For two decades from 1992 to the end of 2011, China has maintained economic growth at rates of ten percent or more per year, but very large numbers of China's rural-to-urban migrants face discrimination and exclusion in urban environments in terms of housing, job opportunities, education, and other basic entitlements. The United Nations estimated that more than one-quarter of China's urban population lives in slums, even as government rhetoric and many research reports consistently have denied the existence of large-scale slums in China. Other studies have provided evidence showing that rural migrants remain the most disadvantaged group in China, experiencing socially, economically, politically, and spatially marginalized status. Unlike conditions in many developing countries, China's state land ownership, authoritarian control of squatting, and hukou-related housing injustice have undermined the relatively stable spatial and temporal qualities that characterize most slums and created an obscure, often-hidden geography of the lived experiences of the urban underclass. This doctoral dissertation research project will be based on slum and ethnic enclave studies and will develop a proto-slum framework to understand the reconfiguration of slums in China and the mechanisms whereby migrants sustain their livelihoods and businesses in rapidly urbanizing environments. The doctoral student will consider Henan migrants in Beijing as the project's central case study. Following their first wave of migration to Beijing in the mid-1980s, the rural household registration status, limited means, and discrimination have gradually channeled Henan migrants into the informal recycling business and have led to the formation of various Henan enclaves in Beijing. From the late 1980s to the early 2010s, these enclaves have been subjected to repeated demolition and relocation processes. The student will use mapping and spatial regression modeling based on land use, observations, and questionnaire and interview data to investigate the spatial-temporal geography and the internal dynamics within slum-condition Henan enclaves in Beijing. He will focus special attention on ascertaining the geography of the proto-slums in Beijing and what structural factors account for the spatial and temporal dynamics of migrant communities and their ability to sustain livelihoods in Beijing as well as the strategies disadvantaged groups use to secure their livelihoods and right to the city within socially, politically, and spatially excluded and environmentally threatened communities.

This project will draw on an interdisciplinary approach to develop new information and insights into the geography of Chinese slums, which have rarely been studied. It will incorporate literature focusing on slums, enclaves, and migration from developing and developed countries and will use a spatial-temporal framework explain how proto-slums develop and function in the Chinese context. The project will provide practical information on the development of and spatial-environmental challenges faced by slum-condition communities in rapidly expanding cities, and it will help to identify policies addressing urban inequality and injustice in China as well as ways to facilitate integration of migrants into the society. As a Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement award, this award also will provide support to enable a promising student to establish a strong independent research career.

Project Report

Are there slums in China? With the support of this NSF-DDRI award, we were able to spend a total of seven months in the field to examine three recycling-based migrant enclaves in Beijing. Throughout the duration of the project, we conducted 68 interviews, collected 307 valid questionnaires and completed five close-up observations. We interviewed enclave business owners, migrant dwellers, natives, and migrant school principals in order to understand the history and geography of these currently existing but repetitively relocated enclaves and their dwellers’ livelihood and living conditions in the past 25 years. With the data we collected in the field, we are able to draw the following preliminary conclusions. (1) Our fieldwork confirmed the existence of migrant enclaves in close relation to the migrant-run informal recycling sector and these enclaves have shown a spatially outward moving pattern in the past 25 years. According to the questionnaire and interview results, all three enclaves have experienced several times of demolition due to urban redevelopment projects. (2) Most residents of these enclaves live in housing units with public underground running water, shared public toilets, shared bathrooms or self-built bathrooms for summer use only, and self-built charcoal furnaces for winter use. Some use second-hand air-conditioners and fridges picked or bought from the recycling market. An average home is about 10-20 square meters in size and occupied by a family of three or four. (3) Repetitive demolitions and relocations make housing betterment risky and unprofitable for the enclave owners and dwellers, since housing compensation to migrants is limited. And most enclave dwellers treat recycling as a means to accumulate income for return migration in the future. All these factors make the general living condition of the enclaves almost unchanged in the past 25 years. (4) In these recycling enclaves, money is made through collecting, transporting, sorting and packaging recyclable materials, a large "grey area" completely outside of the formal Solid Waste Management sector. The enclave dwellers have developed an informal recycling system, which not only provides a means for living but also supports continued chain migration to Beijing. As an inevitable part of the city’s economy, the informal recycling sector will continue to exist in Beijing despite its forced repetitive location changes. In conclusion, the Henan migrant enclaves have shown an outward moving pattern. With their lasting inadequate living condition and inevitable future existence in Beijing, they will continue to exist in their current form with a very high possibility of developing into a prototype of moving slums in Beijing. This dissertation project collected data that shows the spatial trajectory of these enclaves and reveals the institutional constraints on them as well as the adaptive strategies adopted by disadvantaged groups during rapid urbanization processes. It also has resulted in networks built with local grassroots communities, NGOs, and Chinese universities, which lays the ground for future research endeavors in the area.

Agency
National Science Foundation (NSF)
Institute
Division of Behavioral and Cognitive Sciences (BCS)
Type
Standard Grant (Standard)
Application #
1203632
Program Officer
Thomas J. Baerwald
Project Start
Project End
Budget Start
2012-06-01
Budget End
2013-11-30
Support Year
Fiscal Year
2012
Total Cost
$11,830
Indirect Cost
Name
Michigan State University
Department
Type
DUNS #
City
East Lansing
State
MI
Country
United States
Zip Code
48824