Place Attachment and Habitus in a City and Its Suburbs—The Case of Immigrants in the Merrimack Valley of Massachusetts

ABSTRACT Despite the fact that recent studies have shown that suburbia is growing more varied in terms of class and ethnicity, raising issues of belonging and identity, it has rarely focused on immigrants' social (dis‐) mobility and effects on place attachment. Using a Bourdieusian perspective regarding people's habitus, this study examines the formation of local identities and place attachment among Latinx immigrants (first and second‐generation) from Massachusetts' Merrimack Valley. The study examines how immigrants of various socioeconomic realities express their habitus and adapt it to their urban and suburban communities of residence. The 28 in‐depth interviews of the study indicate how the sets of interviewees claimed to feel both at ease in and alienated from their current communities, demonstrating that the habitus was more than just a reflection of the informants' social reality. This reveals how the connection between residential area and habitus emerges locally and is only partial for both groups studied. Habitus in this regard is more than just a particularized variation of the social structure in each sort of settlement. The findings highlight the need to carefully consider the many social class disparities that explain place identity and belonging, as well as their effects on people of minority ethnicity immigrants' assimilation in receiving cultures.