When Stayers Become a Minority: Neighborhood Attainment Outcomes for People without Internal Migration Experiences in Taiwan

Shih-Keng Yen, National Chung Cheng University

Over the past five decades in Taiwan, there has been a significant influx of people from rural areas into cities. This migration has not only led to population concentration and subsequent decentralization but also resulted in dramatic shifts in urban socioeconomic landscapes. These trends may discourage long-term urban residents from moving to socioeconomically advantaged neighborhoods, contributing to growing residential inequality based on migration background. The key questions are: Do long-term or established urban residents tend to live in socioeconomically disadvantaged neighborhoods? How do individual socioeconomic characteristics contribute to this disparity? And how do the processes of urban development and structural factors drive residential inequality? Using data from the restricted-use Taiwan Social Change Survey of 2022, this study finds that established urban residents are more likely to live in socioeconomically disadvantaged neighborhoods compared to internal migrants. However, individual factors such as family income and perceived class play a modest role in shaping these neighborhood disparities. In contrast, the residential attainment divide based on migration background diminishes significantly when considering factors such as duration of residence and township type—structural elements related to urbanization and suburbanization. Indeed, the disadvantages faced by established residents are more pronounced among homeowners in urban and surrounding areas.

Keywords: Internal Migration and Urbanization, Inequality, Disadvantage and Discrimination, Population and Development

See extended abstract.

  Presented in Session 152. Internal Migration and Socio-Economic Inequalities