Perceived social distance, socioeconomic status and adaptive residential mobility in urban China

Social distance between individuals/households and their neighbourhood of residence has been garnering increasing attention in residential mobility research, as it shapes a series of phenomena including neighbourhood sorting, social mixing and segregation. Up-to-now the relations between ‘objective’ social distance and actual moves have dominated this field of study. This study argues that the perception of social distance and subsequent planning of residential moves add to the knowledge in this field. Using a survey in Nanjing, China, we conducted Logit Analysis to uncover how perceived social distance impacts plans to move and how socioeconomic status moderates such impact. By doing so, we also bring into dialogue quantitative residential mobility research focusing on how objective residential mismatch triggers residential mobility, and predominantly qualitative research focusing on subjectively perceived residential mismatches. It is found that people are significantly more likely to plan a move when they perceive a mismatch between their household income and that of the majority of the neighbourhood, compared to those perceiving a better match. When we dissect individuals/households who perceive a residential mismatch into a group which perceives a higher relative position compared to the neighbourhood majority and a group which perceives a lower relative position, we find that only those perceiving a higher relative position is more likely to plan a move. These findings also apply to those who have a higher socioeconomic status. In contrast, for the lower socioeconomic status group, a perceived mismatch, particularly a perceived lower relative position, is associated with a significantly lower probability to plan a move, compared to those who perceive a residential match position.