Exploring the Multifaceted Nexus between Housing Conditions and Health Outcomes Among Rural-to-Urban Migrants in China

Social scientists have grown increasingly aware of the impact of housing on health worldwide. An investigation into the rapidly urbanizing Chinese society helps reveal the complex nature of the housing-health link. The rural-to-urban migration within China is considered to be the largest labor migration in the world according to the International Labor Organization. Despite its immense size (285.60 million in 2020), rural-to-urban migrants in China face various policy discrimination and structural disadvantages in cities. In particular, China’s unique household registration (or hukou) system denies migrants the same benefits enjoyed by urban locals such as access to healthcare services and subsidized housing. Using newly emerging national data, this study utilizes a “4C’s” framework of healthy housing to examine the empirical link between housing conditions, measured by “consistency” (homeownership and residential stability), “cost” (housing affordability), “characteristic” (housing size and facilities), and “context” (neighborhood and care availability nearby), and health outcomes among rural-to-urban migrants in China. In light of the findings from the data analyses, migrants’ health can be improved by creating more stable and adequate housing accompanied by convenient access to health service facilities, by lessening the stress of home ownership and opening up more opportunities for obtaining financial support, and by providing a more inclusive and equitable social system so that rural migrants feel comfortable spending their hard-earned income in improving their own housing conditions in the city. Currently, facing major structural obstacles such as rapidly rising housing prices and no access to various social benefits, rural migrants are better off in terms of health when they spend more money renting decent residences rather than purchasing their own homes in the city.