1Immigration is one of the most important political and social issues in Europe. France is a traditional immigrant country. The definition of immigrant by the French academic circle basically adopted its official definition, which refers to residents living in France but born in a foreign country (Tribalat 1995). In France, therefore, “immigrant” is a concept that is different from but associated with foreigner (étranger). Throughout the immigration policies in France, there has been a transition from a relatively loose to a gradually tightening policy, from accepting third-world immigrants to a selective strategy (Zhao 2016). After 2000, French immigration policy gradually evolved into a tough, restrictive policy, one which is highly associated with the economic and social structure of France, the contradictions and conflicts between minorities and the mainstream society of France (Song 2010). Our respondent, Bahia, grew up in Givors near Lyon, and as a native of Givors she was familiar with the community life and neighborhood structure here, but her ancestors’ and her parents’ experiences of migration virtually imprinted her with the identity of “migrant children.” From Bahia’s narration in the interview, we can experience the structural tension among cities, mobility, and immigration.

Marginalized “Migrant Children” Identity

2Since Bahia’s grandparents were Hispanics who had migrated to Givors, and she lived with them for a long time, the first thing that affected her most was her Spanish identity. Bahia’s grandfather was a member of the Spanish Association; influenced by her grandfather, Bahia had learned Spanish and about Spanish culture since childhood. For Bahia, there is a community that shares the same cultural perceptions she does, and the community brought her a strong sense of belonging. Under the influence of the community, Bahia also taught herself the piano and the guitar, and she held several concerts as part of the association’s activities, which became an indispensable part of her growth. However, with the decline of the Spanish Association and the shrinkage of ethnic cultural activities, Bahia gradually lost that sense of community belonging. For this reason, she urged her mother to invest in the Spanish Association to maintain its operation. It was her childhood experience that gave Bahia a deeper recognition of her Spanish identity. The other aspect that influenced Bahia is her Arab identity. Because her father was from Maghreb, Bahia is actually a descendant of North Africa. Her family kept the custom of Ramadan, and she would go out and stay late into the night for activities during Ramadan. But as a Maghreb descendant, Bahia does not speak Arabic, mainly for two reasons. For one, she spent a good deal of her childhood with her grandparents, and she rarely had contact with her father after her parents divorced, so she is not familiar with the Maghreb culture, which made it hard for her to integrate with her North African peers, who are widely distributed in Givors; thus, she always suffered discrimination. When her North African classmates tried to make fun of their teacher in Arabic, Bahia, though she could understand what they said, was often embarrassed because she fumbled in her expression. Hearing “Dirty Arab, go home,” Bahia felt as if she was marginalized.

3Living in a multi-ethnic and cultural family and floating between Spaniards and Arabs, Bahia had an uncertain identity as an immigrant descendant. On the one hand, the decline of the Spanish Association deprived Bahia of the sense of belonging; on the other hand, the language barrier made it difficult for her to integrate into Arab culture.

Stigmatized “Urban Youth”

4Givors, located in the French province of Rhône, is a typical immigrant city in the metropolitan area of Lyon. The city has a rich industrial history; it was especially after the first Royal Glass Factory opened in 1749 that Givors experienced a rapid economic boom. Givors’ metallurgical and steel industries flourished during the industrial revolution, but the city was nearly trodden down by repeated bombings during the Second World War, and it was gradually rebuilt during the more than four decades after the war. In 2003, Givors’ glass factory was shut down, bringing to an end the era of the traditional glass industry, to be replaced by logistics, transport, and trade activities. Statistics from the French National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies (INSEE) show that 28.7 % of Givors’ nearly 20,000 residents in 2016 were under the age of 20, with an unemployment rate of 19.6 % and a poverty rate of 27.7 %.

5Like many post-war French cities, Givors experienced several waves of immigration. As early as the 1950s, many Italians were coming to Givors to work in glass manufacturing. Later, immigrants from Portugal, Spain, Algeria, and Turkey also moved to Givors to settle down. Today, the various immigrant associations that still exist especially have proved this point, such as the Spanish Association, the Algerian Association in Europe, and the Portuguese Recreational Association.

6The diversity and complexity of immigrants have brought about the diversity of urban culture (Park, Burgess and McKenzie 2012) and shaped the unique spiritual core and external representation of Givors. Wirth believes that urban heterogeneity breaks down the possibility of racial and class differences, accepting population mobility, instability, and insecurity in the world at large as a norm (Wirth 1938). Fischer also believes that cities disproportionately gather inventions, property-related crimes, practices, and values that violate traditional ethics, such as divorce, alcoholism, political dissent, anti-religious feelings, marijuana smoking, and so on (Fischer 1975). As a typical immigrant city, behind the seemingly orderly urban life structure of Givors, there are some indescribable details, such as drug trafficking and robbery, which happen frequently in some communities. Street gangs and youth factions are often destabilizing factors in community security. People who live in Givors are culturally conservative and often hold stereotypical images about young people who hang around on the streets.

7After her parents divorced, Bahia lived with her mother and stepfather. She was more pressed for money, and she also felt depressed. During puberty Bahia learned to smoke and take drugs, and often went out and played with her pals on the street. Due to the complicated population environment and community problems, the city dwellers of Givors were tagged with a series of stigmas. In Lyon, when a person says he’s from Givors, the first reaction of the people around him is fear, they would feel shock, like they had seen an alien, and the neighborhood life of Givors might be a “living hell” for people from Lyon. As for group stigmatization, Emily Honig (2004), an American scholar who once studied the north Jiangsu people in Shanghai, pointed out that the group of north Jiangsu people who had been constructed by historical sociality experienced collective stigmatization. This point is strikingly similar to people in Givors. Don’t fall in love with Givors. For young people, that was once the foremost principle in choosing a spouse.

Fluidity and Urban Narrative

8Bahia’s experience of mobility among Givors’ different communities helped her construct the individual’s “living space,” that is, a meaningful place. Here, the individual living space refers to the daily life space, which constitutes the local situation of daily life and also contains the memory of individual urban life (Jing and Feng 2017). Therefore, her personal narrative of the urban experience realized spatialization of the life narrative (Pan 2007). In Bahia’s narrative, events, connections, and biographical bifurcations are linked to space and place, all of which have become an integral part in her upbringing.

9Bahia’s recognition of her identity as an immigrant and her affection for Givors came from her life trajectory and life experience. Growing up in Givors, Bahia had a special feeling for the town. She was both attached to the familiar grass and trees she grew up with and was eager to escape from the city as soon as possible. For Bahia, Givors is a “city of problems,” particularity a city from which “to flee,” or a city that could maintain a “particular mentality.”

10Bahia’s affection for Givors came from multiple sources. First, she has some very important peer groups in Givors, and some of them have been her friends for 15 years. These peer groups serve an important social support for her in Givors and an important part of her daily life. Moreover, having grown up in Givors, the city was actually a playground in her childhood. In this city, many things bear the memory of Bahia’s childhood, such as an abandoned factory and her own band. However, as the city’s landscape changes as Bahia ages, the childhood memory of the city is imprinted in her mind as part of her affection for the city. Givors, of course, has a side that Bahia doesn’t like. In her narration, Givors is a big city space-wise, but it is actually a small town with regard to people’s social relationships. The reason for this is that the neighborhood residents are familiar with each other, inheriting multiple generations of family interactions, constituting a kind of society of acquaintances within the neighborhood. And what bothers Bahia the most is the gossip among residents—it is especially when an individual has something go wrong that the news spreads quickly and sticks the whole family with a negative label. Space proximity and social distance (Chamboredon and Lemaire 1970) are particularly evident in Givors’ neighborhood. Gender has a special symbol of status in Givors. For example, if a woman goes out at night, she will be labeled a “streetwalker,” although that is not the case. In Bahia’s view, the whole of Givors has a kind of conservative mindset. In addition, there are special groups within Givors that Bahia called “rats.” These people are mostly very poorly educated and engage in negative activities, such as drug trafficking, alcoholism, and tracing, which are important components of the Givors subculture.

11Although Givors constitutes an important memory for Bahia, with the development of society and the transition of things, Bahia was nostalgic for the good old days rather than the present-day town. In addition to the conservative cultural and social environment and the ubiquitous subcultural phenomena, together with her own life experience, Bahia came up with the idea of escape. She wanted to go to Argentina for a master’s degree, even if she wasn’t sure she was capable of handling life outside of Givors. But being able to escape Givors was considered a success for her, as it was for any young person of her generation.

12Bahia’s growth history is to some extent a tool of urban narrative, which allows us to sense the tension between mobility and urban narrative more explicitly and intuitively. Through this narrative tension, we can be brought into the city, to touch and feel it, and to experience and empathize with the daily life practices of immigrants.