Patterns and determinants of location change in migrants’ residential mobility: A case study of Fuzhou

Abstract

Residential mobility is an important issue within urban and housing studies. However, the existing literature mainly focuses on the pattern and motivation for a move of residential mobility, and seldom examines the location changes before and after migrants’ residential mobility. This study adopts the perspective of life-course and social-psychological theories to depict the residential trajectories of Fuzhou migrants, explores the influencing factors of location change in residential mobility, and conducts a comparative analysis of inter-provincial and intra-provincial migrants. It is found that the majority of migrants just move between urban villages in the same township, and the dominant type of location change is an outward movement across the ring roads, and this trajectory is especially marked among intra-provincial migrants. Changes in neighborhood environment and perception are decisive in explaining the location change of both intra-provincial and inter-provincial migrants. Additionally, younger cohorts, marriage, and having children in the city only significantly affect inter-provincial migrants’ residential location change, while changes in housing conditions are only of great importance to intra-provincial migrants’ residential location change.