Residential Mobility of Skilled Migrants in Nanjing, China

Can Cui, Stan Geertman and Pieter Hooimeijer

Environment and Planning A, 2015, vol. 47, issue 3, 625-642

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.

Keywords: residential mobility; skilled migrants; Nanjing (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:envira:v:47:y:2015:i:3:p:625-642

DOI: 10.1068/a140079p

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