In high growth economies, continuous rural to urban migration has put forth a large challenge for the housing planners. In particular, China has witnessed much higher rate of rural to urban migration and hence provides an interesting case for research. In India, rural to urban migrants are at great dis-advantage with regard to housing and access to basic services. This article is a comparative research on housing conditions and mobility of the migrants in urban areas in China and India, based on data collected from one city each in each country—Surat in India and Dongguan in China. The article focuses on identifying the housing sub-markets accessed by the migrants in both the cities and the process of access to the same, studying the living conditions of the migrants in both the cities and discussing the policy implications of the existing situation.
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