Rethinking place in ethnic and migrant health outcomes: environmental racialisation in Auckland City Centre1 (CBD)

The healthy migrant effect scholarship makes limited, if any, connections between the impacts of the physical environments of the host country on the health outcomes of migrants. The aim of this paper is to understand environmental racism/racialisation in the context of migrant-concentrated neighbou...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Andrea Edwards, Shanon Lim, Kim Dirks, Rachel Simon-Kumar
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Taylor & Francis Group 2025-07-01
Series:Kōtuitui
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/10.1080/1177083X.2025.2501284
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:The healthy migrant effect scholarship makes limited, if any, connections between the impacts of the physical environments of the host country on the health outcomes of migrants. The aim of this paper is to understand environmental racism/racialisation in the context of migrant-concentrated neighbourhoods in urban settings. Focusing on interactions between built structural spaces and meaning-embodied places, this paper adapts international literature to map intentional and unintentional actions that have racialised outcomes on health determinants, and perceptions and experiences of physical health and wellbeing. Data are drawn from a mixed-method study comprising surveys, key informant and residents’ interviews, focus groups and observations carried out in Auckland’s City Centre (CBD), an urban area with high concentrations of ethnic and migrant populations. The analysis highlights two facets of environmental racialisation: first, it points to disproportionate urban investment that shapes the structural determinants impacting ethnic residents’ exposure to environmental harm and in turn, health outcomes. Secondly, it introduces the concept of the ‘migrant middle’, a specific group constituted and affected by intricate processes of racialised exclusion and the retention of places of living and consumption. Overall, the paper demonstrates how the distinctive racialisation of urban space constitutes a determinant of ethnic and migrant health.
ISSN:1177-083X