Xinrui Gao, Jennifer Day, Sun Sheng Han
Abstract In China as well as in other countries, migrants often grapple with urban inequities by actively reshaping the functions and meanings of their environments. While acknowledging established frameworks such as place‐making and urban informality, this study adopts a complementary lens, framing migrants’ everyday practices as a process of reterritorialization. This research employs an in‐depth case study of a representative urban village in Shenzhen, drawing upon data collected through questionnaire surveys, semi‐structured interviews, and on‐site observations from 2022 to 2023. The findings indicate that certain migrant groups develop a territorial subjectivity through chain migration, origin‐based employment patterns, shared cultural backgrounds, stable living conditions, and neighbourliness. They reterritorialize beyond physical spaces to encompass socio‐cultural landscapes and formal power structures, areas that have been largely neglected in current scholarly discussions. Although these efforts contribute to stability and dominance within an adopted neighbourhood, they also incite tensions and cause new situations that make the migrant group more vulnerable. Policy interventions are necessary in community governance to empower the migrants.