Neighbourhoods in shaping migrant integration: A study of peri-urban Beijing

Abstract

The question of how (im)migrants integrate into their host societies has long been a focus of scholarly research. This article adds to this body of knowledge by examining how different types of neighbourhoods shape the integration experience of migrant residents and their daily practice in peri-urban Beijing. The study was conducted by non-participant observation and semi-structured interviews in four peri-urban Beijing neighbourhoods. The findings suggest that migrant integration has a spatial dimension, with integration differences being enhanced and fixed through residential differentiation. Specifically, a migrant’s position in the urban economy predetermines their integration path and neighbourhood preference, with the neighbourhood further impacting their social integration through embedded lifestyles and ideologies. Neighbourhoods serve as essential places of shared experience in which distinct migrant social groups are formed. Theoretically, the study contributes to the debate between ethnic enclaves and mixed neighbourhoods by arguing that mixed neighbourhoods foster stronger sentiments toward host cities among migrant residents. The failure of integration is not necessarily a result of a neighbourhood’s homogenous tenure and population but rather because residents are not involved in the formal urban economy. Unlike ethnoburbs in America, urban villages in peri-urban Beijing cannot generate upward social mobility because of the informality. Low-skilled migrant entrepreneurs struggle to develop their informal businesses facing unpredictable demolishment of urban villages.

Exploring Neighbourhood Integration Dynamics of Sri Lankan Entrepreneurs in Rione Sanità, Naples

“…Building on the contributions of the Chicago School (Park and Burgess 1921), a rich corpus of studies focused on analysing the close connection between migration and place on various territorial scales (Barberis and Pavolini 2015;Ça glar and Glick Schiller 2015). This study aligned with the neighbourhood integration framework, identifying the neighbourhood as a strategic place to observe how immigrant communities organise their settlement patterns, stabilise socioeconomic positions, and foster relationships both within and outside the ethnic group (Phillips and Robinson 2015;Hanhörster and Wessendorf 2020;Miranda 2020;Lin et al 2020Lin et al , 2023Liu 2023). Consequently, urban forms and the built environment determine the settlement character of immigrants, affecting various aspects of integration, such as health, individual well-being, access to services, and a range of life opportunities (Chetty et al 2016;Galster 2019;Miranda 2020).…”