Dealing with Urban Diversity

DIVERCITIES Governing Urban Diversity: governing urban diversity Creating Social Cohesion, Social Mobility and Economic Performance in Today’s Hyper-diversified Cities Dealing with Urban Diversity Dealing with This book is one of the outcomes of the DIVERCITIES project. It focuses on the question of how to create social cohesion, social Urban Diversity • mobility and economic performance in today’s hyper-diversified cities. The Case of Zurich The Case of Zurich The project’s central hypothesis is that urban diversity is an asset; it can inspire creativity, innovation and make cities more liveable. Larissa Plüss There are fourteen books in this series: Antwerp, Athens, Anna Babel Patrick Abegg Budapest, Copenhagen, Istanbul, Leipzig, London, Milan, Jennifer Steiner Paris, Rotterdam, Tallinn, Toronto, Warsaw and Zurich. Walter Schenkel This project has received funding from the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme for research, technological development and demonstration under www.urbandivercities.eu grant agreement No. 319970. SSH.2012.2.2.2-1; Governance of cohesion and diversity in urban contexts. DIVERCITIES: Dealing with Urban Diversity The Case of Zurich Larissa Plüss Anna Babel Patrick Abegg Jennifer Steiner Walter Schenkel Governing Urban Diversity: Creating Social Cohesion, Social Mobility and Economic Performance in Today’s Hyper-diversified Cities To be cited as: Plüss, L., A. Babel, P. Abegg, J. Steiner Lead Partner and W. Schenkel (2017). DIVERCITIES: Dealing with - Utrecht University, The Netherlands Urban Diversity. The Case of Zurich. Zurich: synergo. Consortium Partners The views expressed in this publication are the sole - University of Vienna, Austria responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily - University of Antwerp, Belgium reflect the views of the European Commission. - Aalborg University, Denmark - University of Tartu, Estonia This project has received funding from the European - University Paris-Est Créteil, France Union’s Seventh Framework Programme for research, - Helmholtz Centre for Environmental technological development and demonstration under Research – UFZ, Germany Grant Agreement No 319970 – DIVERCITIES. - Fachhochschule Erfurt, Germany - National Centre for Social Research (EKKE), Greece - University of Szeged, Hungary - University of Urbino Carlo Bo, Italy - University of Amsterdam, Netherlands - Delft University of Technology (TUDelft), The Netherlands - Polish Academy of Sciences, Poland - synergo Mobility-Politics-Space GmbH, Switzerland - Middle East Technical University (METU), Turkey - University College London, United Kingdom Advisory Board - Jan Vranken, University of Antwerp, Belgium - David Hulchanski, University of Toronto, ISBN 978 90 6266 451 1 Canada © 2017 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form, by print or photo print, microfilm or any other means, without written permission by the publishers. Copy Editors: Melissa Lee and David Wills Cover Image: Anna Babel Design & Layout: C&M, Faculty of Geosciences, Utrecht University, The Netherlands Printed by: Xerox, The Netherlands A digital version of this report is available on the DIVERCITIES website: http://www.urbandivercities.eu In memory of Ronald van Kempen CONTENTS Preface 5 1 Dealing with urban diversity: an introduction 9 1.1 Introduction 9 1.2 The purpose of the book 10 1.3 Diversity and its effects: some key arguments 10 1.4 The outline of this book 17 2 Zurich as a diverse city 19 2.1 Introduction 19 2.2 Locating our research 19 2.3 Diverse-city Zurich 24 2.4 Conclusions: challenges and opportunities of Zurich as a diverse city 32 3 Policy discourses on diversity 35 3.1 Introduction 35 3.2 Methodology 36 3.3 Policy approaches towards diversity at the national and cantonal levels 36 3.4 Governmental discourses and the governance of diversity in the City of Zurich 46 3.5 Non-governmental perspectives on the governance of diversity 54 3.6 Conclusions 60 4 Residents dealing with diversity 63 4.1 Introduction 63 4.2 Methodology 64 4.3 Housing choice and residential mobility 66 4.4 Perceptions of diversity in the neighbourhood 73 4.5 Activities inside and outside the neighbourhood 82 4.6 Social cohesion 89 4.7 Social mobility 97 4.8 Perceptions of public policies and initiatives 102 4.9 Conclusions 105 5 Entrepreneurs dealing with diversity 109 5.1 Introduction 109 5.2 Methodology 111 5.3 The entrepreneurs and their businesses 111 5.4 Motivations to start a business and the role of urban diversity 119 5.5 Economic performance and the role of urban diversity 128 5.6 Institutional support and government policies 137 5.7 Conclusions 142 6 Conclusions: dealing with urban diversity 147 6.1 Brief summary of the book 147 6.2 Urban diversity: asset or liability? 151 6.3 Policy recommendations: how to use the results? 153 7 References 157 7.1 Legal and official documents 157 7.2 Bibliography 159 8 Appendix 167 8.1 Appendix 1: List of the interviewed persons in the public administration, non-governmental organisations and local initiatives 167 8.2 Appendix 2: List of the participants of the round-table talk of local initiatives 168 8.3 Appendix 3: List of the interviewed residents 168 8.4 Appendix 4: List of the interviewed entrepreneurs 170 8.5 Appendix 5: List of the members of the ‘policy platform’ 171 Notes 173 PREFACE This book is one of the outcomes of the DIVERCITIES project. It focuses on the question of how to create social cohesion, social mobility and economic performance in today’s hyper- diversified cities. The project’s central hypothesis is that urban diversity is an asset; it can inspire creativity and, innovation, and make cities more liveable and harmonious. To ensure a more intelligent use of diversity’s potential, a re-thinking of public policies and governance models is needed. Headed by Utrecht University in the Netherlands, DIVERCITIES is a collaborative research project comprising 14 European teams. DIVERCITIES is financed by the European Commission under the 7th Framework Programme (Project No. 319970). There are fourteen books in this series, one for each case study city. The cities are: Antwerp, Athens, Budapest, Copenhagen, Istanbul, Leipzig, London, Milan, Paris, Rotterdam, Tallinn, Toronto, Warsaw and Zurich. This book is concerned with the City of Zurich. The texts in this book are based on a number of previously published DIVERCITIES reports. The authors The Case of Zurich 7 8 DIVERCITIES: Dealing with Urban Diversity 1 DEALING WITH URBAN DIVERSITY: AN INTRODUCTION1 1.1 INTRODUCTION By definition, cities are highly diverse. Many have existed for long periods of time and, in the process, have developed a large diversity of urban neighbourhoods swayed by government input and markets. These neighbourhoods may display a range of housing and environmental characteristics, leading to all kinds of specific places: enclaves for the rich; slums and ghettos for the very poor; middle-class suburbs; both thriving and degrading inner-city districts; gated communities; areas with shrinking populations; and areas with growing populations due to increasing immigration. Residential neighbourhoods can be inhabited by mostly rich or mostly poor residents, can have a majority of immigrant groups or can be heavily mixed with many different population groups. Neighbourhoods can be places of intensive contact between groups or areas of parallel lives, where people have little in common with each other. Areas may be mixed, with respect to ‘hard’ variables such as income, education, ethnicity, race, household composition and age structure, but also on the basis of ‘softer’ characteristics, such as lifestyle, attitudes and activities. Some people may choose to live in certain areas, while others may have little choice. In most urban areas, residents live together harmoniously, but in some areas, the underlying tensions can sometimes erupt into open conflicts between different groups. This book focuses on urban diversity and how it affects social cohesion and social mobility among its inhabitants as well as the economic performance of its entrepreneurs. It will make clear that, despite the existence of negative discourses, people living and working in diverse cities and neighbourhoods often see positive aspects of diversity and may even profit from it. We are also aware of the negative consequences of living in diverse urban areas, but we want to specifically focus on the often-neglected positive aspects that residents and entrepreneurs see, feel and experience. Zurich, the focus of this book, is a highly diverse city with a current population of over 400,000 inhabitants. Of the city’s population, 32% are foreign nationals coming from 169 nations, and 61% of residents over 15 years have a migration background (City of Zurich, 2014; 2015). Zurich is a melting pot of different cultures, languages and religions, and its diversity has shaped city life for several decades. Zurich is among the world’s largest financial centres, and around 40% of the city’s economic potential comes from its financial industry. By far the most important sector in the City of Zurich’s economy is the tertiary sector, which employs over 90% of workers (ibid.). Nevertheless, the city has a sizable number of small businesses – around 88% of the city’s workplaces have less than 10 full-time employees. The Case of Zurich 9 Our research takes place in Districts 4 and 9 of the City of Zurich. This area has about 80,000 inhabitants and can be considered one of the most diversified and dynamic areas in the

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