Abstract: Migrant population constitutes a large proportion of the urban population and makes important contributions to economic development. This paper explores the difference between the migrant and local populations in terms of residence, work, socioeconomic status and population policy. It aims to understand the causes of the difference and how this gap can be narrowed by improved social integration and proper distribution of spatial resources, with the ultimate goal of assisting sustainable development. We select Xiamen as a research area. The study revealed a randomly distributed migrant population which has appeared due to economic migration and is closely related to the secondary industry. In the city core area, the migrant population cluster shows a positive spatial autocorrelation and is related to standard land price. The logistic model validates the population differentiation by age, education, employment, housing ownership, residential area and social status. In particular, residential resources illustrate a considerable disparity between the migrant population and the local population, which hinders the self-identification of the migrant population. As this disparity tends to hamper economic vitality and the sustainable process, this paper contends that policy should pay more attention to the welfare of the migrant population, increase the housing utility and integrate the migration process into the general development planning.

Key words: housing resources, logistic model, permanent population, social differentiation, Xiamen