Pioneer migrants and their social relations in super-diverse London

Urban areas in Europe and beyond have seen significant changes in immigration patterns, leading to profound diversification characterized by the multiplication of people of different national origins, migration histories, religions, educational backgrounds, legal statuses and socio-economic backgrounds, a condition now commonly described as super-diversity. An important part of this super-diversity is individual migrants who do not follow established chain migrations. Little is known about processes of settlement of migrants who do not form part of larger migration movements and might not be able to draw on the support of others of the same national, ethnic, linguistic, religious and socio-economic background. This article describes patterns of settlement of such individual migrants in London. Drawing on the notion of “pioneer migration”, the article focuses on social networks, examining the kinds of social relations pioneer migrants form in the course of settlement and showing that many migrants strive to form social relations beyond co-ethnics.