Beyond homeownership: Housing conditions, housing support and rural migrant urban settlement intentions in China

Housing greatly influences the settlement of both internal and international migrants. Yet previous studies have paid attention only to the role of homeownership. This study goes beyond this limitation and investigates how housing conditions measured by ownership, size, quality, location, and housing support including the housing provident fund and the housing subsidy from work units affect rural migrant urban settlement intentions. Using survey data from the Rural-Urban Migration in China project, this study finds that rural migrants who live in better housing conditions and enjoy housing support are more determined to settle in urban areas. In addition, significant regional differences can be observed in the association between ownership of dwelling and rural migrant urban settlement intentions. Furthermore, the effect of housing support on urban settlement intentions is stronger for rural migrants living in public rental housing than for those who live in other types of housing. Such findings highlight the importance of considering the “quality” dimension of housing and housing support when analyzing the association between housing and rural migrant urban settlement. The study also underscores the necessity of building a government-led multi-agent housing provision system in China to enable rural migrants to permanently settle down in cities.