Regional Heterogeneity of Migrant Rent Affordability Stress in Urban China: A Comparison between Skilled and Unskilled Migrants at Prefecture Level and Above

Abstract

Rental housing unaffordability has been widely used to assess the housing poverty problem among immigrants in the developed and developing countries. China is experiencing an unprecedented urbanization process, with two-thirds of its 250 million migrants now being sheltered in private rental housing in the host cities. In this paper, we aimed to examine the rental housing unaffordability problems faced by migrant workers in urban China and provide policy recommendations for a more accessible and affordable migrant housing provision system. We used the household data on China’s Migrant Dynamics Monitoring Survey (MDMS), released in 2016, across China’s 329 prefecture-level cities and above to look into the sociality and spatiality of migrant rent expenses and rent-income ratio at the prefecture-level cities and above. The statistical tests were conducted to examine the socio- and spatial-variance of these rent stress indexes, and it was found that educational level is a significant and quite powerful indicator in predicting who will or will not assume the heavier rental housing pressure. We then continued to reveal the different spatiality of high-rent-stress migrants across the high- and low-skilled categories. An agglomeration of the high-skilled high-rent-stress migrants was witnessed in the coastal growth engines of urban clusters, while a more spillover-like pattern among the low-skilled high-rent-stress migrants was reported in our study. An ordinary least square and spatial regression analysis was conducted to explain their respective mechanisms.

A Qualitative Study On Mental Distress Of Vietnamese Students In The U.S.A. In The Covid-19 Era

“…Research showed that rental housing unaffordability is one of the significant causes for mental distress among immigrants. [25] NYC has one of the highest rental rates in the world. [26] These international students, who mostly live on the financial support from the family back home, are struggling with the high rental cost in the City.…”

“…Among these 20 students, there are 8 males and 12 females. These students (aged [19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33] have been in the USA from 7 years to less than 4 months. Demographics of these students are provided in Table A1.…”

Untitled

“…Scholars studying urban competitiveness have found that a larger pool of human capital leads to a higher technological capability, promotes innovation, fosters economic upgrading and encourages the development of technology clusters. Furthermore, the presence of high-skilled people has been found to create capital markets and enhance economic efficiency (Li et al 2019), which boosts economic development and adoption of international norms (Porter 1990;Zweig 2005;Welch and Hao 2015;Hao et al 2016;Zweig and Yang 2014).…”

Food Security among Libyan Migrants Living in Australia: A Qualitative Study

“…Food insecurity (with or without hunger) occurs in disadvantaged urban areas where culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) communities and/or low income populations are concentrated [7,13]. Migrant families tend to congregate where possible, the location often dictated by affordability [14,15]. Such proximity also increases their ability to maintain family ties and culture, to enjoy the society of people from similar background and sharing a language, and to obtain easier access to culturally suitable foods [16].…”