To Stay or to Leave? Migrant Workers' Decisions During Urban Village Redevelopment in Hangzhou, China

Abstract

As a vital source of the demographic dividend, migrant workers living in urban villages have positively contributed to urban economic development and the improvement of urbanization. Although urban villages have had a great impact on public health due to the shabby environments and poor public safety, the large-scale demolition of the urban villages, the supply of affordable housing for migrant workers has decreased drastically, which may lead to the outflow of many migrant workers and consequently affects the sustainable operations of cities. Therefore, this paper takes Hangzhou as an example to study the impact of urban village redevelopment on migrant workers and their migration decisions during urban village redevelopment process. The finding indicates that migrant workers are significantly impacted by large-scale demolition. (1) The number of affected migrant workers is huge. For example, 657,000 migrant workers who lived in around 178 urban villages are affected in Hangzhou (34,468 households). (2) The increase in rent is obvious. (3) Strong expulsion effect: nearly 1/3 migrant workers will decide to leave the city because of the demolition. Furthermore, our binary logistic regression model suggests that the commuting time, living satisfactory, and the rent affordability are factors significantly affecting migration workers' decision to leave and stay in the city. The housing quality and comfort indicators are not significant. This indicates that convenience for employment and high rent avoidance are the major characteristics of migrant workers' housing choice. Hence, in addition to considering whether the harsh environment is harmful to the public health of urban and residents, the interest and characteristics of migrant workers should be considered during the current urban village demolition process. While simply demolishing urban villages, government needs to provide a relatively sufficient amount of low-cost and affordable housing for migrant workers in case migrant workers leave the city in large numbers due to lack of suitable housing in the city.

How Urban Public Service Affects the Well-Being of Migrant Workers: An Empirical Analysis Based on the Theoretical Perspective of Social Comparison Theory

“…It is also worth noting that migrant workers will inevitably experience a sense of social conflict in the process of urban integration [49,50]. This study finds that the sense of social conflict will regulate the impact of economic public service satisfaction on the sense of social equity but cannot regulate the impact of social public service satisfaction on social equity.…”

Cooking or heating with solid fuels increased the all-cause mortality risk among mid-aged and elderly People in China

“…Based on the current results, although the government has made great efforts to promote fuel revolution in the past decades[ 36 ], there is still a neglectable proportion of urban residents who were still using solid fuels in their household life, which did lie a huge burden on health and well-being. It could partly be explained that there are a lot of “urban villages” currently in China, people who live here tend to have a poor environment and public health safety[ 37 ]. Thus, future fuel improvement policies should still pay more attention to people who live in urban areas, especially in urban villages, not only in rural areas.…”

The Twilight of Shenzhens Great Urban Village: Renovation of Baishizhou to Sustain Local Vitality and Improve Living Conditions

“…During the interview, construction worker Hong Jian suggested that, like himself, many of his colleagues who also live in Baishizhou have no choice but to leave Shenzhen even before the construction project finishes. The outflow of many migrant workers who work in essential labor-intensive industries threatens the sustainable operation of Shenzhen as it compromises the city's service level and reduces the city's competitiveness [10].…”