Residential Mobility of Skilled Migrants in Nanjing, China

Abstract

Economic restructuring and the dramatic expansion of higher education have generated large migration flows of skilled employees to Chinese cities. The residential mobility of skilled migrants has a large impact on the operation of housing and labour markets and the (re)production of social inequities. In this paper we examine the effects of life-course trajectories and institutional factors on the residential mobility of skilled migrants, in comparison with local skilled workers in Nanjing, using a retrospective survey conducted in 2012. Results show that skilled migrants have a higher level of residential mobility than their local counterparts, and that this difference arises from the locals' early entry into homeownership. Yet, migrants and locals also share similarities: market factors that are closely related to household, labour, and housing careers are decisive in explaining the residential mobility of skilled workers, indicating that life-course theories are also applicable in the Chinese context. The impacts of traditional institutional factors, such as hukou, employer type, and Chinese Communist Party membership, are of a much smaller magnitude, indicating that markets have become dominant institutions in China.

The Spatial Pattern of Residential Mobility in Guangzhou, China

“…Wu, ; W.P. Wu, ; ; Cui et al ., ). Research on the spatial dimensions of residential relocation have been even fewer and far between (Li and Siu, ; Shen and Wu, ; Shen, ).…”

Living space and psychological well-being in urban China: Differentiated relationships across socio-economic gradients

“…At the same time, the relaxation of hukou policy (the household registration system that once prohibited rural residents' mobility up the urban chain) in the 1980s has led to phenomenal rural-to-urban migration (Chan and Zhang, 1999). In 2012, more than 160 million rural Chinese had migrated to urban areas (China National Bureau of Statistics, 2013), adding severe pressure to the country's crowded urban centers where many people now live in very cramped conditions (Cui et al, 2015).…”

“…This may have weakened the cultural preference for collective living arrangements and extended family coresidence-most notably among the urban affluent (Hu, 2016)-thus propelling increased demands for personal space. Meanwhile, China's population growth, urbanization and mass rural-to-urban migration have led to soaring population density and intensified housing pressure in urban areas (Cui et al, 2015;Huang, 2003). There is good reason to believe that these contextual changes may have significantly re-configured people's relative space expectations and access to dwelling space, which could have uneven psychological consequences across the urban population.…”

“…This uneven detraditionalization means that living arrangement preferences and dwelling space expectations may vary across the socio-economic spectrum (Hu, 2016;Yan, 2009), particularly as people normalize such expectations with reference to others living in the same community. At the same time, the transition from a quota-based housing system to a more privatized and commodified housing market means that living space is increasingly tied to purchasing power (Chen and Gao, 1993;Cui et al, 2015;Huang, 2003;Huang and Li, 2014).…”

Growth Type and Functional Trajectories: An Empirical Study of Urban Expansion in Nanjing, China

“…Extension was dominated by manufacturing land at the fringe. Meanwhile, residential expansion occupied almost one-fourth of all the extension grids, which reflected a trend of job-housing balance in the process of industrial suburbanization [ 41 ]. Similar to the previous stage, enclave was still characterized by the rapid expansion of manufacturing land, mixed with small amounts of education in Jiangning.…”