From hometown to the host city? Migrants' identity transition in urban China

Abstract

Identity transition is a key process of migrant social integration into the host society. Inspired by acculturation theories on international immigrants, this study investigates migrants' self-identification changes in urban China. We find that most migrants retain their rural identity, revealing the difficulty of identity transition and failure to achieve identity assimilation. The pattern of identities also shows the lack of multiple identities, that is, possessing both hometown identity and the host city identity. Both individual and neighbourhood factors are significantly associated with migrants' identities. Longer length of residency does not necessarily lead to successful identity transition, with many migrants failing to establish a host city identity. The neighbourhood environment also affects their identity transition process. Migrants who live in local-resident dominant neighbourhoods, who participate in neighbourhood affairs, and who live in commodity housing neighbourhoods are more likely to form a host city identity. This result implies that living in a mixed neighbourhood (with both migrants and local residents) and neighbourhood social activities may help migrants achieve successful identity transition.