China’s central government has rightfully recognized that successful urbanization will be decisive for the nation’s future development. However, most city regions in China are not yet enjoying the net benefits that agglomerations in metropolitan regions can initiate. In this regard, following the latest discussions around the necessity of inclusive urban growth in China, the paper calls for a housing strategy that accommodates the surging waves of rural to urban migration, one of the main drivers of urbanization, and that provides migrants with greater urban socio-economic opportunities, improves migrants’ urban prospects in order to facilitate a growing urban middle class as well as directing urban growth. Therefore, migrants’ characteristics and their exposure to the immediate urban socio-economic environment are elaborated upon in order to understand migrants’ housing priorities along their rural to urban transition. These housing priorities are the result of coping strategies in the face of distinctive urban opportunities and threats. In the context of migration, they form the underlying forces of housing demand development along the rural to urban transition. Eventually, when identified, these forces can be triggered in a way that enables urban growth to contribute to agglomeration benefits. This paper adds to the previous IPE working paper: “Urbanization in China and how urban housing demand can be met”, by specifying the underlying forces of evolving migrant housing demands.
URL : http://www.ipe-berlin.org/fileadmin/downloads/working_paper/IPE_WP_47_Gottschalch.pdf