GENTRIFYING CAPITAL FROM WITHIN : Rethinking Transnational Gentrification, Spatial Fix and Transnational Migration through Foreign, Urban and Rural Circuits in Kumasi, Ghana

Abstract In this article, we examine the rapid neighbourhood transformation of Ahodwo in Kumasi, Ghana, where Chinese entrepreneurial migrants have settled over two decades. We draw on qualitative fieldwork to advance arguments that extend the concepts of transnational gentrification, spatial fix, and transnational migration, and demonstrate that the capital driving neighbourhood change in Ahodwo operates through two intersecting circuits: a transnational one, involving the direct investment of Chinese surplus capital in urban businesses, and a domestic one, where profits from informal gold mining (galamsey) in rural and periurban areas are reinvested into urban businesses. This insight deviates from the assumption that transnational gentrification is primarily financed from overseas and brings into view rural–urban capital circuits within the global South. Gentrifying capital is therefore both exogenous and endogenous, interacting in complex ways. The process is also locally curated: local landlords and brokers facilitate the clustering of a foreign tenant class by tailoring commercial and residential spaces, financing neighbourhood security, and producing conditions for a transnational rent gap. These dynamics inflate rents, reprofile tenants, and generate varied displacement forms. Chinese migration in Ahodwo uniquely coproduces capital and urban transformation across foreign, urban, and rural settings, challenging conventional narratives of capital origins, circulation, and gentrification.