Housing stress and mental health of migrant populations in urban China

Li, Jie; Liu, Zhilin

doi:10.1016/j.cities.2018.04.006

Cited by 89 publications

(83 citation statements)

References 63 publications

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“…Importantly, this finding suggests that migrants’ happiness is largely determined by both the ‘soft’, non-physical environment and the ‘hard’, physical environment of the local community. It lends some support to Li and Liu’s recent finding that, as compared to housing conditions, neighbourhood social environment is a much stronger predictor of mental health among the migrant population in urban China [36]. In particular, the significant effect size of having a satisfying social life coincides with the observation in the previous literature that neighbourhood attachment, social support, and social connectedness are key ingredients of SWB [37–39].…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 82%

“…Although many Chinese citizens have migrated to the city for economic reasons, our analysis is able to reveal that the ‘social’ constituencies of local community, which are mirrored essentially in an inclusive environment underpinned by formal community-based communal participation and informal in-person contacts, are likely to play an equally important role in shaping urban migrants’ happiness. While our finding tends to confirm the observation that social exclusion erodes subjective well-being among migrants in urban China, it further points towards the positive implications that an inclusive community may present to its migrant members [22, 36].…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 75%

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Community environmental satisfaction: its forms and impact on migrants’ happiness in urban China

Lin

Huang

2018

Health Qual Life Outcomes

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BackgroundThe great number of internal migrants has become an important part of China’s urban population. Improving migrants’ well-being is emerging as a key to the state policy emphasized in China’s New-type Urbanization Plan. Previous studies on subjective well-being (SWB) have primarily focused on the impacts of objective measures of community environment and consider migrants as a homogeneous group. This study extends the literature by exploring the impacts of perceived community environment on migrants’ SWB and incorporating cohort differences in the analysis.MethodsWe use the 2015 national scale data—China Household Financial Survey (CHFS) data—to analyse the different forms of community environmental satisfaction and their impacts on migrants’ subjective well-being. A total of 12,607 migrants were sampled from 29 of mainland China’s 31 provinces. Latent class analysis is applied to explore the potential forms of community environmental satisfaction; multinomial and ordinal logistic regression models are constructed to examine the sociodemographic characteristics of different forms of community environmental satisfaction and the association between community environmental satisfaction and subjective well-being among migrant cohorts in urban China.ResultsLatent class analysis defines four distinctive latent classes, which mirror four different domains of migrants’ perception of their local environments. They are called ‘unsatisfying local environment’, ‘satisfying social environment’, ‘satisfying physical environment’, and ‘satisfying social life’. Results from the multinomial logistic regression model reveals that the four forms of community environmental satisfaction are underpinned by distinct sociodemographic characteristics. Results from a series of ordinal logistic regression models show that different forms of community environmental satisfaction, in particular satisfaction with the physical environment and with social life, are positively associated with migrants’ happiness. The model results also suggest that cohort differences do exist among migrants. The positive effect of a satisfying physical environment on happiness tends to be greater in younger cohorts, while the positive effect of a satisfying social life on SWB is more observable in older cohorts.ConclusionSatisfaction with community environment has a salient impact on urban Chinese migrants’ happiness. For their SWB, improving migrants’ physical living environments and social lives is relatively more important than social environment, which in a way mirrors migrants’ current status with its deficiencies in terms of a comfortable living environment and social life. Moreover, there exist cohort differences that should be considered when making policies to enhance migrants’ subjective well-being.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 82%

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 75%

Community environmental satisfaction: its forms and impact on migrants’ happiness in urban China

Lin

Huang

2018

Health Qual Life Outcomes

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“…Rural–urban migrants’ self-identification and sense of belonging are constantly challenged in host cities, leading to a higher risk of depression and other mental health problems [19,20]. Meanwhile, migrants were forced to live in certain parts of the city, primarily in suburban areas and “urban villages” that have poor housing conditions due to housing disadvantages created by the hukou system [18,21]. The lack of a local hukou was clearly shown to increase a migrant’s living stress and mental health problems.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Mental Health among Migrants in Shenzhen, China: Does it Matter Whether the Migrant Population is Identified by Hukou or Birthplace?

Yang

Dijst

Helbich

2018

IJERPH

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Massive rural–urban migration in China has drawn attention to the prevalence of mental health problems among migrants. Research on the mental health of Chinese migrants has a narrow focus on rural–urban migrants, emphasizing the institutional role of hukou in migrant mental health. We argue that the heterogeneity of migrants, including their place of origin and whether they are temporary or permanent migrants, should be taken into account when trying to understand the meaning of migration as an actual movement from one place to another. The data used for this study is from a cross-sectional survey (N = 855) conducted in Shenzhen to compare the differences in migrants’ mental health that arise when using the two definitions (e.g., hukou and birthplace). Binary logistic regression models were estimated to assess the associations between people’s mental health and migration, while controlling for settlement experiences, self-reported physical health, and sociodemographics. The results reveal inconsistent findings across both definitions: general migrants by birthplace were found to be unlikely to have mental problems compared to non-migrants, whereas temporary migrants were at higher risk of mental problems. The study provides important evidence that different migrant groups have different mental health outcomes. The choice of the definition used influences both migrant group selection and the actual linkage between migration and mental health.

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“…Intuitively, rural migrant workers' poor living conditions could also decrease their health advantage. However, an article by Li and Liu [43] indicated that although the dormitories provided by employers are often dilapidated, dormitory tenants possess the best mental well-being and perceive the least stress compared to other housing dwellers. The authors believe that employer-provided dormitories could alleviate the tenants' pecuniary burden, which further mitigates the negative effect of migration.…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Has Rural-Urban Migration Promoted the Health of Chinese Migrant Workers?

Long

Han

Liu

2020

IJERPH

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The relationship between health and migration has always been an important theme in immigration research. This research develops a new approach to test the healthy migrant hypothesis and the salmon bias hypothesis in China by examining an interaction term combining agricultural hukou and migrant status, non-agricultural employment history, and subsequent area of residence. Based on two Chinese micro-databases, CGSS 2015 and Harmonized CHARLS, we conducted an empirical test on the relationship between migration and health. Our empirical evidence suggests that the initial health advantage among Chinese rural migrant workers was largely due to self-selection rather than migration effects. After controlling for demographic and socioeconomic characteristics, this advantage disappeared. After their health deteriorated, migrant workers returned to their original location. This could exacerbate the contradiction between the allocation of medical resources and the demand in rural and urban China, further intensifying the already widening health status gap between rural and urban residents.

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Housing stress and mental health of migrant populations in urban China

Cited by 89 publications

References 63 publications

Community environmental satisfaction: its forms and impact on migrants’ happiness in urban China

Community environmental satisfaction: its forms and impact on migrants’ happiness in urban China

Mental Health among Migrants in Shenzhen, China: Does it Matter Whether the Migrant Population is Identified by Hukou or Birthplace?

Has Rural-Urban Migration Promoted the Health of Chinese Migrant Workers?

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