Do affordable housing programs facilitate migrants' social integration in Chinese cities?

Using the data from “China Migrants' Dynamic Survey” conducted by China's National Health and Family Planning Commission, we examine the impacts of affordable housing programs on migrants' social integration in Chinese cities. We measure social integration in terms of migrants' participation in local activities and sense of belonging. We find that, after controlling for individual characteristics, the social integration level of migrants living in affordable housing program communities is significantly higher than that of migrants living in other communities. Heterogeneous analyses show that the migrants living in the rental units in affordable housing program communities exhibit a much higher level of social integration than do similar migrants living in other rental units. However, owner-occupied affordable housing communities do not show a significant effect in improving social integration, compared to other owner-occupied housing communities. Further analysis suggests that the inclusiveness of the living environment and neighborhood helps explain the main difference. •We study the impacts of affordable housing program on migrants' social integration.•We use “China Migrants' Dynamic Survey” data for our empirical research.•Migrants living in affordable housing communities are more social integrated.•Tenants exhibit higher level of social integration than home owners.•The inclusiveness of the living environment and neighborhood are main factors.