Migrant workers’ choices of resettlements in the redevelopment of urban villages in China: the case of Beijing

In China, urban villages have provided low-cost housing for the workers who have migrated from rural area into a city, but confronted redevelopment as they have resulted in various urban problems. In comparison to the rural–urban migration, this study pays an attention to the second-stage migration caused by redevelopment of urban villages in which migrant workers have four choices of settlements: return to rural area, relocation to another urban village, relocation to urban area, resettlement in redeveloped urban village. Based on the field survey data collected from six urban villages of Beijing, it empirically analyses migrant workers’ choices for settlement options and the factors influencing the choices, using multinomial logistic regression model. The results show that the migrant workers take serious consideration of all four settlement options and their choices are affected by various personal characteristics as well as redevelopment characteristics. Based on the findings, this study suggests some policies to encourage resettlements of migrant workers from a viewpoint of sustainable development of Chinese cities.