Invisible displacement of residents: Rethinking ‘voluntary relocation’ in Beijing’s heritage-led regeneration

This study extends the notion of invisible displacement from migration studies to gentrification in order to reveal the hidden forms of dispossession in authoritarian contexts. It conceptualises invisible displacement as operating across three interrelated dimensions: the ambiguity between voluntary and involuntary relocation, the stigmatisation and marginalisation of socially invisible groups, and the contested politics of compensation. This framework is applied to the case of heritage-led urban regeneration in Beijing. The analysis draws on empirical data from semi-structured interviews with 36 residents, supplemented by open discussions in community-based social media groups. Findings show that displacement is rendered invisible through policy design, discursive framing and spatial control. First, policy-embedded constraints, particularly those related to housing ownership regimes and consent procedures, limit residents’ agency, making them experience forced immobility or involuntary relocation. Second, public housing tenants who resist relocation are excluded from official displacement narratives, stigmatised in discourse, and further marginalised through the institutionalised loss of spatial control. Third, a significant reduction in compensation is legitimised by framing regeneration as heritage preservation and public welfare. By uncovering these hidden mechanisms and social consequences, this study advances a more nuanced understanding of displacement under heritage-led urban regeneration in non-Western contexts.