Community Inhabitants’ Attitudes on the Partitioning of Urban Space Derived from South-Eastern Asian Migrant Workers’ Gathering in Urban Commercial Area—A Case Study on Tainan City, Kaohsiung City and Taichung City in Taiwan

Abstract

This study is to explore south-eastern Asian migrant workers’ impacts and their influential factors of gathering/consumption activities on divided cities in Tainan City, Kaohsiung City and Taichung City. We will take on an empirical study in the cities’ commercial area or shopping street in three cities. Three major research methods are applied, including questionnaire survey, participant observation and regression analysis. Data will be obtained from the questionnaire answers of local inhabitants and analysed via SPSS10.3 statistical methods. The main outcomes of this study are as follows: 1) In Tainan City, Kaohsiung City and Taichung City, we have found that the partitioning of urban space has begun to become. Among this, the outcome of Taichung City is much stronger than that of the two other cities. 2) In the impacts of migrant workers’ gathering on commercial streets, community inhabitants also have more tolerant attitude than shop keepers. The community inhabitants of Taichung City have more hostile than those of the two other cities. 3) In comparison of South-eastern Asian migrant workers’ gathering in urban commercial area and its relations between the partitioning of urban space, from the viewpoint of local inhabitants, we have found different influential factors among Tainan City, Kaohsiung City and Taichung City. We can say that these factors will be valid predictable variables on divided cities resulted from migrant workers’ gathering/consumption activities in the paper. In the meantime, we can obtain these influential factors among these three cities through two variables: 1) community inhabitants’ socio-economic attributes and 2) community inhabitants’ responses to migrant workers’ gathering/consumption activities in commercial area. Basically we can find these influential factors among the paper which are the same as the Netherlands and Singapore, and not the same as Guangzhou, China.

 

Share and Cite:

Chen, K. (2014). Community Inhabitants’ Attitudes on the Partitioning of Urban Space Derived from South-Eastern Asian Migrant Workers’ Gathering in Urban Commercial Area—A Case Study on Tainan City, Kaohsiung City and Taichung City in Taiwan. Sociology Mind, 4, 15-23. doi: 10.4236/sm.2014.41002.

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

References

[1] Bureau of Employment and Vocational Training of Council of Labor Affairs (2011). Foreign labors statistics.
http://labor.kcg.gov.tw/labor.htm
[2] Chen Kung-Hung (2008). The Formation and Meanings of Southeast Asian Migrant Workers’ Ethno-Consumptive Space on Tainan City/ County and Kao-hsiung City/County in Taiwan. Proceedings of International Symposium on City Planning 2008, Chonbuk National University.
[3] Chen Kung-Hung (2011a). Study on south-eastern Asian migrant workers’ gathering in urban commercial area and its relations between the partitioning of urban space in Kaohsiung City. Journal of Architecture and Planning, 12, 47-74.
[4] Chen Kung-Hung (2011b). Study on Indonesian migrant workers’ gathering and consumptive activities in urban commercial area and its impacts on urban community spaces in Tainan City. Asia-Pacific Forum, 51, 66-93.
[5] Chen Kung-Hung (2011c). Community residents’ attitudes to the impact of migrant workers’ gathering and its relations between the partitioning of urban space—Taichung City Commercial Area Case. 2011 Conference of China Geographical Society, National Changhua University of Education, Taiwan.
[6] Chou Cheng-Hung (2003). Migrant labors: A catalyst for rebuilding urban space. Master Thesis, Graduate Institute of Architecture of Tunghai University.
[7] Du, H., & Li, S. M. (2010). Migrants, urban villages, and community sentiments: A case of Guangzhou, China. Asian Geographer, 27, 93-108. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10225706.2010.9684155
[8] Erickson, B. H. (1996). Culture, class and connections. The American Journal of Sociology, 102, 217-250.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/230912
[9] Featherstone, M. (1991). Consumer culture and postmodernism. London: Sage.
[10] Kempen, Ronald van (2002). Towards partitioned cities in the Netherlands? Changing patterns of segregation in a highly developed welfare state. In P. Marcuse, & K. Ronald van (Eds.), Of states and cities: The partitioning of urban space (Chapter 5, pp. 88-108). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
[11] Lan Pei-Chia (2002). A transnational topography for the migration and identification of Filipino migrant domestic workers. Taiwan: A Radical Quartwely in Social Studies, 48, 169-219.
[12] Lefebvre, H. (1991). The production of space. Oxford: Blackwell.
[13] Marcuse, P. (2002). The shifting meaning of the black Ghetto in the United States. In P. Marcuse, & K. Ronald van (Eds.), Of states and cities: The partitioning of urban space (Chapter 6, pp. 109-142). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
[14] Marcuse, P., & Ronald van, K. (2002). Of states and cities: The partitioning of urban space. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
[15] Massey, D. (1996). What driving Mexico-US migration? A theoretical, empirical, and policy analysis. The American Journal of Sociology, 102, 939-999. http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/231037
[16] Sassen, S. (1988). The mobility of labor and capital: A study in international investment and labor flow. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511598296
[17] Sassen, S. (1991). The global city: New York, London, Tokyo. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
[18] Sassen, S. (1996). Losing control: Sovereignty in an age of globalization. New York: Columbia University Press.
[19] Sheu Horng-Yih (2000). The use of space and its effect in a Filipino labor gathering area—Christopher Church Area on Chung-Shane North Road. Master Thesis, Graduate Institute of Architecture of Tamkang University.
[20] Soja, E. (1996). Thirdspace: Journeys to Los Angeles and other realand-imagined places. Oxford: Blackwell.
[21] Wang Chih-Hung (2006). Dis/placed identification and politics of space: The consumptive ethnoscape around Taoyuan Railroad Station. Taiwan: A Radical Quartwely in Social Studies, 61, 149-203.
[22] Wu Bi-Nar (2003). Chung Shan—The formation of a Filipino migrant workers’ community space in Taipei. Master Thesis, Institute of Building and Planning of National Taiwan University.
[23] Yeoh, B. S. A., & Huang, S. (1998). Negotiating public space: Strategies and styles of migrant female domestic workers in Singapore. Urban Studies, 35, 583-602.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/0042098984925

Copyright © 2024 by authors and Scientific Research Publishing Inc.

Creative Commons License

This work and the related PDF file are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.