How does housing affordability affect migration intentions of married migrant workers? Social integration as a mediating variable

Increasing migrant workers’ belongingness to the locality is an important step in accelerating high-quality urbanization. Settlement intention can largely indicate this sense of belongingness, which is crucially affected by housing and social integration. Although the settlement intention of migrant workers has been widely investigated, inadequate attention has been paid to hukou transfer intention, which reflects the unique institutional arrangement in China. As family migration has become a trend, this study aims to investigate the two-dimensional migration intentions of married migrant workers in China, i.e. settlement intention and hukou transfer intention, and the mediating role of social integration between housing affordability and migration intentions. Based on the data from China Migrants Dynamic Survey 2017, the structural equation modelling was employed. Furthermore, four dimensions of social integration were examined (economic, social relation, cultural and psychological). The overall hukou transfer intention of married migrant workers was found to be low, whereas the settlement intention was relatively high. Social integration partially mediated the relationship between housing affordability and migration intentions. The regional characteristics of original and inflow places should be given special attention because they substantially affect married migrant workers’ levels of social integration and migration intentions.