Residential segregation and well-being inequality over time: A study on the local and migrant elderly people in Shanghai

• Residential segregation between local and migrant elderly in central Shanghai has been slightly strengthened in the period 2000–2010.
• The total well-being of both local and migrant elderly has improved and their inequality gaps have narrowed.
• The levels of segregation and well-being differ between five community types, particularly between different commercial communities.
• The high-priced commercial communities have seen the greatest intensification of residential segregation and well-being inequality.
• The greatest mitigation of residential segregation and well-being inequality is shown in the lower-priced commercial communities.

China achieved great economic success during the market transition, but is now facing increasing social problems and challenges, such as institutional inequality and population ageing. A consequence of this institutional inequality due to the Hukou system is the emerging segregation in cities between locals and migrants. This segregation is growing during last decades and exerts negative implications on the well-being distribution between locals and migrants including their older subcategories. This paper focuses on the residential segregation between local and migrant elderly people and its implications on their access to geographical resources and on their well-being in central Shanghai over the period 2000–2010. Access to geographical services and resources for the elderly is employed as the proxy for their well-being measurement. This paper concludes that the forthgoing housing market reform over the last decade has intensified the differentiations of housing price and new housing distribution, especially those of high-priced commercial housing, resulting in a slightly strengthened residential segregation between local and migrant elderly people. As a consequence, this segregation continues to produce inequality in the well-being distribution between these two elderly groups. However, this paper also shows that the inequality gap has been slightly narrowed due to the greater well-being improvement of migrant elderly.