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Summary. Rapid urbanisation in the reform period has resulted in a very high demand for basic urban infrastructure in China. Improving its provision by the public sector is a challenge [...]

This article provides a renewed understanding of migrants’ citizenship rights in urban China. Specifically, we look at how migrants fare in attaining homeownership and social benefits, in comparison with local residents. We also explore how migrant outcomes relate to both individual socioeconomic and institutional factors. The results are primarily based on the 2005 One Percent Population Survey in two of China’s largest cities—Beijing and Shanghai. Migrants have experienced improvement in homeownership and housing conditions, but there is marked heterogeneity in rights attainment among migrants, particularly by type of origin (urban vs. rural). Making the most gains are those from urban origins and with better education. Market-related factors, such as education, are increasingly important predictors of migrant outcomes in the cities. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Residential mobility patterns are an important indicator of the future socioeconomic standing of rural-urban migrants in the urban society. In Chinese cities there are significant barriers for migrants to settle permanently. Given this context and housing choices available to migrants, what types of housing career do they follow once in the city? Drawing from survey data from three large cities, this paper studies migrant intra-urban residential mobility through three lenses—temporal patterns, spatial trajectories and tenure shifts. The majority of migrants are renters and remain so despite a lengthy residence in the cities. They experience a high level of mobility over time, but the trajectories of their moves are spatially confined and involve few tenure shifts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Given the persistence of China's migration trends since the early 1980s, migrants have begun to assert their influence on cities' spatial structure. This article attempts to understand the geography of migrant residence and how it relates to the overall spatial development in metropolitan Shanghai. It explores the key geographical factors underlying migrant spatial distribution. Results are based on spatial analyses and a regression model at the subdistrict level, with data drawn primarily from the 2000 Population Census, 1996 Basic Establishment Census, and a migrant housing survey completed in 1999. The article also shows how intra-urban migrant settlement and mobility patterns in China might be distinctive from those in other developing countries, given China's unique context and institutional factors. In general, migrant distribution in metropolitan Shanghai displayed a strong degree of centrality until the late 1990s when the inner suburb became the main receptor for new arrivals. The geography of migrant residence has shifted in tandem with deconcentration of the local population and, to a lesser degree, industrial relocation. Areas with a large number of manufacturing enterprises but a smaller state sector are likely to see a high share of migrants in total population. New arrivals also are attracted to areas already concentrated with migrants. Housing availability, however, proves to be an insignificant predictor. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Migrant housing and mobility patterns are affected by both the unique institutional factors related to migration and a common set of socio-economic characteristics shared by urban residents. China's unprecedented waves of internal migration are accompanied by long-standing rural–urban and local–nonlocal divides that have been institutionalized through the household registration system. This paper empirically assesses intra-urban migrant mobility in two of China's largest cities, Beijing and Shanghai. It examines the range and determinants of migrant mobility behaviour and rates, tenure and spatial patterns of migrant intra-urban mobility, and key sources of information and assistance in migrant residential moves. The main findings are based on data drawn from city-wide migrant housing surveys, supplemented by in-depth interviews. Demographic factors such as age and education prove to be significant predictors of both actual moves and prospective mobility. Migrants who rent public housing as their initial housing choice are much less likely to make moves subsequently and experience a lower average mobility rate. Longer-term migrants seem to gain some degree of residential stability, making duration of residence the single most influential factor for mobility rate. However, the high rate of mobility is not necessarily driven by the need for tenure or even amenity as few migrants make the transition from renters to owners after years of living in the cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]