The impacts of air pollution on immigrants' settlement intention in China

This paper investigates the impacts of air pollution on immigrants' willingness to settle in China. We construct a theoretical model that discusses how air pollution impacts immigrants' willingness to return home and move to other cities and illustrates how air pollution decreases the settlement intention of immigrants. The empirical results show that urban air pollution decreases immigrants' settlement intention. Robustness checks using multi-methods and multi-measures of settlement intention and air pollution support this conclusion. Air pollution has heterogeneous impacts on immigrants' settlement intentions. From the individual level, air pollution decreases the settlement intention for immigrants with 30-60 years old, middle-income migrants, and rural migrants. From the city level, air pollution decreases the settlement intention of immigrants in the eastern region, developed cities, and cities with high and low air pollution.