The settlement of rural migrants in urban China – some of China's migrants are not ‘floating’ anymore

Abstract

This paper considers economic models of migration in the context of current Chinese migration. We argue that using formally changing one's household registration (hukou) location is too narrow a definition of settlement for policy purposes. Instead we show that time in the city and co-residence with spouses and separately with children reveals systematic settlement behavior on the part of a subset of migrants. The empirical evidence offered is largely descriptive but shows that those migrants who were younger at the age of migration, who are currently married and self-employed spend more years in the city. Men who have been in the city longer and are self-employed are much more likely to be co-residing with their wife. Self-employment is also a predictor of co-residence with children for both mothers and fathers.