Coming together or remaining apart? A closer examination of the contexts of intergroup contact and friendship between urban residents and rural-to-urban migrants in China. Issue 1 (2nd January 2020)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Li, Jenny Xin; Tong, Yuying
• Is Part Of: Journal of ethnic and migration studies. Volume 46:Issue 1(2020)
• Page Start: 66
• Page End: 86
• Publication Date: 2020-01-02
• Subjects: Social integration -- intergroup relations -- contact hypothesis -- workplace -- residential community; Ethnic relations -- Periodicals; Race relations -- Periodicals; Emigration and immigration -- Periodicals; Assimilation (Sociology) -- Periodicals; 305.8005
• DOI: 10.1080/1369183X.2018.1525286
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1369-183X

Abstract

ABSTRACT: The implications of intergroup contact for the social integration of rural migrant workers have received limited scholarly attention in China. Drawing on Allport's contact hypothesis and its recent extensions, this study investigates, from the perspective of urban residents, the situational and relational contexts within which intergroup encounters occur. Using the Urban Resident Survey conducted in 2014 across thirteen cities in China, we compare contact between urbanites and migrants in two social spaces: the workplace and the residential community. We also examine whether their associations with intergroup friendships differ for urbanites with kinship ties to migrants. Our findings highlight the complexities of contact, along with its strengths and limitations in bringing diverse groups closer together. Workplace contact is positively associated with intergroup friendships, whereas residential community contact is negatively related to such ties. Furthermore, kinship relations with migrants can undermine positive contacts but do not provide a buffer for negative encounters.