Text box 1. Contributions to the literature
• Housing is a social determinant of health, and previous studies have shown that housing tenure has an impact on individuals’ health. Yet little research has focused on the pathways between housing tenure and the health status of migrant populations.
• The results show that housing tenure can partially affect health status of migrant populations through health service utilization and social integration.
• These findings contribute to explaining the main pathways of the impact of housing tenure on health and improving China’s migrant populations’ health status.