Breaking the barriers: How urban housing ownership has changed migrants’ settlement intentions in China

Abstract

Since the abolition in China of unequal regulations and controls related to the urban labour market and rural–urban migration in recent years, attention has been paid to migrants’ settlement intentions and their integration into host cities. Settlement channels have become more diverse and more accessible to migrants, because of relaxed institutional constraints and the advanced market mechanism, which are essential to the pace and process of urbanisation, and welfare and service provisions in host cities. Using data from a survey conducted by the Institute of Population and Labor Economic of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in Ningbo in 2014, this study examines migrants’ various settlement intention patterns, including traditional permanent settlement intention involving the transfer of one’s household registration ( hukou) status; de facto permanent settlement intention through purchasing urban housing; and long-term temporary settlement intention and short-term temporary settlement intention not involving the transfer of one’s hukou. This paper finds that hukou status has a limited impact on permanent settlement intention, and rural migrants tend to achieve permanent settlement through more flexible channels, such as purchasing urban housing in their host cities, thereby avoiding the institutional hurdle of obtaining a local urban hukou. The paper contributes to the study of migration in China by introducing a new concept of settlement intention, de facto permanent settlement intention, which has not yet been investigated empirically in the existing literature.

Toward Human-Centered Urbanization? Housing Ownership and Access to Social Insurance Among Migrant Households in China

“…This is especially true in smaller cities where hukou status does not make as much of a difference [30]. In these locales with fewer institutional hurdles, migrants have adapted and found other ways to settle down [31,32]. Others maintain that institutional barriers are the main reason for migrants' low homeownership rate.…”

City economic development, housing availability, and migrants' settlement intentions: Evidence from China

“…Previous studies focused on the household registration system (hukou), which was established in the 1950s, as a key constraint of migrants' settlement because the hukou system prevents migrants from obtaining equal rights, such as employment, health care, and education, to those of local hukou holders in the host city (Li & Duda, 2010;Logan, Fang, & Zhang, 2009). However, many scholars have proved that the effect of the hukou system is weakening along with its ongoing reform (Tao, Hui, Wong, & Chen, 2015;Yang & Guo, 2018). Instead, owning a house is regarded as a vitally important indicator for migrants' permanent settlement and sense of belonging in the host city (Xie & Chen, 2018); homeownership is also a more flexible way to avoid the restrictions of the hukou system, and to access the city's welfare system (Yang & Guo, 2018).…”

“…However, many scholars have proved that the effect of the hukou system is weakening along with its ongoing reform (Tao, Hui, Wong, & Chen, 2015;Yang & Guo, 2018). Instead, owning a house is regarded as a vitally important indicator for migrants' permanent settlement and sense of belonging in the host city (Xie & Chen, 2018); homeownership is also a more flexible way to avoid the restrictions of the hukou system, and to access the city's welfare system (Yang & Guo, 2018). However, the homeownership rate of migrants is rather low; renting or living in poor urban villages are still the main housing choices of migrants (Tao et al, 2015).…”

Rural land reforms and villagers' preferences for urban settlement: A case study of Shandong Province, China

“…Despite strict population control through the hukou system, for example, rural migrants are more likely to concentrate in larger cities, especially the first-tier cities (Zhu, Xiao, & Lin, 2015). Many rural migrants avoid the institutional hurdle of obtaining a local urban hukou and become de facto permanent residents through purchasing urban housing in their host cities (Yang & Guo, 2018). While hukou reforms have increased opportunities to obtain urban hukou in small and medium-sized cities, they have not resulted in a significant surge in the number of rural residents moving to settle in cities by giving up their rural hukou.…”

“…The study by Liu, Wang, and Chen (2017), for instance, demonstrated the existence of a sorting process in which the rural migrants who were more inclined to permanently stay in cities would strive to seek formal urban housing. Indeed, for many rural migrants in China, purchasing urban housing has become an easier and more flexible way of achieving de facto permanent settlement in the city (Yang & Guo, 2018).…”