Homeownership gap between ethnic minority and Han majority rural migrants in China: integration or stratification?

Abstract

Housing attainment among rural migrants has received wide attention. However, studies on the homeownership gap between ethnic minority and Han majority rural migrants in China remain unexplored. Using data from National Migrants Population Dynamic Monitoring Survey (NMPDMS), present study applies the logit regression and Blinder–Oaxaca–Fairlie decomposition method to address this. The results suggest that ethnic minority rural migrants are less likely to become homeowners than the Han majority, and that this homeownership gap may differ across various ethnic groups. Compared with the Han majority, the Manchu have a higher probability of owning a home, whereas other ethnic groups are often associated with a lower homeownership rate. Observable socio-economic characteristics play a minor role in this ethnic homeownership gap, whereas most of them are attributable to unobserved factors, such as discrimination.

Keywords:

• Ethnic minority migrants
• homeownership gap
• Blinder-Oaxaca-Fairlie decomposition
• discrimination

Acknowledgement

We are very grateful to editor Professor Ed Ferrari and the four anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments and suggestions to improve the quality of this article.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1 See the Appendix.

2 This official definition is from the NMPDMS. Only 8.21% of the rural migrants’ local duration was less than four months. We also extend the duration to one year. The results remain robust.

As for the reasons for migration, most of the rural migrants (93.64%) relocate to find work in the urban destination, and only a few of them move to take care of the family members and other family affairs.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Social Science Fund of China (grant no. 21BJY258&18ZDA081) and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (grant no. 19JNQM16).

Notes on contributors

Zicheng Wang

Zicheng Wang an associate professor in the School of Public Administration at Jinan University. His major research interests focus on urban studies and labour migration.

Manqi Zhong

Manqi Zhong is a graduate student in the School of Public Administration at Jinan University. Her research interests include labour economics and social security.

Jiachun Liu

Jiachun Liu is a PhD student in the School of labour and human resource at Renmin University. Her main research interests include urban studies and labour relationship.