Internal Migration and Marriage in China: The Rising Educational Hypogamy

Yu Wang , Duke Kunshan University
Lidan Lyu, Renmin University of China

The conventional wisdom assumes that educational hypogamy—women marry down in education—tends to be uncommon in China. However, the demographic, social, and economic social forces in the past three decades may alter people’s marital practices. Using data from China Migrants Dynamic Survey, this paper examines the trends in educational hypogamy among migrants between 1980 and 2015. Preliminary results find that there is a rising trend in educational hypogamy among migrants in China. Though hypergamy is still the dominant marriage among educational intermarriages, educational hypogamy is getting more prevalent over time. We also focus on the mechanisms causing rising migrants’ educational hypogamy, for example, the decreasing availability of educated men, the changing gendered returns to education, and the changing contexts for migrants.

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 Presented in Session 16. Ethnic and Migrant Partnership Formation