Study On Factors Affecting Rural-to-urban Migrants’ Residential Choices

Rural-to-urban migrants have played an important role in the process of China’s urbanization, however, they are now in an awkward situation of "Semi-urbanization". One of the manifestations is that most of them are suffering with poor residential conditions. In order to increase knowledge of migrants’ residential choice, and find ways to improve their residential condition, this study focuses on factors affecting rural-to-urban migrants’ residential choices. The analytic framework of this study is mainly based on the theory of "four transition priorities" proposed by Bingqin Li and the empiricial results are based on a survey conducted in2010in19cities that belong to four provinces of China.We find that several factors influence rural-to-urban migrants’residential choice significantly. Firstly, migrants who live with families in city have greater possibility to rent or buy a house, and prefer to choose better housing conditions, but they tend to reduce per capita floor area when live in a rent house. Secondly, migrants with higher income or higher consumption tend to choose dwelling of larger area and with more privacy. Thirdly, the possibility of staying in city is not only associated with the odds of buying a house there, also associated with the odds of choosing better housing conditions. Fourthly, migrants in small or medium cities enjoy better housing condition than those in large cities. In addition, migrants’ age, industry and education level have an effect on their residential choice. Fifthly, migrants’ residential choice is constrained by the alternatives provided for them. The findings of this study indicate that Li’s theory of "four transition priorities" is well suited for explaining rural-to-urban migrants’ residential choices and the popular theories about residential choice in western are also verified in this study.There are several implications we can acquire from the study. Firstly, dormitories provided by employers or government should increase the proportion of housing suitable for family living, given the tendency that increasing number of migrants come to city with families. Secondly, migrants should be gradually included into urban housing security system at least in small and medium cities. Thirdly, more and useful training should be attached to migrants to improve their employment ability. Fourthly, actions should be taken to encourage migrants to small and medium cities and gradually convert them to citizens.