Rural‐to‐Urban Migration, Family Resilience, and Policy Framework for Social Support in China

Abstract

China's internal rural‐to‐urban migration has impacted the country in economic, social, and cultural terms. Despite the increasing number of families involved in migration, little is known about how migrant families as a unit adapt to new environments from rural to urban settings. Policy making needs to be informed to address migrant families' needs. This article investigates how Chinese families experience transitions resulting from migration, exploring their use of formal and informal support to achieve adaptation and the process of making evolving choices for their children. We begin with a brief introduction to the literature on family resilience and its relation to Chinese migrant families. Then we provided an analysis of Chinese social policies most central to the experiences of rural‐to‐urban migrant families. After a brief description of methodology, we present our findings starting with a migrant family story to provide an anchor for the following discussion on how current policies can impede or facilitate migrant families' resilience. Our conclusion is that lack of social support leaves migrant Chinese families vulnerable when coping with enormous social, cultural, and economic transformations. Family constitutes the basis of Chinese society; therefore, a policy framework on social support is important to support these families and foster family resilience.

Enhancing Social Support for Migrant Families: A Case Study of Community Services in a Shanghai Urban Village and Implications for Intervention

“…migration of entire households vs. migration of individuals, the extension of stays in cities, and the desire of the younger migrant generation to remain permanently in cities as urban residents), there is a growing need to promote social integration through community social services for rural‐to‐urban migrants (Guan, ; Liu, ). In spite of this, Wen and Hanley () argued that many migrant families tend to rely on inadequate informal support networks, receiving little support from formal organizations and professionals, a situation echoed by other studies regarding the low participation of rural‐to‐urban migrants in urban welfare programs (Li, ; Xu, Guan & Yao, ).…”

Parental self‐esteem, parent–child relationships, and authoritative parenting of Chinese migrant parents of left‐behind children: Implications for social policy and services

“…For instance, migrant workers should be given fringe benefits, such as annual leave and emergency leave in carrying out their parental responsibilities, assistance in accessing local public services and schools, and childcare services so that migrant parents can have a better chance to live with their children in host cities (Center for Child Rights and Corporate Social Responsibility [CCR CSR], ). Social workers should also help migrant parents to learn from each other and experience mutual support in child nurturing (Wen & Hanley, , ). Furthermore, in recent years, the Chinese government has attempted to improve the employment system and social security system to protect the welfare of migrant workers (To & Tam, ).…”

“…Furthermore, left‐behind children are defined as those whose parents have migrated to other cities to work or those live with one parent who has no custodial ability, while the other parent has relocated to work elsewhere (Jiang, ). Due to the migrant parents’ household registration status as rural residents, their children are denied access to public education, healthcare, and social welfare in urban cities; therefore, most parents choose to leave their children behind in their hometowns (Wen & Hanley, ). Given the heightened concern of the government and in academia over this phenomenon, most of the attention has been directed to the developmental problems and life challenges encountered by left‐behind children (e.g., Zhao & Yu, ).…”

Intergenerational Coresidence During Later Life in China

“…Yet further scrutiny of the situation in China appears to raise questions as to whether modernity is actually the eroding intergenerational co-residence. For example, intergenerational co-residence is seen to be associated with female labor supply rather than counter to it (Goh, 2009;Shen, Yan, & Zeng, 2016) and co-residing parents often elect to live with the most educated child rather than lowest educated child so as to facilitate their labor market participation (Wen & Hanley, 2015). In contrast to the US, the child's needs appear to require co-residence for economic success rather than be an impingement of it, undermining the rational that modernization is counter to intergenerational coresidence.…”