Geographic Mobility And Housing Differentiation Among Migrants From The Perspective Of Place-based Inequality

China has witnessed an unprecedented massive population migration during the rapid process of industrialization and urbanization.Meanwhile,because of economic restructuring and drastic expansion of higher education enrollment,the migrant population in China has become increasingly diverse and differentiated by not only socio-economic attributes but also place of origins and the choice of destination cities.While rural-to-urban migrants may still represent the dominant group in China,urbanto-urban migration has recently become prominent with an increasing number of migrants from small towns and cities as well as medium-sized and even big cities.The destinations are not limited to big cities,and at the same time,movements which are of short distance and downward are gradually increasing.Migration is not only related to the improvement of individuals’ socio-economic status such as occupation and income,but also may affect the accumulation of housing assets and social integration.Thus,the issues on migrants’ housing in destination cities have significant implication for promoting the development of new urbanization and realizing talent accumulation.Migrants have been confronted with substantial difficulties in accessing the urban housing market under the background of skyrocketing housing prices and the continuous tightening housing purchase policies,which demands a more systematic examination.Most migrants have little prospect of entering homeownership and suffer poor living conditions in urban destinations presenting a challenge to China’s urbanization.Previous studies have investigated differentiation in housing outcomes among migrants focusing on their homeownership in the destination cities,while the nature of their housing career as a changing process in housing status has been neglected.In terms of influential factors,the role played by individual and family characteristics in accessing homeownership have been emphasized based on life course theory,market transition theory and power persistence thesis.However,structural factors,especially the role of place of origins in affecting homeownership acquisition has been largely neglected.While geographic mobility provides an important way for individuals to increase returns on a given set of individual attributes and achieve better socioeconomic status,the relationship between geographic mobility and housing differentiation is unclear.This study,combining quantitative and qualitative approach,examines the impact and mechanism of the place of origins and destinations on the housing differentiation among migrants and reveals how geographic mobility affects their other life careers,and finally affects their housing career and access to multiple home ownership.The data for quantitative analysis is derived from the China Migrants’ Dynamic Survey in2017 and first-hand survey data collected in Shanghai in 2018.The qualitative analysis is based on in-depth interviews with migrants conducted in Shanghai in 2021.This study explores housing differentiation among migrants not only focusing their housing outcomes but more importantly emphasizing their housing career as a process.The conclusions are as follows:（1）Housing outcomes from the aspect of（multiple）homeownership among migrants have shown significant disparities.Migrants in different destinations have shown varied patterns in housing access.The association between migrants’ homeownership rates and tiers of destination cities follows an “inverted U-shaped”.While the proportion of homeowners in the fourth-tier cities is the highest,higher-order cities and fifth-tier cities have relatively smaller groups of homeowners.The research in Shanghai further shows significant disparities in multiple home ownership among migrants.A hierarchical structure of migrants’ housing outcomes has been found which from low to high level is consist of renters,owners with only one home,and multiple homeowners.In addition,we have also found that migrants purchase houses in other cities.While some cases buy houses in the capital city or county of their hometown for self-occupation,others are driven by both self-occupation and investment,or purely investment purposes.（2）Marked differences have been found in housing careers among migrants.While a significant number of others remain on a certain housing status,substantial migrants move up from renting to owning（R-O）or from a lower-priced location to a higherpriced location（o-O）.The development in housing careers including the demand for homeownership and improvement of housing inequality are stimulated and enhanced by important life events,such as marriage and childbirth,and the accumulation of economic capital.（3）The place of origins of migrants exert significant impacts on both their access to homeownership and housing careers.Migrants originating from cities with the higher gross domestic product（GDP）per capita and average housing prices are more capable to afford a home in the destination city.Compared with migrants originating from cities in higher-level of the urban hierarchy,those who are from lower-level cities are the most disadvantaged group in terms of the timing of entering homeownership and possessing a house at a superior location.This situation is especially significant when migrants want to buy at high-priced locations and in the initial stage of their housing career.In addition,further qualitative analysis demonstrates that the disparities in housing wealth accumulation,housing preference,and the accumulation of human capital among migrants with different place of origins are also obvious further amplifying the differentiation among migrants.（4）Housing outcomes are differentiated among migrants in different destination cities.Moving to cities with higher average housing prices implies more limited opportunities to purchase houses in the local housing market.As GDP per capita in destination cities increases,the probability of migrants accessing homeownership increases first but then decreases.Qualitative analysis in Shanghai shows that the housing market and related policies can alter the constraints and opportunities for individuals’ access to homeownership and directly affect the size,location,and even timing of entry.We contend that,in the context of soaring housing prices and the tightening of housing policies,the ‘period’ and ‘timing’ of transition into homeownership are of great importance in understanding the housing outcomes of migrants.（5）In addition to the above-mentioned direct impacts of the place of origins and destinations on housing differentiation,geographic mobility exerts an indirect effect on housing inequality through migrants’ other careers including employment careers,education careers,and household careers.Higher education has become the main channel for migrants moving out of their place of origins and realizing upward social mobility,which is also conducive to moving up in the housing ladder and the accumulation of housing assets.Geographic mobility also provides opportunities for migrants to realize job mobility and accumulate more human capital to stimulate the transition into homeownership and establish a superior housing career.Furthermore,geographical mobility is related to household careers increasing the probability of marriage matching within privileged groups,and thus the possibility of purchasing housing and achieving housing asset accumulations.In contrast,the chances of first marriage and transition into homeownership for less privileged male groups migrating into big cities are reduced aggravating their plight in the housing market and indicating the amplification of housing inequality among migrants.