ABSTRACT
This paper identifies the degrees of residential segregation attributable to different geographical levels. The analysis uncovers that residential segregation in Shenzhen is formed in a structure of systematic division at three administrative levels: the separation of the population between the SEZ and the non-SEZ due to their distinct modes of development; the separation of the population among sub-districts due to specific local economies and associated employment opportunities; and the separation of the population among residents’ committees due to the availability of housing types. Though the entry-exit control of the SEZ was abolished in the late 1990s, the SEZ border still has a significant impact as an ‘invisible wall.’ Migrant laborers are allowed into the city, but they are ‘used’ as merely a means of production and have been confined to the laborintensive sector of the city. By and large, non-hukou migrants are ‘walled’ in chengzhongcun, which are still under de facto rural collective administration and in urban districts only recently expropriated from rural communities. In China’s big cities, the pre-reform discrimination against underprivileged rural population continues to prevail.
