Residential segregation and well-being inequality between local and migrant elderly in Shanghai

Abstract

The tremendous political, economic and social transition in China has brought about a prominent socio-spatial differentiation and segregation in cities between urban locals and migrants. Such segregation will act as a barrier, particularly for the group of physically and economically disadvantaged elderly. This paper aims to analyze the implications of residential segregation on the well-being distribution between the local and migrant elderly in Shanghai. The well-being of the elderly is assessed by the availability and accessibility of social and physical resources, which are employed as the proxies of well-being based on Lindenberg's theory of social production function. The results show that the degree of well-being differs between community types. Local elderly people dominate the traditional and work-unit communities in the city centre and have relatively good access to social and physical resources. By contrast, migrant elderly people are scattered and partly segregated in the peripheral communities, resulting in their relatively poor access to various well-being resources. This paper concludes that the residential segregation between local and migrant elderly people in Shanghai, largely caused by Hukou's institutional constraints, has produced evident inequality in well-being, making migrant elderly people more disadvantaged in their urban life. Several planning measures are proposed to mitigate these negative effects.