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.…”

Rural to urban migrant workers in China: challenges of risks and rights

“…Today, the definition of migrant workers in China is updated and a greater migrant population with Urban Hukou identity are included as migrant workers, such as millions of university graduates with degrees in technology and skilled workers who migrate from western cities to eastern cities (Zhang et al , 2019). Compared to migrant workers who migrate from rural areas and seek low socioeconomic status jobs, the new migrant workers mentioned above are less likely to have difficulties in basic livelihood (Li et al , 2019). Instead, migrants with university degrees and high skills are more likely to have problems regarding culture, promotion ceiling and localization (Pi and Zhang, 2016).…”