Restrained mobility in a high-accessible and migrant-rich area in downtown Beijing

Abstract

Purpose Immigrant travel has become an emerging research field in transportation planning. A handful of scholars have studied the travel behavior of residents in immigrant enclaves in North America. However, thus far, there has been no analysis of the travel behavior of residents living in migrant-rich neighborhoods in China. Additionally, previous studies rarely explored whether these (im)migrants could benefit from resources outside the neighborhoods, and the determinants of their travel to destinations outside the neighborhoods. This study aims to fill these research gaps in the literature. We used a migrant-rich area in downtown Beijing as a case study to understand the daily mobility and the determinants, and strategies to enhance mobility of neighborhood residents. Method To answer the above questions, in-depth interview in Dashilar was used in this study. Eighteen migrant workers were recruited by using snowball sampling, and six local residents were recruited as Bobservers^to view the mobility of migrant workers from another perspective. The interviews were digitally recorded, transcribed and coded. Results The research results show that the interviewees had restrained mobility, limited to the area within Dashilar. Their work location was near residence, and they seldom made recreation and social trips. One of the major reasons for this was that their social ties were highly restricted to people from the same hometown. Additionally, time and financial poverty further limited their mobility. Institutional barriers also segregated migrant workers with local people in job market, urban welfare and daily life. In order to improve physical mobility, migrant workers used electric bicycle as their daily travel facility. The use of mobile phone also improved their virtual mobility by facilitating information flow and extending social networks. Moreover, community initiatives such as community activities and volunteers helped to improve their mobility. Conclusions Dashilar is an area with abundant transport resources and activity destination choices, but migrant workers living there still restrained their daily travel within the neighborhood. Although resources within the neighborhood facilitated daily necessities of migrant workers living in Dashilar, they seldom benefited from the resources outside the neighborhood, which played a larger role in promoting their social and cultural assimilation in the city. Their limited local social ties, individual time and money constraints, and institutional factors all contributed to their limited destination motivations and aspirations. To cope with these challenges, migrant workers and communities both adopted several strategies. These strategies could address the above challenges to some extent, but their limitations also fixed mobility of migrant workers. Combination of Internet of mobile phone and community initiatives was a feasible way to link migrant workers and local people, and help them to improve enlarge mobility space.

Foreign countries, foreign customs: an analysis of short-distance mobility of new immigrants in the Rhine-Main region in Germany

“…They need immigrants to be mobile and able to move around to improve the integration process. Again, research is confirmed [2,3].…”

“…In general, research agrees that a lack of mobility leads to enclaves, social exclusion, and reduced job opportunities. A negative impact on the integration of the immigrants is predicted [2,19].…”

“…Mobility is an important component of social participation and integration. It allows access to employment, education, and social networksin total, to modern life and societal opportunities [1][2][3]. Digitalisation can have a substituting effect: Internet and mobile devices allow home office solutions for a number of jobs.…”

“…As refugees were often accommodated in groups with other refugees, the risk of isolation and little enclaves exists. Research, however, has shown that especially immigrants living in isolated areas tend to be less mobile and have fewer networks outside their direct environment [2,8]. This, in turn, causes higher risks of unemployment and social exclusion [3].…”

Measuring Urban Spatial Activity Structures: A Comparative Analysis

“…This is particularly true for large cities where human activities are highly concentrated with limited resources [2,3]. It is found that excessive human activities have not only led to serious environmental problems such as air pollution and degradation of ecosystem services [4,5], but have also caused many other social and economic problems, including occupational and residential segregations, increased inequality, and impairment of spatial fairness [6,7]. It is no wonder that the impact of human activities on both the natural and built environments has been extensively examined in the literature, wherein the concept of human activity intensity (HAI) has been proposed as a measure of the extent by which land surface has been affected by human activities.…”