Supporting or dragging? effects of neighbourhood social ties on social integration of rural-to-urban migrants in China

Abstract

Urban scholars have debated the complex effects of neighbourhood-based social ties on the economic and social integration of marginalized populations in the mainstream urban society. Studies of migrant populations in China have noted the existence of strong neighbourhood ties and solidarity in migrant communities, but few have examined whether strong neighbourhood cohesion enhances or hinders broader social integration of rural migrants. This article investigates the extent to which different types of social ties in the neighbourhood, as opposed to more social networks developed at the city level, predict more frequent intergroup interaction and stronger place attachment among rural migrants in Chinese cities. Statistical analysis, using data from a twelve-city migrant survey, reveals that, while the diversity of social networks does matter, the neighbourhood is a territorial anchor supporting, rather than dragging, the urban social integration of rural migrants. The findings highlight the importance of neighbourhood in China’s inclusive urbanization strategy and potential conflicts in recent deprived neighbourhood redevelopment programs.

Keywords:

• Social integration
• neighbourhood
• social networks
• rural migrants
• China

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1 Note that measurements for the size of the city-scale social network are different from that for the neighbourhood-scale social network. This is rather for feasibility reasons. In the survey questionnaire, the questions for neighbourhood social ties asked numbers for all four categories of social ties living in the neighbourhood, including relatives, fellow villagers, colleagues, and friends, while the questions for city-scale ties only asked about relatives and friends. Therefore, I was only able to capture the numbers of relatives and friends for city-scale social ties.

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant Number 41571153.

Notes on contributors

Zhilin Liu

Zhilin Liu, PhD, is an associate professor in the School of Public Policy and Management and a joint research fellow at the Hang Lung Center for Real Estate, Tsinghua University. Her main research interests are in urban planning and governance, affordable housing, rural-to-urban migrants, and sustainable urbanization.