The 4th international Conference

on Population Geographies
Hong Kong, 10-13 July 2007

Settlement of Rural Women

Migrants in Urban China
—Some of them are not “floating” anymore

Rachel Connelly, Bowdoin College

Kenneth Roberts, Southwestern University
Zhenzhen Zheng,
Chinese Academy of Social Sciences
Background
 The mobile population was 147.35 million in
2005, from China 1% population survey
 47.79 million move across provincial border,
which was 5.35 million more than 2000
 More women, especially younger women, move
as much as men do

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Settlement of migrants
— theory, reality, and related studies
 Changes in migration theory on issues of
circulation and settlement
 Women at the center of settlement process
 Recent surveys
 migrants stay longer in cities and more with their
family members
 more migrants intend to stay in the cities

 Related studies
 characteristics
of those who stay longer
 determinants of stay intension
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Questions to be answered

 Who stayed
 Who will stay
 Is there any difference between men and women
 Policy implications: behavior differences
between migrants to stay and to return

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Six dimensions of settlement
 Length of Stay (stay longer  more settled)
 Social Ties (more urban focused  more settled)
 Housing (living with relatives instead of living with non-r
elatives, owning an apartment, better housing condition
s, more area per person  more settled)
 Who’s Where (families united, kids in school  more s
ettled)
 Employment Situation (more months of continuous em
ployment, self employment  more settled)
 Registration Status (urban Hukuo  more settled)
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Data: The 2001 Chinese Urban Labor Survey
(CULS)
 Five cities: Shanghai, Wuhan, Shenyang, Fuzhou, X
i’an
 About500 in each city, and total 1792 men and 120
2 women migrants were interviewed
 66.4% men and 62.9% women were currently marrie
d
 Mean years of stay: 5.26
 The shortest, Shenyang: 3.86
 The longest, Fuzhou: 5.99
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 Relationship between duration of stay
and age, marital status

40 Men Women 10+ years

35
30 5 to 9 years

25
20 2 to 4 years
Mean age

15 Women
10 0 to 1 year Men
5
0.0% 20.0% 40.0% 60.0% 80.0% 100.0%
0
0 to 1 2 to 4 5 to 9 10+
year years years years
More people are currently
Older people stay married among those who
longer stay longer
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Relationship between duration of stay
and family member in the same city
90.0
80.0 0-1 2-4 5-9 10+
70.0
60.0
50.0
%
40.0
30.0
20.0
10.0
0.0
Men Women Men Women Men Women
Spouse in the Children in the Parents in the
city city city

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Relationship between duration of stay
and self employed (%)
Total Sample Shanghai Wuhan Shenyang Fuzhou Xian
Men
0 to 1 full year 33.3 46.9 61.1 16.7 42.0 29.6
2 to 4 full years 42.9 51.6 70.0 26.6 53.1 30.5
5 to 9 full years 56.3 58.3 84.8 33.0 53.4 50.8
10+ years 70.3 73.3 91.4 47.4 70.8 51.1

Total 51.1 58.8 80.5 27.6 55.8 40.8

Women
0 to 1 full year 30.4 20.0 51.7 22.6 29.3 23.1
2 to 4 full years 45.3 38.0 69.1 36.4 40.6 39.5
5 to 9 full years 61.5 52.2 81.6 31.6 55.1 54.0
10+ years 75.7 68.4 90.5 55.6 75.0 53.8

Total 50.5 43.3 73.5 30.6 48.8 39.9

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Relationship between duration of stay a
nd having Hukou (%)
Total Sample Shanghai Wuhan Shenyang Fuzhou Xian
Men
0 to 1 full year 14.1 12.2 24.3 13.9 8.0 14.5
2 to 4 full years 14.5 12.9 26.0 12.8 9.4 14.6
5 to 9 full years 15.4 7.8 27.4 19.4 5.6 16.9
10+ years 12.6 6.7 15.7 28.9 8.2 11.1

Total 14.4 9.2 23.6 16.9 7.6 15.0

Women
0 to 1 full year 18.3 5.7 29.0 17.7 14.3 18.5
2 to 4 full years 16.9 13.5 27.1 20.5 13.0 9.3
5 to 9 full years 14.7 7.4 17.6 10.5 15.9 17.6
10+ years 16.2 13.0 25.0 22.2 11.1 6.7

Total 16.4 9.6 23.4 17.9 13.9 14.7

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Determinants of duration of stay
 an OLS approach
 For both men and women, significantly positive
 Age
 Distance to the city
 Men and women differ in terms of significance
 Self reported poor Mandarin ability upon arrival predic
ts less time in the city for women
 Women with their first job arranged have a shorter tim
e stayed
 Men with good local language ability upon arrival stay
ed longer
 Men in Shenyang and Xi’an had a shorter time stayed

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Discussion

 Gaps among the cities

 Gaps between men and women
 Behavior of different variables
 Policy implication
 Limitation of the study

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Thank you!