The Social Integration of Migrants in Shanghai’s Urban Villages

Through questionnaire investigation and factor analysis, this article explores the status of social integration of migrants in Shanghai’s urban villages. The results show that social integration of migrants can be mapped on four dimensions: social relation integration, economic integration, psychological integration, and cultural integration. According to the factor scores, the overall level of social integration of migrants is not high, and economic integration is the lowest. Furthermore, the results of multiple linear regression analysis show that, on the whole, the destination place factors of migrants exert more influence on social integration in urban villages than the individual factors. Individual factors play the most important roles in determining the status of psychological integration, while destination place factors are more helpful in explaining the variation in both economic integration and social relation integration. The study also shows that the social integration of migrants is closely related to their living space. Finally, some policy suggestions are given.