The settlement intention of urban-to-urban migrants in China: Spatial differences and driving factors

Abstract

China has entered the middle-to-late stage of urbanization. The scale of urbanto-urban migrants, which more refers to the urban-to-urban floating population (UUFP) across China, has significantly increased. UUFP settlement intention is a crucial issue for urbanization development. This study examines the spatial pattern and factors influencing the settlement intention of the UUFP in China based on data obtained through its dynamic monitoring in 2017 and the binary logistic model. The results show that most members of the UUFP were married, older, better educated, and had a higher income than the average person with extensive migration experience. We correlated a high settlement intention with developed economies, coastal areas, good environmental conditions, and more amenities in cities such as Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, and Zhuhai. Amenities were more impactful on settlement intention than economic factors, from individual and regional perspectives. The UUFP more often sought equality of education for children and social integration in its choices of destinations. However, the distance was not a hindrance to intention to settle but played a substantial role in influencing it. We suggest optimizing the stock of the UUFP in large cities, improving public education services, and promoting remote urbanization. Likewise, industrial transfer and enhanced public resources may ease the pressure of large UUFP flows into large cities.

How does mobility and urban environment affect the migrants’ settlement intention? A perspective from the intergenerational differences

“…Higher education means that migrants have richer human capital, are more likely to obtain better jobs and incomes, and are more psychologically confident, leading to an increase in their settlement intention. Simultaneously, the number of family members positively influenced settlement intention (10,20). The increase of family members will enhance the willingness of floating population to settle down, which is consistent with existing research results (28,50,58), indicating that the more family members there are, the higher the immigration cost and the higher the intention to settle in the local area.…”

“…characteristics, previous discussions have focused on the influence of the intrinsic characteristics of the migrants on the settlement intention, among which gender and education level are considered important influencing factors. Studies have shown that women are more willing to settle than men, which is related to their more staged migration (20). In addition, the education level has been proven to be related to human capital and to have a positive impact on the migrants' settlement intention (21).…”

Regional Differences in the Quality of Rural Development in Guangdong Province and Influencing Factors

“…However, this paper failed to complete a spatial and temporal evolution analysis based on a certain time series to explore the spatial and temporal differences of its rural-development distribution. The rural-development system is a multi-factor complex, and a certain degree of variation is bound to exist under a certain time series [47]. Using spatiotemporal evolution analysis to study the regional differences in the quality of rural development within a certain period is the next research task.…”

Housing tenure and type choices of urban migrants in China

“…Those who are willing to integrate into the local community are 1.34 times more likely to purchase a home than others, and those who feel they are already local are 2.16 times more likely to purchase a home than others. The findings indicate that a key factor in determining housing tenure for urban migrants is integration into the local community, that psychological and life integration into the community strengthens the migrants' willingness to settle (Wang et al, 2022), and that better social integration increases the likelihood of housing tenure among the migrants (Song and Zang, 2017).…”