Ecological migrants’ socio-spatial integration in Yinchuan City, China

Abstract

Promoting the social integration of ecological migrants and identifying the key constraints to their integration are significant issues for social governance and transformation. Most previous studies have not systematically analyzed the level of social integration of migrants from the perspective of spatial ternary dialectics or systematically analyzed physical, social, and spiritual spaces. Based on space production theory, this study used principal component analyses to evaluate the ternary spatial integration level of physical, social, and spiritual spaces of ecological migrants in a specific resettlement area in Yinchuan City, China, and the Tobit regression model was used to identify the key constraint factors. The results demonstrate that the overall socio-spatial integration levels of ecological migrants in Yinchuan City are lower than that of the overall migrant population nationwide, and the levels of their spatial adaptation and spatial practice integration lag behind that of spatial belonging and spatial identity integration. Meanwhile, length of residency, occupation type, monthly income, and household type have facilitating effects on the ecological migrants’ social integration, while gender, age, ethnicity, and education levels have insignificant effects. In particular, occupation type is a key factor in promoting social integration and improving employment among ecological migrants. It is concluded that upgrading production skills and raising employment for ecological migrants can foster sustainable social space production patterns, facilitate virtuous cycles, and eliminate inhibiting factors such as lagging spatial practices, regional cultural differences, and socio-spatial deprivation.