China's new age floating population: Talent workers and drifting elders

• Published in: Cities Vol. 131; p. 103960
• Main Authors: MacLachlan, Ian, Gong, Yue
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier Ltd 01.12.2022
• Subjects: Drifting elderly; Floating population; Hukou; Shenzhen; Talent workers; Hukou; Drifting elderly; Floating population; Talent workers; Shenzhen
• ISSN: 0264-2751; 1873-6084
• DOI: 10.1016/j.cities.2022.103960

Talent workers are becoming a critical factor in the urbanization of China. Government programs encourage the attraction of these skilled and university educated workers by providing subsidized housing. Talent workers are responding to these incentives, yet many are not settling in the urban communities that woo them. This micro-scale case study of talent worker housing in Shenzhen explores some aspects of the lived experience of these “floating” talent workers. As a well-paid and upwardly mobile component of the floating population, talent workers are typically co-resident with their spouses and dependent children. However, a third generation is commonly present in these urban extended family households. Parents and in-laws of talent workers provide grandchild care and as such, they exemplify the “drifting elderly,” a newly identified phenomenon in China's cities. Interview evidence shows that about one half of young talent workers and virtually all of the drifting elderly constitute a new age floating population, challenging traditional conceptions of the floating population as an urban underclass. Despite the provision of subsidized housing intended to foster the retention of talent workers in Shenzhen, many are not committed to staying in their community and have no interest in attaining local urban hukou status. •Subsidized housing is essential to attract talent workers to first-tier cities with ballooning housing prices•Despite local government housing subsidies, many talent workers are not interested in having a local hukou and ambivalent about settling in Shenzhen for the long term•Talent migrants are typically considered as individual actors, but they often include a trailing spouse, child, and parents to assist with childcare•Since talent migration has become a family affair, talent attraction should plan for larger and sometimes extended family units•Elderly parents are often long-term members of the talent worker community and add to the floating population associated with talent attraction