PROGRESS IN GEOGRAPHY ›› 2017, Vol. 36 ›› Issue (10): 1250-1259.doi: 10.18306/dlkxjz.2017.10.007

• Special Issue: Health Geography and Human Settlement • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Urban livability perception of migrants in China and its effects on settlement intention

Dongsheng ZHAN1,2,3(), Wenzhong ZHANG1,2,*(), Yunxiao DANG4, Wei QI1,2, Qianqian LIU1,2,3   

  1. 1. Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, CAS, Beijing 100101, China
    2. Key Laboratory of Region Sustainable Development Modeling, CAS, Beijing 100101, China
    3. University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China
    4. Land and Urban-rural Development Institute, Zhejiang University of Finance and Economics, Hangzhou 310018, China
  • Online:2017-10-28 Published:2017-10-28
  • Contact: Wenzhong ZHANG E-mail:zhands@126.com;zhangwz@igsnrr.ac.cn
  • Supported by:
    Key Project of National Natural Science Foundation of China, No.41230632

Abstract:

Migrants play an important role in the process of China's urbanization. Therefore, understanding the determinants of their settlement intention is of great importance for making national new urbanization policies. Drawing on the livable cities survey conducted in 40 major cities in China, descriptive statistics and geographical detector methods were employed to examine the characteristics of migrants' urban livability perception and its effects on their settlement intention, respectively. The results show that: (1) Migrants' urban livability perception differs greatly between livability indicators—the ranking of importance is convenience of access to public facilities > comfort of natural environment > comfort of social environment > environmental health > convenience of transportation > security in the city. (2) Four dimensions of migrants' urban livability perception, including convenience of access to public facilities, comfort of social environment, environmental health, and security in the city, have significant effects on settlement intention with decreasing weights, but the correlations are not always linear. (3) Selected control variables, including migrants' relative income satisfaction, life satisfaction, perceived housing price, and geographic locations, and individual and family attributes such as age, gender, and occupation, also exert significant effects on settlement intention.

Key words: urban livability, migrants, settlement intention, geographical detector, China