Contextual Determinants on Migrant Workers’ Household Intentions in China: Interacting With Hukou Status and Migration Distance

Feinuo Sun , University at Albany, State University of New York (SUNY)

The reform of household registration (hukou in Chinese word) system in China will help migrant workers settle down in their working cities. Based on the data of 2010 from the large survey of trans-regional migrant workers in the Pearl River Delta and the Yangtse River Delta and China Statistical Yearbook for Regional Economy, the paper shows that migrants with a higher ratio of GDP per capita or urban unemployment rate in destination city to origin city, or migrants who are working in cities with smaller population size tend to have positive or ambiguous attitude towards changing hukou versus a clear “no.” Rural-to-urban migrants and inter-provincial migrants have similar patterns with the overall sample. Urban-to-urban migrants’ household intention is mainly determined by the GDP ratio. For intra-provincial migrants, those with a higher GDP ratio or a higher unemployment rate ratio are more willing to change hukou.

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 Presented in Session 171. Temporary and Circular Migration