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作者

Ian MacLachlan;Yue Gong

来源

CITIES,Vol.131,Issue1,Article 103960

语言

英文

关键字

Talent workers;Drifting elderly;Floating population;Hukou;Shenzhen

作者单位

Peking University Shenzhen Graduate School, University Town, Nanshan District, Shenzhen 518055, Guangdong Province, China;School of Urban Design, Wuhan University, Wuchang District, Wuhan 430072, Hubei Province, China; the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Macao Polytechnic University, Macao, China;Peking University Shenzhen Graduate School, University Town, Nanshan District, Shenzhen 518055, Guangdong Province, China;School of Urban Design, Wuhan University, Wuchang District, Wuhan 430072, Hubei Province, China; the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Macao Polytechnic University, Macao, China

摘要

Talent workers are becoming a critical factor in the urbanization of China. Government programs encourage the attraction of these skilled and university educated workers by providing subsidized housing. Talent workers are responding to these incentives, yet many are not settling in the urban communities that woo them. This micro-scale case study of talent worker housing in Shenzhen explores some aspects of the lived experience of these “floating” talent workers. As a well-paid and upwardly mobile component of the floating population, talent workers are typically co-resident with their spouses and dependent children. However, a third generation is commonly present in these urban extended family households. Parents and in-laws of talent workers provide grandchild care and as such, they exemplify the “drifting elderly,” a newly identified phenomenon in China's cities. Interview evidence shows that about one half of young talent workers and virtually all of the drifting elderly constitute a new age floating population, challenging traditional conceptions of the floating population as an urban underclass. Despite the provision of subsidized housing intended to foster the retention of talent workers in Shenzhen, many are not committed to staying in their community and have no interest in attaining local urban hukou status.