‘Nice apartments, no jobs’: How former villagers experienced displacement and resettlement in the western suburbs of Shanghai

In this paper, we document the displacement and resettlement of over 11,000 villagers who were removed from their homes and relocated in modern apartment blocks to make way for the construction of a new business district in the western suburbs of Shanghai. We examine the expectations and concerns of displaced residents before and after their relocation. Our findings showed that while the former villagers recognised the improvement in their physical surroundings, they were deeply concerned about their loss of rental income resulting from the demolition of their former homes, in which they housed unregistered migrants. They felt unfairly treated by government throughout the relocation process and saw themselves as being decanted into a new village-in-the-city. These results paint a much more unequivocal picture of resident dissatisfaction than is found in some other recent research.