The Role of Housing Tenure in Shaping Perceived Wage Discrimination Among Chinese Migrant Workers

Abstract

China's rapid urbanization has produced a large migrant workforce that not only drives economic growth but also faces widespread social exclusion and discrimination. This study directly investigates both objective wage discrimination and subjective discrimination perceptions among migrant workers, with a focus on the role of housing tenure. Using cross-sectional survey data from 2020 across 46 cities, we apply Propensity Score Matching (PSM) to control for key demographic and employment factors. Our findings demonstrate that, after controlling for these factors, the objective wage gap between migrant and local workers is not significant. This indicates that most of the observed wage differences stem from subjective perceptions of discrimination rather than actual wage disparities. Moreover, our logistic regression and instrumental variable analyses reveal that housing tenure plays a critical role in shaping perceived discrimination. Specifically, migrant workers who own homes report substantially lower levels of perceived discrimination compared to those residing in employer-provided dormitories or rented housing. These results emphasize that stable housing, particularly homeownership, can effectively reduce subjective experiences of discrimination, providing clear policy insights for enhancing urban integration through improved housing opportunities.