A Study of Socio-spatial Segregation of Rural Migrants in Shenzhen

Abstract

To decode cities, Robert Park brought two issues into consideration, segregation and migration, which are also key to understanding the Global South cities today, such as Shenzhen, the laboratory of post-reform China. Similar to Chicago, Shenzhen is a well-known prospering ‘migrant city’, where we identified marked sociospatial segregation of rural migrants. Unlike Chicago, however, the segregation of migrants in Shenzhen is largely determined by some institutional factors such as hukou system, the urban and rural dualism, and its ‘world factory’ regime. Moreover, through the examination of Shenzhen’s Foxconn complex, we identified some difficulties encountered by migrants in integrating into Shenzhen or returning to their hometowns, that is, becoming either urbanities or returnees. Rural migrants have been stuck in a specific status of in- between urban and rural. This supports the argument of Park who stated that the city is a ‘psychophysical mechanism’, in which physical space and human sentiments interact. From Chicago in 1916 to Shenzhen in 2016, the segregation of migrants is still a major challenge for cities to address.