Bringing city size in understanding the permanent settlement intention of rural–urban migrants in China

Abstract

China's recent hukou reform provides opportunities for rural-urban migrants to acquire formal citizenship and for the country's urbanisation to step into a fair and humanistic stage. However, the between-city variation in migrants' intention of hukou transfer and the heterogeneity of its influencing factors have rarely been examined.These research gaps make it impossible to the rationality and effectiveness of the localised hukou entry criteria formulated by city governments. In this paper, we addressed the gaps by using nationwide large-sample survey data and a multilevel modelling approach with particular focus on the effects of city size. Results confirmed the higher willingness of migrants in larger cities for hukou transfer, which is in sharp contradiction with the small-city orientation of the current hukou reform. Our findings further verified the greater preference of well-educated migrants for large cities than less educated groups, implying an accelerated concentration of talents in leading cities. This research demonstrates the importance of the between-city variation perspective in understanding the variegated thoughts of rural-urban migrants, the effectiveness of localised public policies, and the future of China's migrant-dominated model of urbanisation.

Association between Personal Social Capital and Loneliness among Widowed Older People

“…Besides, the degree and quantity of group activities among rural residents were lower than those of urban citizens because of the economic gap and the widespread existence of virtual social networks in cities [50], which may also be the reason why rural social capital was lower than that of urban areas. Moreover, because of the implementation of the Chinese urbanization promotion strategy, young people who used to live in the countryside now prefer to make a living in the city [51], resulting in a large number of older adults and children left behind in the countryside. In addition to having lower socioeconomic statuses than the urban older people, the rural older people, particularly the widowed, may also not get timely support from their families.…”

Policies towards Migrants in the Yangtze River Delta Urban Region, China: Does Local Hukou Still Matter after the Hukou Reform?

“…In particular, cities with good public services set strict criteria for local hukou registration. As a result of this, differences in welfare state entitlements between local and non-local hukou holders could become even more magnified [5,[20][21][22].…”

“…Liu, Deng and Song [22] studied migrants' settlement intentions in 282 Chinese cities, and found that regional differences and city characteristics had a significant impact on the settlement choices of migrants. Correspondingly, migrants with different socio-demographic and economic features prefer different cities as their migration destination [21,31]. Gu, Liu and Shen [20] present the fact that in large and wealthy cities, there are many migrants who want to convert their hukou into a local one but they cannot do so because of the strict hukou access policies.…”

“…On the other hand, the medium-and smaller-sized cities with relatively loose hukou access policies are often not attractive as a permanent settlement destination for migrants, which makes hukou transfer a less desired option [25]. Liu and Wang [21] also emphasized the importance of city size and local policies when it comes to explaining settlement intentions decisions of migrants.…”

“…In the research reported in this paper, new elements are introduced. First of all, whereas Gu, Liu and Shen [20] and Liu and Wang [21] only looked at city size, we introduce a so-called hukou stringency index to measure the strictness of local hukou policies. Second, most of the previously discussed literature focuses on the permanent settlement intentions of migrants and less so on their intentions to transfer their hukou.…”