Exploring Residential Satisfaction of Temporary Migrants in Chengzhongcun Village, Guangzhou

1. Through the Eyes of the “Strangers”: Residential Satisfaction of Temporary Migrants in Chengzhongcun (Village in the City) in Guangzhou Siu Yat-mingDepartment of SociologyHong Kong Baptist University

2. The Stranger • The “self” and “other” in ethnography • But subjective interpretation can also be biased • Georg Simmel’s concept of “the stranger”: • who comes today and may stay tomorrow • Because of their bipolar characteristics of both nearness and remoteness, strangers can provide an objective evaluation of the group environment.

3. Objective 1: • To study the physical aspects of residential satisfaction (or dissatisfaction) from a subjective “self” and an objective “other” points of view.

4. Assimilation of Rural Migrants into the Local Community • Dorothy Solinger (1999): collapse of opposition and obliteration of boundaries • Zhou Daming (2000): the dual community • Wang Xiaoyi (2000): economic sphere can be open, but social sphere is closed • Wang Chunguang (2006): migrants are “half-urbanized”

5. Objective 2: • To see if social interaction can promote neighbourliness (the social aspect of residential satisfaction)

6. Data and Measurement • Guangzhou Housing and Mobility Survey in 2005 • Main sample: 25 samples each in 40 resident committees (communities) • Migrant subsamples: 25 samples each in 12 villages in the city (chengzhongcun) • Out of which 10 villages with 500 samples were matched

7. Characteristics of the 10 Villages • Tianhe (5), Haizhu (3), Baiyun (2) • Area: 0.05 – 1.1 Km2 • No. of Households: 1709 – 8644 • %Migrants: 39% – 93%

8. Selected Community

9. Selected Community

10. Selected Community

11. Selected Community

12. Selected Community

13. Measurements • Local: Local residents with household registration in Guangzhou • Migrant: Temporary residents who do not have household registration in Guangzhou • Residential Dissatisfaction-own building: measured by 15 individual items in a 4-point Likert scale • Residential Dissatisfaction-community: measured by 14 individual items in a 4-point Likert scale

14. Measurements • Neighbourly Interaction: Measured by 7 4-point Likert scale • Local-Migrant Interaction: Measured by 2 5-point Likert scale • Neighbourliness: Measured by 4 7-point Semantic Differential scale

15. Demographic and Socioeconomic Characteristics

16. Demographic and Socioeconomic Characteristics

22. 1: Residential Satisfaction: Own Building 4: Local-Migrant Interaction 2: Residential Satisfaction: Community 5: Neighbourliness 3: Neighbourly Interaction

23. The Model

24. Factors influencing NeighbourlinessR2 = .162, n = 499

25. Full Model Regression:R2 = .272 n=405

26. Local Residents OnlyR2 = .213 n = 127

27. Migrants OnlyR2 = .298 n = 278

28. Conclusion • There are discrepancies between “self” and “other” in residential satisfaction. • Migrants’ feeling of neighbourliness can be enhanced by interaction between local residents and migrants.

29. Thank you!