Abstract
Objectives: Few studies have examined the impacts of structural differences in the urban–rural dichotomy under the new household registration policy on migration and settlement behavior. Nevertheless, the rationale for the settlement policy of local governments should be further elucidated and improved. This study aims to analyze the household registration, land property rights, and differences in migrants’ settlement intentions. Methods: This study used migration survey data from the Pearl River Delta and probit regression to fill this gap in the literature. Findings: Because of the long-term effects of the household registration system and their socioeconomic differences, urban-urban migrants and rural–urban migrants differed in their settlement intentions. Furthermore, the new points-based household registration system affected migrants’ settlement intentions. Relative to the rural–urban migrants, urban–urban migrants more easily met the settlement requirements under the points-based system, and they tended to settle in their current cities. By contrast, migrants with farmland in their hometowns tended to settle there. The findings underscore the relevance of adopting perspectives that consider the urban–rural dichotomy and related structural differences to understand migrants’ settlement intentions in China.
Highlights
Since the Chinese economic reform, urbanization and industrialization in China have experienced considerable growth
To facilitate the comparison of the factors influencing the settlement intentions of rural–urban and urban–urban migrants, in models 2 and 3, under land and institutional factors, we only considered the variable of whether the criteria for the points-based household registration system were met
We categorized the interviewees according to their household registration characteristics, asking them “Among your family members, does anyone have urban registration status?” Those who responded affirmatively and negatively were defined as urban–urban migrants and rural–urban migrants, respectively
Summary
Since the Chinese economic reform, urbanization and industrialization in China have experienced considerable growth. Because the urban–rural differences in China are substantial, megalopolises in various regions, including the Pearl River Delta, encounter large influxes of migrants. China’s floating population is defined as migrants without local household registration (hukou) status and is one of the largest migrant populations in the world. Domestic migrants in 2020 totaled 376 million people. Researchers have long discussed the problem of migrant settlement under the urban–rural dichotomy [1,2]. Structural differences in China’s urban–rural dichotomy comprise two aspects, namely household registration and the land system. Migrants cannot enjoy social welfare benefits, and permanent settlement is difficult. As for land use, farmland guarantees farmers’ livelihoods, overattachment to one’s farmland renders permanent settlement in other regions more difficult
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