Rural settlement of urban dwellers in China: community integration and spatial restructuring

Abstract

With rapid urbanization in China, an increasing number of urban dwellers are migrating to rural areas, becoming “new villagers”. This phenomenon provides both opportunities and challenges for rural revitalization. This study aims to examine the community integration dilemmas of these new villagers from the perspective of social space production theory. Through oral history investigations, in-depth interviews and participant observations, this qualitative study explores the integration predicaments of new villagers across four dimensions—living space, production space, cultural space, and social space. The findings indicate that the integration dilemmas arise from disparities between new villagers and native villagers in status, cultural identity, values, and customs. New villagers face risks of exclusion in obtaining living space, cultural conflicts in production activities, value clashes with traditional rural culture, and social closure from existing rural networks. To better integrate new villagers into local communities, fostering cultural communication, shaping common values, and restructuring rural space are essential, providing insights for rural talent retention policies. This research offers implications for rural talent revitalization mechanisms in the context of urban–rural migration in China.