdisciplinary dialogue, this chapter tried to demonstrate the usefulness of a visual perspective to understanding spatial forms and practices in the globalizing world. Spatialized notions of home and migration were addressed via images that reflect the symbolic competition created by more or less recent migrants as they lay claim to 'contested terrains' in few global cities.
