Social insurance participation among rural migrants in reform era China

Abstract

This study examines the effects of stability in employment and migration on rural migrants’ access to social insurance. Special attention is given to the interaction between the employment contract and the employment sector and between the employment contract and the migrants’ local–nonlocal rural hukou status. Using data from the 2009 Rural-Urban Migration survey in China, the analysis reveals that having a stable contract and high job stability are positively correlated with social insurance coverage among rural migrants, whereas a stable migration experience and the intention to settle in the host city do not increase the likelihood of having social insurance coverage. Having a stable contract plays an important role in closing and even reversing the coverage gap between local and non-local rural migrants by significantly boosting the latter’s chances of obtaining social insurance. However, the beneficial effects derived from having a stable contract in improving the likelihood of obtaining social insurance have been significant in the state sector but quite limited in the non-state sector. Astonishingly, this has unintendedly increased the coverage disparity between the two employment sectors, except for the housing provident fund. The policy implications of these findings are discussed.