The practice of split households among rural–urban migrants in China has persisted for more than twenty years. In this paper we compare three forms of split households, differentiated by whether the migrant's spouse and children are left behind or have joined the migrant: sole migration, couple migration, and family migration. Our survey of fifty chengzhongcun (urban villages) in Beijing conducted in 2008 shows that couple migration and family migration are outcomes of rural Chinese actively rearranging their household division of labor in order to maximize earnings from urban work opportunities. Migrants' decision to leave the children behind or to bring them along depends on the children's age and whether migrants' parents are available to help. Contrary to expectation, more household members in the city signals neither stronger intention to stay nor greater trust in the host society. These findings highlight the importance of thinking about migrants as circulators and thinking about migration, including family migration, as not necessarily a prelude to permanent settlement. They also underscore the need to address the experiences of long-term split households, a discourse that has received much less attention than one that assumes that a family lives together most of the time.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
AlexanderPChanA, 2004, “Does China have an apartheid pass system?”Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies30609–629
2.
BustamanteJJAlemanC, 2007, “Perpetuating split-household families: The case of Mexican sojourners in mid-Michigan and their transnational fatherhood practices”Migraciones Internacionales4 (1) 65–86
ChanKW, 2009, “The Chinese hukou system at 50”Eurasian Geography and Economics50197–221
5.
ChanKWBuckinghamW, 2008, “Is China abolishing the hukou system?”China Quarterly195582–606
6.
ChantS, 1991, “Gender, migration and urban development in Costa Rica: The case of Guanacastle”Geoforum22237–253
7.
ChapmanMProtheroRM, 1983, “Themes on circulation in the Third World”International Migration Review17597–632
8.
DavinD, 1999Internal Migration in Contemporary China (Macmillan, London)
9.
DeshingkarPStartD, 2003, “Seasonal migration for livelihoods in India: Coping, accumulation and exclusion”, WP 220, Overseas Development Institute, London
10.
EntwisleBHendersonGE, 2000, “Conclusion: Re-drawing boundaries”, in Re-drawing Boundaries: Work, Households, and Gender in China Eds EntwisleBHendersonGE (University of California Press, Berkeley, CA) pp 295–303
11.
FanCC, 2008China on the Move: Migration, the State, and the Household (Routledge, New York)
12.
FanCC, 2009, “Flexible work, flexible household: Labor migration and rural families in China”, in Research in the Sociology of Work Ed. KeisterLA (Emerald Press, Bingley, Yorks) pp 377–408
13.
FanCCWangWW, 2008, “The household as security: Strategies of rural–urban migrants in China”, in Migration and Social Protection in China Eds SmythRNielsenI (World Scientific, Hackensack, NJ) pp 205–243
14.
GlennEN, 1983, “Split households, small producers, and dual wage earners: An analysis of Chinese-American families strategies”Journal of Marriage and Family4535–46
15.
GoodkindDWestLA, 2002, “China's floating population: Definitions, data and recent findings”Urban Studies392237–2250
16.
HareD, 1999, “‘Push’ versus ‘pull’ factors in migration outflows and returns: Determinants of migration status and spell duration among China's rural population”Journal of Development Studies35(3) 45–72
17.
HershatterG, 2000, “Local meanings of gender and work in rural Shaanxi in the 1950s”, in Re-drawing Boundaries: Work, Household, and Gender in China Eds EntwisleBHendersonGE (University of California Press, Berkeley, CA) pp 79–96
18.
HsingY-T, 2009The Great Urban Transformation: Politics and Property in China (Oxford University Press, Oxford)
19.
HugoG, 1978Population Mobility in West Java (Gadjah Mada University Press, Yogyakarta)
20.
HugoG, 1982, “Circular migration in Indonesia”Population and Development Review8 (1) 59–83
HugoG, 2006, “Temporary migration and the labour market in Australia”Australian Geographer37211–231
23.
JackaT, 2006Rural Women in Contemporary China: Gender, Migration, and Social Change (M E Sharpe, Armonk, NY)
24.
JacobsJ, 1961The Death and Life of American Cities (Random House, New York)
25.
KaufmannF, 2007, “Emigrant or sojourner? Migration intensity and its determinants”, WP 154, Political Economy Research Institute, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA
26.
LawsonVA, 1998, “Hierarchical households and gendered migration in Latin America: Feminist extensions to migration research”Progress in Human Geography2239–53
27.
LeeCK, 2007Against the Law: Labor Protests in China's Rustbelt and Sunbelt (University of California Press, Berkeley, CA)
28.
LinGCS, 2009Developing China: Land, Politics and Social Conditions (Routledge, London)
29.
LucasREBStarkO, 1985, “Motivations to remit: Evidence from Botswana”The Journal of Political Economy93901–918
30.
McGeeTGLinGCSMartonAMWangMYLWuJ, 2007China's Urban Space: Development Under Market Socialism (Routledge, London)
31.
MalleeH, 2003, “Migration, hukou and resistance in reform China”, in Chinese Society: Change, Conflict and Resistance Eds PerryEJSeldenM (Routledge Curzon, London) pp 136–157
32.
MannS, 2000, “Work and household in Chinese culture: Historial perspectives”, in Re-drawing Boundaries: Work, Household, and Gender in China Eds EntwisleBHendersonGE (University of California Press, Berkeley, CA) pp 15–32
33.
MincerJ, 1978, “Family migration decisions”Journal of Political Economy86749–773
34.
MitchellK, 1997, “Transnational subjects: Constituting the cultural citizen in the era of Pacific Rim capital”, in Ungrounded Empires: The Cultural Politics of Modern Chinese Transnationalism Eds OngANoniniD (Routledge, New York) pp 228–256
35.
MurphyR, 2002How Migrant Labor Is Changing Rural China (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge)
36.
National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), 2002Zhongguo 2000 Nian Renkou Pucha Ziliao [Tabulation on the 2000 Population Census of the People's Republic of China], volumes I and III, (Zhongguo Tongji Chubanshe [China Statistics Press], Beijing)
37.
National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), 2009Beijing Tongji Nianjian 2009 [Beijing Statistical Yearbook 2009] Zhongguo Tongji Chubanshe [China Statistics Press], Beijing
38.
NelsonJoanM, 1976, “Sojourners versus urbanites: Causes and consequences of temporary versus permanent cityward migration in developing countries”Economic Development and Cultural Change24721–757
39.
OngA, 1999Flexible Citizenship: The Cultural Logics of Transnationality (Duke University Press, Durham, NC)
RobertsKD, 2007, “The changing profile of Chinese labor migration”, in Transition and Challenge: China's Population at the Beginning of the 21st Century Eds ZhaoZGuoF (Oxford University Press, Oxford) pp 233–250
42.
SaxenianA, 2005, “From brain drain to brain circulation: Transnational communities and regional upgrading in India and China”Studies in Comparative International Development40 (2) 35–61
43.
ScharpingT, 1999, “Selectivity, migration reasons and backward linkages of rural–urban migrants: A sample survey of migrants to Foshan and Shenzhen in comparative perspective”, in Internal and International Migration: Chinese Perspectives Eds PiekeFKMalleeH (Curzon, Richmond, Surrey) pp 73–102
44.
SilveyR, 2006, “Consuming the transnational family: Indonesian migrant domestic workers to Saudi Arabia”Global Networks6 (1) 23–40
45.
SkeldonR, 1990Population Mobility in Developing Countries: A Reinterpretation (Belhaven Press, London)
46.
SkeldonR, 1997, “Migrants on a global stage: The Chinese”, in Pacific Rim Development: Integration and Globalization in the Asia-Pacific Economy Ed. RimmerPJ (Allen and Unwin, Canberra) pp 222–239
SolingerDJ, 1995, “The floating population in the cities: Chances for assimilation?”, in Urban Spaces in Contemporary China Eds DavisDKrausRNaughtonBPerryEJ (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge) pp 113–139
49.
SolingerDJ, 1999Contesting Citizenship in Urban China: Peasant Migrants, the State, and the Logic of the Market (University of California Press, Berkeley, CA)
50.
StaceyJ, 1990Brave New Families: Stories of Domestic Upheaval in Late Twentieth-century America (Basic Books, Oakland, CA)
51.
StarkOLucasREB, 1988, “Migration, remittances, and the family”Economic Development and Cultural Change36465–482
52.
TanK, 2007, “Nongmingong chengshi dingju yingxiang yinsu yanjiu” [A study on factors affecting migrant workers' settlement intention in the city]Zhongguo Shanxisheng Dangwei Dangxiao Xuebao [Academic Journal of Shanxi Provincial Committee Party School of Communist Party of China] 30(2) 46–48
53.
TangW-SChungH, 2002, “Rural–urban transition in China: Illegal land use and construction”Asia Pacific Viewpoint43 (1) 43–62
54.
TianL, 2008, “The chengzhongcun land market in China: Boon or bane?—a perspective on property rights”International Journal of Urban and Regional Research32282–304
55.
WalshF (Ed.), 2003Normal Family Processes: Growing Diversity and Complexity (Guilford Press, New York)
56.
WangF-L, 2005Organizing Through Division and Exclusion: China's Hukou System (Stanford University Press, Stanford, CA)
57.
WangG, 2007, “Liuxue and yiman: From study to migranthood”, in Beyond Chinatown: New Chinese Migration and the Global Expansion of China Ed. ThunoM (NIAS Press, Copenhagen) pp 165–181
58.
WangMYWuJ, 2010, “Migrant workers in the urban labour market of Shenzhen, China”Environment and Planning A421457–1475
59.
WatersJL, 2002, “Flexible families? Astronaut’ households and the experiences of lone mothers in Vancouver, British Columbia”Social and Cultural Geography3 (2) 117–134
60.
WilkinsonC, 1987, “Women, migration and work in Lesotho”, in Geography and Gender in the Third World Eds MomsenJHTownsendJG (SUNY Press, Albany, NY) pp 225–239
61.
WillisKYeohBSAFakhriKhader SMA, 2004, “Introduction: Transnationalism as a challenge to the nation” in State/Nation/Transition: Perspectives on Transnationalism in the Asia-Pacific Eds. YeohB S AWillisK (Routledge, London) pp 1–15
62.
WuF, 2007, “Beyond gradualism: China's urban revolution and emerging cities”, in China's Emerging Cities: The Making of New Urbanism Ed. WuF (Routledge, London) pp 3–25
63.
WuXTreimanDJ, 2004, “The household registration system and social stratification in China, 1955–1996”Demography41363–384
64.
XiangB, 2007, “How far are the left-behind left behind? A preliminary study in rural China”Population, Place and Space13179–191
65.
XuT, 2010, “Nongmingong dingjuxing qianyi de yiyuan fenxi: Jiyu Beijing diqu de shizheng yanjiu” [An analysis on migrant workers' settlement intention: A case study of Beijing]Jingji Kexue [Economic Science] number 3, 120–128
66.
YeJPanL, 2008Bieyang Tongnian: Zhongguo Nongcui Liushou Ertong [Differentiated childhoods: Children left behind in rural China] (Shehui kexue wenxian chubanshe [Social Science Academic Press], Beijing)
67.
YueZLiSFeldmanMDuH, 2010, “Floating choices: A generational perspective on intentions of rural–urban migrants in China”Environment and Planning A42545–562
68.
ZelinskyW, 1971, “The hypothesis of mobility transition”Geographical Review61219–249
69.
ZhangLZhaoSXBTianJP, 2003, “Self-help in housing and chengzhongcun in China's urbanization”International Journal of Urban and Regional Research27912–937
70.
ZhaoS, 1998, “1997 nian di nongmin liudong: Xin jieduan xin wenti” [Peasant mobility in 1997: New stages and new problems], unpublished manuscript (in Chinese)
71.
ZhengSFuYLiuH, 2009a, “Demand for urban quality of living in China: Evolution in compensating land-rent and wage-rate differentials”Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics38194–213
72.
ZhengSLongFFanCCGuY, 2009b, “Urban villages in China: A 2008 survey of migrant settlements in Beijing”Eurasian Geography and Economics50425–446
73.
ZhouH, 2004, “Zhongguo renkou qianyi de jia ting hua qushi ji yingxiang yinsu fenxi” [The analysis on the trend and factors of family migration]Renkou Yanjiu [Population Research] 28(6) 60–67
74.
ZhouYLoganJR, 2008, “Growth on the edge: The new Chinese metropolis”, in Urban China in Transition Ed. LoganJR (Blackwell, Malden, MA) pp 140–160
75.
ZhuY, 2007, “China's floating population and their settlement intention in the cities: Beyond the Hukou reform”Habitat International31 (1) 65–76
76.
ZhuYChenW, 2010, “The settlement intention of China's floating population in the cities: Recent changes and multifaceted individual-level determinants”Population, Space and Place16253–267
