TY - JOUR
T1 - What is holding farmers back? Endowments and mobility choice of rural citizens in China
AU - Hao, Pu
AU - He, Shenjing
N1 - Funding Information:
We are grateful to Professor Li Gan and the Survey and Research Center for China Household Finance at Southwestern University of Finance and Economics for granting us the access to the database and hosting the research workshop in 2018. We would also like to thank the anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments and patience. This research is supported by the Research Grants Council of the Hong Kong SAR , China (Project No.: HKBU 22609018 ) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Project No.: 41871165 ).
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021
PY - 2022/1
Y1 - 2022/1
N2 - For the roughly 300 million rural migrant workers in China, migrating to urban destinations offers the primary opportunities for poverty alleviation and upward social mobility. However, studies on migration in China, mostly through the lens of the push-pull theory, have left immobile rural residents unexamined. This paper explores how the mobility choices of rural citizens are determined by individual and familial endowments at the sending end, including their physical wellbeing, basic education, family livelihoods and landholdings. Drawing on the China Household Finance Survey data, our analyses suggest that good health, adequate educational attainment and non-local family livelihoods increase the propensities of out-migration while a lack of these endowments likely bars rural citizens from migration. The possession of rural land and other local resources, in contrast, tends to deter migration to urban destinations. The requisition of rural land, however, encourages migration to a local town while deterring longer-distance migration. These findings add to the literature of migration in China by unraveling the sorting mechanism of endowments that shapes the (im)mobility and divergent life outcomes of China's rural population.
AB - For the roughly 300 million rural migrant workers in China, migrating to urban destinations offers the primary opportunities for poverty alleviation and upward social mobility. However, studies on migration in China, mostly through the lens of the push-pull theory, have left immobile rural residents unexamined. This paper explores how the mobility choices of rural citizens are determined by individual and familial endowments at the sending end, including their physical wellbeing, basic education, family livelihoods and landholdings. Drawing on the China Household Finance Survey data, our analyses suggest that good health, adequate educational attainment and non-local family livelihoods increase the propensities of out-migration while a lack of these endowments likely bars rural citizens from migration. The possession of rural land and other local resources, in contrast, tends to deter migration to urban destinations. The requisition of rural land, however, encourages migration to a local town while deterring longer-distance migration. These findings add to the literature of migration in China by unraveling the sorting mechanism of endowments that shapes the (im)mobility and divergent life outcomes of China's rural population.
KW - (im)mobility
KW - China
KW - Endowment
KW - Migration
KW - Non-migration
KW - Rural land
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85119488576&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.jrurstud.2021.11.014
DO - 10.1016/j.jrurstud.2021.11.014
M3 - Journal article
AN - SCOPUS:85119488576
SN - 0743-0167
VL - 89
SP - 66
EP - 72
JO - Journal of Rural Studies
JF - Journal of Rural Studies
ER -