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作者

Mengran Xu;Fulong Wu;Susan Moore;Zhigang Li

来源

CITIES,Vol.134,Issue1,Article 104120

语言

英文

关键字

Intergroup contact;Integration;Migrants;China

作者单位

The Bartlett School of Planning, University College London, Central House, 14 Upper Woburn Place, London WC1H 0NN, UK;School of Urban Design, Wuhan University, No. 299 Bayi Road, Wuchang District, Wuhan 430072, China;Hubei Habitat Environment Research Centre of Engineering and Technology, Wuhan, China;The Bartlett School of Planning, University College London, Central House, 14 Upper Woburn Place, London WC1H 0NN, UK;School of Urban Design, Wuhan University, No. 299 Bayi Road, Wuchang District, Wuhan 430072, China;Hubei Habitat Environment Research Centre of Engineering and Technology, Wuhan, China

摘要

Although the integration of migrants has been increasingly pursued by the policy makers in many countries, there remains a paucity of knowledge regarding what migrants themselves think about integration. Based on the 2014 China Migrants Dynamic Survey, this study draws upon new assimilation theory to investigate migrants' willingness to contact locals in China. Our results suggest that most migrants in China are willing to contact natives, but their willingness may not be strong. Different from the actual intergroup contact, migrants' willingness to develop intergroup contact is not affected by their socioeconomic status. Instead, such willingness might be developed based on the cultural commonalities between migrants and natives. Residential segregation can weaken migrants' willingness to contact locals even after the endogeneity bias of residential choice is controlled by using instrumental variable method and focusing on migrants who live in the housing provided by employers. This draws a darker picture of migrant integration. Previous literature explains that migrants faced with residential segregation have fewer opportunities to form intergroup contact which in turn can hamper their overall integration. Our analysis goes a step further by revealing that they may also lose their motivation to make intergroup contact – a preference that is critical to changing their disadvantaged situation.