Exploring the Climate Temperature Effects on Settlement Intentions of Older Migrants: Evidence from China

Hongjie Wang, Xiaolu Gao, Zening Xu, Yuan Li, Xinyue Zhang and Mark W. Rosenberg
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Hongjie Wang: Key Laboratory of Regional Sustainable Development Modeling, Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resource Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China
Xiaolu Gao: Key Laboratory of Regional Sustainable Development Modeling, Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resource Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China
Zening Xu: China Institute for Urban Governance, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200030, China
Yuan Li: Department of Geography and Planning, Queen’s University, Kingston, ON K7L 3N6, Canada
Xinyue Zhang: Key Laboratory of Regional Sustainable Development Modeling, Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resource Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China
Mark W. Rosenberg: Department of Geography and Planning, Queen’s University, Kingston, ON K7L 3N6, Canada

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 8, 1-15

Abstract: Permanent migration across provinces in China has become an important strategy for Chinese older people to respond to a temperature-unfriendly place of residence in late life. However, the relation between temperature effects and permanent settlements of older migrants remains unclear. Based on the data obtained from China Migrants Dynamic Survey, this paper examined how four temperature effects (i.e., cold effect, heat effect, temperature gap effect, and temperature zone effect) play a role in shaping older migrants’ intentions to settle permanently in a destination place by conducting logistic regression analysis. Our findings show that: (1) extreme cold (rather than extreme heat or mild temperature) was found to have significant effects on settlement intentions of older people; (2) relative winter temperature between origin and destination places rather than absolute winter temperature in the destination place has a significant positive effect on the settlement intentions; (3) spatially, older migrants tend to migrate to geographically adjacent temperature zones. Our findings will inform a more effective planning and allocation of services for supporting older people by better understanding trends and intentions of older migrants.

Keywords: temperature; older migrants; settlement intention; permanent migration (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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