Housing migrants in Chinese cities: current status and policy design

Abstract

China is experiencing an unprecedented urban revolution, with massive rural-to-urban migration. Owing to the discriminatory hukou system, millions of migrants are excluded from accessing subsidized housing and suffer severe housing poverty. How to provide decent and affordable housing to migrants is an unprecedented challenge in China. In this paper we aim to scrutinize the current migrant housing provision system and migrants' housing conditions, and provide policy recommendations for a theoretically informed and empirically grounded migrant housing provision system. On the basis of both a conceptual analysis of migrant housing provision during rapid urbanization and an empirical study of migrant housing provision in China, we argue for a government-led multiagent migrant housing provision system with the government, employers, and the formal and informal housing markets together providing a diverse stock of migrant housing. Related reforms in the land system and public finance system are recommended to ensure the sustainability of the migrant housing provision system.