The Effectiveness of Chinese Government Reforms to Increase Urban Migrant Housing Access
Jun 20, 2022
Jun 20, 2022
Article: "Moving toward an Inclusive Housing Policy? Migrants Access to Subsidized Housing in Urban China"
Authors: Youqin Huang and Jianyu Ren
Published Online: 13 Jan 2022
DOI: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10511482.2021.1996430?journalCode=rhpd20
Authors: Youqin Huang and Jianyu Ren
Published Online: 13 Jan 2022
DOI: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10511482.2021.1996430?journalCode=rhpd20
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Migrant-Inclusive Housing: Past Policies and Recent Reforms
Existing research on the inclusion and exclusion of migrants often focuses on international immigrants and on Western contexts. Yet in China and some other countries in the Global South, even domestic migrants may be denied entitlements granted to local residents. China's hukou system, a government-created household registration system that was first established in 1958, is one such mechanism. Under the hukou system, rural-to-urban migrants do not have the same rights as local urban residents and cannot access government subsidies, including for housing. Many migrants live in illegal, informal, or poor employment-based housing as a result (Chan, 1994, 1996; Cheng & Selden, 1994).
With the goal of inclusive urbanization, the Chinese central government instigated a series of reforms starting in 2010 to make housing more inclusive of migrants (State Council, 2014a, 2014b). For example, qualified migrants are allowed to access some subsidized housing in both rental and owned sector, such as Public Rental Housing and Shared Ownership Housing. The hukou system was also reformed, removing the distinction in status of nonagricultural versus agricultural hukou, a specific source of discrimination, and removing hukou restrictions for migrants in smaller cities (Chan & Buckingham, 2008). Housing Provident Fund, an employment-based housing saving account with employer matching, was also reformed to make it more accessible to migrants.
However, the implementation of these reforms is highly dependent on local governments which may vary in their approaches and commitment to enforcement (Huang, 2012). Local governments vary significantly regarding who is qualified to subsidized housing, ranging from selective inclusion of migrants who meet additional criteria (e.g., requirements for years of Social Security or income tax payments, married status, lack of homeownership, having a residence permit, and having received a certain level of education), to complete exclusion. Cities are generally less inclusive in the subsidized owned sector than in the rental sector. In particular, local governments have often transformed subsidized housing into talent housing available only to educated migrants, excluding massive numbers of rural migrants with lower education levels (SMG, 2010, 2011) (Chongqing Municipal Government [CMG], 2010).
How effective have these reforms been in removing the barriers to housing access? In “Moving Toward an Inclusive Housing Policy? Migrants Access to Subsidized Housing in Urban China”, authors Youqin Huang and Jianyu Ren analyze the effectiveness of China’s reforms in making housing more accessible to migrants, enabling us to better understand their successes and limitations.
Analyzing the Data
Huang and Ren use Chinese Migrants Dynamic Survey data for 120,326 internal migrants collected in 2010 (the year policy reforms started) and for 168,456 migrants in 2017 (the most recent year with a survey accessible to the public) to study change over time in access to subsidized housing. Descriptive analysis revealed that only 1% of the migrant population lived in subsidized housing in 2010, and that despite policy changes, this share increased to only 2% in 2017. Yet the need for subsidized housing is clear among the migrant population, with 73% reporting they struggle with housing, and 61% reporting they struggle with income.
In order to understand the effects of China’s reforms, the authors conducted both a binary and a multinomial logit regression on each sample as well as on pooled samples from 2010 and 2017, analyzing the relationship between socioeconomic and migrant characteristics (age, education, gender, marital status, household composition, income, and occupation; migration type [1], settlement intention [2]); institutional characteristics (hukou type [3], urban medical insurance [4], duration of time spent in the destination city, contextual variables such as city tier [5] and region) and housing types (subsidized rental, subsidized homeownership, private rental, private homeownership, or employer-provided housing). The authors also applied a Blinder-Oaxaca-Firlie Decomposition to the results to analyze whether the effect of each outcome was due to the ability of the migrants to access housing based on their individual characteristics, or whether migrants with similar characteristics could access housing based on institutional policy and environment.
Findings
The results of the binary logit regression suggest a significant decrease in the importance of hukou status, duration of time spent in the city, city tier, household income, migration type, and settlement intention in determining access to subsidized housing among Chinese migrants between 2010 and 2017. However, urban medical insurance has remained significantly important, suggesting that local governments continue to require records of insurance payment to access subsidized housing. Household composition has also remained crucial, with a continued advantage for married migrants, especially those living with their spouse and children. Furthermore, educational attainment has significantly grown as a determinant of housing access. Destination region has significantly increased in importance as well, with migrants much more likely to access subsidized housing in western and central China, which are less developed and have ramped up efforts to attract new residents.
The results of the Blinder-Oaxaca-Firlie Decomposition indicate that increased access to housing among migrants is more likely due to a change in migrant characteristics that makes access more likely, rather than to a change in policy. Indeed, descriptive statistics confirm that China’s migrant population was more educated in 2017 than in 2010, and are increasingly likely to be migrating from urban areas rather than rural ones.
However, the multinomial logit regression finds that while institutional barriers are still in place, some of them have become less important over time. For example, in the rental sector, migration duration of 5+ years has become significantly less important while others remain the same; in the owned sector, hukou and migration type have become significantly less important while others remain important. In other words, there is evidence for a move toward greater inclusion in access to subsidized housing. Yet for both forms of subsidized housing, living with family has increased in importance. Educational attainment has also significantly increased in importance as well; subsidized homeownership, in particular, is stacked towards migrants with at least a college education. As in the binary logit regressions, city tier has become a less important determinant over time, but the opposite has been true for destination region.
Implications:
The decreasing importance of some institutional barriers for whether or not Chinese migrants access subsidized rentals and homeownership are consistent with eased restrictions in government policies. The decrease in the influence of city tier indicates that larger cities are now becoming more accessible to migrants, while the increasing importance of region suggests that some regions further in China’s west may be attempting to attract migrants for economic reasons. However, Huang and Ren find that Chinese migrants continue to face a wide range of barriers to accessing housing, especially subsidized housing. This suggests reforms meant to increase migrants’ access continue to be spottily enforced at the local level. The increased significance of education as a barrier to access is especially noteworthy. Huang and Ren articulate it this way, “Many local governments require high levels of education for migrants to access subsidized housing, shifting the goal of housing subsidies from helping the poor to attracting talent.” The authors suggest new government policy should be implemented with the goal of making subsidized housing accessible for poor migrants without higher education. In addition to significantly expanding migrants’ housing access, they also suggest the Chinese government to move beyond being inclusive of whom and consider how to provide housing subsidies to migrants to foster social and economic inclusion. Only then might an inclusive housing policy be achieved and migrants’ right to the city will be one step closer.
About the Authors
Dr. Youqin Huang is a Professor of Geography and Planning at University at Albany, State University of New York (SUNY). Her research aims to understand the unprecedented market transition in China and its impact on Chinese people and places, focusing on housing, migration, and urban development. She is the (co-)author/(co-)editor of several books,
including Chinese Cities in the 21st Century (Palgrave Macmillan, 2020), Confronting the Challenges of Urbanization in China: Insights from Social Science Perspectives (Routledge, 2016), Housing Inequality in Chinese Cities (Routledge 2014), China’s Geography: Globalization and the Dynamics of Political, Economic and Social Change (Roman & Littlefield
Publishers, 2006, 2015, 2021), and The Emergence of New Urban China: Insiders’ Perspectives (Lexington Books, 2012). She has also published in leading journals in geography, urban studies, housing, and China.
Dr. Jianyu Ren is a lecturer of Economics at Zhejiang Gongshang University (ZJSU). Her research focuses on housing markets and policy, urbanization, migration and population change in China. She has published papers in leading journals in housing and urban studies.
Dr. Youqin Huang is a Professor of Geography and Planning at University at Albany, State University of New York (SUNY). Her research aims to understand the unprecedented market transition in China and its impact on Chinese people and places, focusing on housing, migration, and urban development. She is the (co-)author/(co-)editor of several books,
including Chinese Cities in the 21st Century (Palgrave Macmillan, 2020), Confronting the Challenges of Urbanization in China: Insights from Social Science Perspectives (Routledge, 2016), Housing Inequality in Chinese Cities (Routledge 2014), China’s Geography: Globalization and the Dynamics of Political, Economic and Social Change (Roman & Littlefield
Publishers, 2006, 2015, 2021), and The Emergence of New Urban China: Insiders’ Perspectives (Lexington Books, 2012). She has also published in leading journals in geography, urban studies, housing, and China.
Dr. Jianyu Ren is a lecturer of Economics at Zhejiang Gongshang University (ZJSU). Her research focuses on housing markets and policy, urbanization, migration and population change in China. She has published papers in leading journals in housing and urban studies.
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[1] This variable captures whether migration is intracity, intra-province, or inter-province.
[2] This variable reflects whether the migrant household reported "yes," "no," or "undecided" to a question about their intent to settle down in their current location.
[3] This variable captures agricultural versus nonagricultural hukou status. Although the government officially ended distinction between the two in 2014, disparities in housing access by agricultural status persist.
[4] Purchasing urban medical insurance is a proxy for paying into the social security insurance system, which many Chinese cities require migrants to do for a certain number of years in order to be eligible for subsidized housing.
[5] Chinese cities are differentiated in a four-tier system: Tier 1 cities are the very large cities, including Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin, Guangzhou and Chongqing; Tier 2 cities include provincial capitals, cities with populations of 3–15 million; Tier 3 cities are prefecture capitals with populations of 150,000 to 3 million, and Tier 4 cities are county-level cities.
Works Cited:
Chan, K. W., & Buckingham, W. (2008). Is China abolishing the Hukou system? The China Quarterly, 195, 582–606.
Chan, K. W. (1994). Cities with invisible walls: Reinterpreting urbanization in post-1949 China. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Chan, K. W. (1996). Post-Mao China: A two-class urban society in the making. International Journal of Urban and Regional
Research, 20(1), 134–150.
Cheng, T., & Selden, M. (1994). The origins and social consequences of China’s Hukou system. The China Quarterly, 139
(139), 644–668.
Chongqing Municipal Government (CMG). (2010). No. 61. Chongqing shi gonggong zulin zhufang guanli zanxing banfa [A
management plan for public rental housing in Chongqing]. Retrieved from https://chongqing.chashebao.com/ziliao/
17274.html
Huang, Y. (2012). Low-income housing in Chinese cities: Policies and practices. The China Quarterly, 212, 941–964.
Shanghai Municipal Government (SMG). (2011). No. 6. Guanyu Guanche luoshi “guowuyuan guanyu jinyibu zuohao
fangdichan shichang tiaokong gongzuo youguan wenti de tongzhi” de shishi yijian [A notice about implementing
“notice from state council about further regulating and controlling real estate market]. Retrieved from https://wenku.
baidu.com/view/1b1e43afdd3383c4bb4cd27b.html
[2] This variable reflects whether the migrant household reported "yes," "no," or "undecided" to a question about their intent to settle down in their current location.
[3] This variable captures agricultural versus nonagricultural hukou status. Although the government officially ended distinction between the two in 2014, disparities in housing access by agricultural status persist.
[4] Purchasing urban medical insurance is a proxy for paying into the social security insurance system, which many Chinese cities require migrants to do for a certain number of years in order to be eligible for subsidized housing.
[5] Chinese cities are differentiated in a four-tier system: Tier 1 cities are the very large cities, including Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin, Guangzhou and Chongqing; Tier 2 cities include provincial capitals, cities with populations of 3–15 million; Tier 3 cities are prefecture capitals with populations of 150,000 to 3 million, and Tier 4 cities are county-level cities.
Works Cited:
Chan, K. W., & Buckingham, W. (2008). Is China abolishing the Hukou system? The China Quarterly, 195, 582–606.
Chan, K. W. (1994). Cities with invisible walls: Reinterpreting urbanization in post-1949 China. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Chan, K. W. (1996). Post-Mao China: A two-class urban society in the making. International Journal of Urban and Regional
Research, 20(1), 134–150.
Cheng, T., & Selden, M. (1994). The origins and social consequences of China’s Hukou system. The China Quarterly, 139
(139), 644–668.
Chongqing Municipal Government (CMG). (2010). No. 61. Chongqing shi gonggong zulin zhufang guanli zanxing banfa [A
management plan for public rental housing in Chongqing]. Retrieved from https://chongqing.chashebao.com/ziliao/
17274.html
Huang, Y. (2012). Low-income housing in Chinese cities: Policies and practices. The China Quarterly, 212, 941–964.
Shanghai Municipal Government (SMG). (2011). No. 6. Guanyu Guanche luoshi “guowuyuan guanyu jinyibu zuohao
fangdichan shichang tiaokong gongzuo youguan wenti de tongzhi” de shishi yijian [A notice about implementing
“notice from state council about further regulating and controlling real estate market]. Retrieved from https://wenku.
baidu.com/view/1b1e43afdd3383c4bb4cd27b.html