Siberian Federal University

The author uses Irkutsk materials to analyze the dependence of the ethnic marking of the city migrant localities on the migration flow structure and the specifics of migrants. The examination is based on two series of semi-formalized interviews (in 2014–2015 and in 2017–2018) following E. Goffmann’s dramatic metaphor approach, R. Brubaker’s views on the ethnicity and ideas about the “right to the city” put forth by D. Harvey, A. Lefevre and D. Mitchell. It is concluded that a change in the migration structure, goals and motivation of migrants from the People’s Republic of China leads to a restructuring of the city migrant localities from the places of contact to the spaces contesting the right to the city