Hukou-Based Rural–Urban Migration Status and Domestic Violence Against Wives in China: Implications for Policy and Practice

Abstract

Migration in China has been shaped by the household registration system (hukou) that determines stratified citizenship among migrants. Adopting a feminist intersectionality lens, this study investigated how hukou institution, class, and regionality intersect to have an impact on migrant women's experience of physical, psychological, and sexual violence perpetrated by their husbands. The analysis of nationally representative data from the third wave of Women's Social Status Survey in China ( n = 5411) revealed that compared to rural non-migratory wives, (a) return migrants were more likely to experience all three forms of violence; (b) temporary migrants had higher odds to suffer from psychological violence; and (c) permanent migration was not a significant predictor of any form of domestic violence (DV). The findings indicate that migration should be examined in all its complexity from an intersectionality perspective and a within-gender heterogeneity framework may be necessary if we aim to address the multiplicity in migrant women's lives. In practice, attempt to alleviate the negative impact of migration on DV requires reforms or the abolition of the hukou system, and programs and services should be provided in particular to return women migrants who face triple oppression of institutional discrimination, socioeconomic stratification, and regionality marginalization.