Land rights, resource allocation and urban settlement choices of migrant workers in Yunnan, Western China

Abstract

Using the cross-sectional data from the 2015 and 2021 Yunnan Migrant Workers Urban Integration Survey, this study assesses the different effects of the three types of land rights that migrant workers possess in their rural hometowns on their urban settlement choices in Yunnan, western China. Specifically, it examined the existence of migrant workers moving between urban and rural areas in response to the importance of land rights for rural migrant workers, in western China, a region with the lower level of economic development and fastest growing number of migrant workers in China. After controlling for the impact of other variables, the multinomial Probit model was used to estimate the impact of the migrant workers' land rights in their rural hometowns on their settlement choices in urban areas. We found that rural land rights significantly increased migrant workers' willingness to return to their hometowns. This indicates that land right security is a key factor affecting Yunnan migrant workers' urban settlement intentions, although it is conditional in terms of age groups and places of origin. Importantly, we found that migrant workers in western China are more inclined to keep their dual identities as both urban migrant workers and rural residents. They, hence, are more inclined to rationally allocate their resources between urban and rural areas to maximize their economic outputs. Particularly, they prefer to only working - rather than settling - in urban areas, while retaining their rural land as assets and income sources. Instead of settling in either urban or rural areas, the older migrant workers who migrate to smaller and economically underdeveloped cities are more inclined to drift between urban and rural areas without permanent settlement. This confirms the argument of livelihood resource maximization and migratory bird-type migration as important mechanisms via which land right ownership affects migrant workers’ urban settlement intentions. This study suggests that policymakers should consider the land rights of rural migrant workers when making urban settlement policies, especially for small and medium-sized cities, where migrant settlement intention is weaker. Policymakers should also promote the flexibility of rural land use rights transfer and explore reforms concerning the separation of the three types of land rights to achieve a balance between urbanization and land use efficiency, particularly in small and medium-sized cities.