Has Rural-Urban Migration Promoted the Health of Chinese Migrant Workers？.

Cuihong Long,Jiajun Han,Yong Liu

doi:10.3390/ijerph17041218

Abstract

The relationship between health and migration has always been an important theme in immigration research. This research develops a new approach to test the healthy migrant hypothesis and the salmon bias hypothesis in China by examining an interaction term combining agricultural hukou and migrant status, non-agricultural employment history, and subsequent area of residence. Based on two Chinese micro-databases, CGSS 2015 and Harmonized CHARLS, we conducted an empirical test on the relationship between migration and health. Our empirical evidence suggests that the initial health advantage among Chinese rural migrant workers was largely due to self-selection rather than migration effects. After controlling for demographic and socioeconomic characteristics, this advantage disappeared. After their health deteriorated, migrant workers returned to their original location. This could exacerbate the contradiction between the allocation of medical resources and the demand in rural and urban China, further intensifying the already widening health status gap between rural and urban residents.

Highlights

Population migration, including domestic and international migration, is an objective phenomenon in the process of globalization and urbanization
The first is the healthy migrant hypothesis, which holds that migrants represent a previously selected group composed of individuals whose initial health condition is better than others due to the highly demanding, challenging, and stressful migration process and the adaptability required to live in destinations [1,2,3,4,5,6]
Young peoples’ health status is better than that of elderly people, the health advantage could partly attribute to the youth and vigor; the empirical results are parallel with previous studies [6,16,17,22,36,42]

Summary

Introduction

Population migration, including domestic and international migration, is an objective phenomenon in the process of globalization and urbanization. Since the 1970s, with the advancement of reform and opening up, China has experienced a rapid urbanization process that has lasted more than 40 years. It has witnessed the largest domestic migration in the world, with hundreds of millions of people moving from rural to urban areas. This migration has had a profound impact on the economic and social development of China and the world. The second is the salmon bias hypothesis, which holds that elderly migrants who experience health deterioration have a higher propensity to return to their hometown rather than remaining in destination cities [6,7,8,9,10]

Methods

Results

Conclusion