Intergroup neighbouring in urban China: Implications for the social integration of migrants

Abstract

There is an emerging literature on social interaction and neighbourhood attachment of various social groups in China. However, few have directly addressed the interaction between the locals and migrants at the neighbourhood level. This paper examines the variation of intergroup neighbouring in the city of Nanjing and how housing characteristics and hukou status may affect this process. Measured by intergroup communication and mutual support, this study reveals that migrants are more likely to interact with their urban neighbours, which suggests that migrants might not only interact with each other but also are willing to interact and help with local neighbours. Furthermore, compared with modern commodity housing neighbourhoods developed through the real estate market, older and physically more deprived neighbourhoods characterised by courtyard housing and provisional shelters have higher levels of this intergroup bridging social interaction. This implies that the government’s extensive redevelopment schemes of older neighbourhoods will likely impede on the social integration of migrants and reduce the habitat of intergroup social ties.

Neighbourhood cohesion under the influx of migrants in Shanghai

“…This is usually fostered by a shared social identity as middle-class homeowners belonging to a 'civilised' neighbourhood (Pow, 2007). Neighbourly relations, on the other hand, tend be more frequent in older neighbourhoods such as traditional courtyard estates where residents still retain some habits from China's pre-transition era (Forrest and Yip, 2007;Wang et al, 2016a). The general consensus is that China's abolishment of the work-unit system and the privatisation of housing provision have created communities that rely on a common social identity, attachment to the physical qualities of private estates and collective actions against other market actors (Breitung, 2012;Xu et al, 2010;Yip, 2012;Zhu et al, 2012).…”

Affective neighbourly relations between migrant and local residents in Shanghai

“…Scholarly interest in migrant-local relations has grown considerably in urban China (Roberts, 2002;Solinger, 1999Solinger, , 2006Wang et al, 2015Wang et al, , 2016Zhang et al, 2009). The general consensus is that rural migrants in particular are facing discrimination and hostility from local residents due to stigmas of crime and unemployment (Solinger, 1999).…”

“…Research so far has paid considerable attention to the frequency of local interactions ranging from visiting each other, mutual support and neighbourly communications (Forrest & Yip, 2007;Wang et al, 2016;Wu & Logan, 2015). However, less focus has been placed on the affective side of neighbourhood relations.…”

“…As part of the effort to socially integrate rural migrants, the relationship between locals and migrants has moved more into scholarly focus, but most findings so far suggest that these relationships are truncated and transient (Chen et al, 2011;Liu, Li, & Breitung, 2012;Wang, Zhang, & Wu, 2015, 2016Zhang, Li, Fang, & Xiong, 2009). The Chinese government has also started to pay more attention to the importance of neighbourhood social relations in assisting migrants to become socialized to their new urban contexts in the host society (Wang, Shen, & Liu, 2008;Wu, 2012).…”

“…In contrast to neighbourly interactions, characterized by overt forms of relations including mutual support or greeting, affective neighbourly relations refer to the level of trust or feelings of mutual regard between residents (Mann, 1954). Whilst scholars have examined the neighbouring activities of residents in urban China (Forrest & Yip, 2007;Hazelzet & Wissink, 2012;Wang et al, 2016;Wu, 2012) and general neighbourly trust under the large umbrella term of "sense of community" (Breitung, 2012;Yip, 2012), little is known about whether neighbourly interactions and affective neighbourly relations are associated, or the theory underpinning this relationship. The position explored in this paper is the contact hypothesis, which asserts that social interaction in an equal and cooperative environment facilitates tolerance and positive intergroup relations (Allport, 1954;Hewstone & Brown, 1986;Pettigrew, 1998).…”