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.

Keywords

rural–urban migration status household registration system domestic violence against wives

Introduction

Domestic violence (DV) is one of the most common forms of violence against women, affecting approximately one-third of women worldwide (World Health Organization [WHO], 2013). DV includes physical aggression, psychological abuse, sexual assault, and other various controlling behaviors by a partner or spouse (Heise & Garcia-Moreno, 2002). It causes severe physical and mental sequela for victims and endangers the stability of families, communities, and societies (Fineman, 2013). In China, 24.7% of married women face DV according to the statistics released by All-China Women's Federation (ACWF) in 2011 (Zhang & Zhao, 2018) and the estimated range for physical violence is between 2.5% and 5.5%, 17.4%–24.5% for psychological violence, and 0.3%–1.7% for sexual violence, respectively (Yang et al., 2019). The estimated rates of physical and sexual violence reported by Chinese women are moderately lower than those reported in some other countries. For example, in India, lifetime rates of severe physical violence and sexual violence have been reported as 10% and 8%, respectively (Dalal & Lindqvist, 2012). Influenced by traditional culture, Chinese women still commonly view DV as an embarrassing private matter, and they feel reluctant to disclose it to people outside the family (Hu et al., 2021a). Given the diversity in cultural and social contexts and the scarcity of population-based data, more studies are needed in developing countries to better understand the causes and effects of DV against different groups of women (Ellsberg & Heise, 2005).

This study examined the impacts of rural–urban migration status on women's experience of DV perpetrated by their husbands in China. Migration is an integral part of the social–economic transformation in the developing world. As the largest developing country, China has experienced rapid large-scale rural–urban migration in the economic reform era since 1978. As a response to economic development, migration has withdrawn surplus rural agricultural labor to develop non-agricultural sectors in urban areas. The size of the migrant population has grown from less than 16 million in the 1980s to about 236 million in 2019, making up about 17% of the overall population (National Bureau of Statistics of China [NBSC], 2019). Although men constituted the majority of migrant flows, in recent years, an increasing number of women have moved to cities to seek a better life. Nationwide, nearly 118 million rural women work in cities, accounting for 48% of the overall rural migrant population (National Population and Family Commission [NPFC], 2017). Like migrants in other developing countries, some migrants in China choose non-permanent settlement in cities and return to rural areas at some point in their life. Return migrants account for about 25%–40% of all migrants (Wang & Fan, 2006).

In the migration process, countervailing social forces may affect the occurrence of DV. On one hand, women migrants are often identified as a particularly disadvantaged group due to their unstable position within the city, characterized by informal employment, low wages, poor working conditions, and unsustainable livelihoods. Factors such as adaption pressure related to new social and economic conditions (Umubyeyi, 2019), social isolation (Choi et al., 2012), and challenges to the patriarchal family structure (Li & Wang, 2021) could trigger violence. On the other hand, migration may improve women's economic independence, strengthen their agency (Zhang, 2013), and foster couple solidarity (Umubyeyi, 2019), which helps reduce the likelihood of DV.

wRural–urban migration in China differs from that in other countries because the state has stringent restrictions over migration through the unique institutional household registration system (the hukou system) (Zhang et al., 2020). The hukou system has become a critical part of the Chinese stratification system over the past several decades as the country has moved toward capitalism and marketization (Wu, 2019). In response to the proposal that feminist social work should focus more on “social structural causes” of DV with a feminist agenda of social change (Pyles & Postmus, 2004, p. 386), this study sought to explore how hukou-based migration impacts women's experience of DV.

Migration and the Hukou System

The hukou system was originally used to distribute public resources and control labor migration in the era of Mao (from 1949 to 1977), when China's economic system was characterized by the socialist principles of central planning and public ownership. Residents employed in state-owned or collective-owned enterprises were entitled to hold “non-agricultural hukou” (urban hukou), whereas the population who worked as farmers in the rural area was assigned “agricultural hukou” (rural hukou) (Fan, 2007). The urban hukou holders were entitled to state-subsidized goods and benefits, but rural hukou holders were denied access to urban subsidies, welfare, and public service (Chan, 2018). The conversion of hukou was tightly regulated by government institutions, with migration subject to approval from the authorities at the destination (Chan, 2018).

Since economic reforms started in 1978, the government has reformed the hukou system to manage internal migration. The old system of central planning has been dismantled, and the market has been embraced as the new guiding principle of resource allocation (Zhou & Xie, 2019). To provide sufficient labor to fuel capitalist production in urban areas, the state allowed rural residents to go and work in cities, but only some of the migrants are permitted to acquire an urban hukou. Migration thus is dichotomized into state-sponsored permanent migration and self-initiated temporary migration (Fan, 2007). Permanent migrants can change their hukou registration to destination cities due to employment in a state-owned enterprise, enrolling in an institution of higher education, or joining the military, whereas temporary migrants reside de facto in a host city but cannot change their rural hukou status, so are excluded from the social benefits entitled to local hukou holders (Chan, 2018).

Many temporary migrants choose not to settle in the city and return to their hometown as the result of several structural forces (Han, 2020). The shift of economic activities from coastal to the central and western regions since the mid-2000s made many migrants lose their jobs and return home to seek employment opportunities (Yuan & Wen, 2017). Migrants may need to return home for elder care because they are excluded from the urban social welfare system (Zhao, 2018). Temporary migrants also move back to their rural homes as institutional inferiority and social–economic disadvantages undermine the likelihood that they can survive and succeed in the city (Wang & Fan, 2006). Overall, the hukou constraint remains the major obstacle preventing temporary migrants from settling permanently in their working location (Zhang et al., 2020).

Women with different migration statuses experience varied socioeconomic outcomes, welfare entitlements, and support networks. Permanent migrants are commonly considered an elite group and enjoy full-fledged urban citizenship because of their exceptional economic, educational, and occupational capital, whereas temporary migrant women are channeled into low-prestige, low-pay, and insecure feminized occupations and are excluded from social services (e.g., education, housing, and health care) in the host city (Luo & Chui, 2019). Temporary migrants participate in the labor market, granting them more bargaining power at home than rural women (Choi & Peng, 2016), but after returning home from working in the city, many return migrant women again become non-waged labor in the household and remain vulnerable to unequal gender relations (Zhang, 2013). The extended family support networks of permanent and temporary migrants may narrow after migration due to geographical separation from their extended family. Permanent migrants, who have relatively more social–economic capital than temporary migrants, tend to experience fewer integration challenges (Tian et al., 2019). In contrast, temporary migrants receive support mainly from informal ties but rarely from formal support networks because of their institutional and social inferiority (Liu et al., 2016). Temporary migrants, after returning to their home, tend to have more varied social linkages and contacts with their extended family and other village residents than they had during their time working in cities.

DV Against Women in China

Emerging studies have started to disentangle the correlates of DV, exploring the issue from individual, relationship, and sociocultural perspectives (Tang & Lai, 2008). Individual factors highlight the demographic characteristics, developmental history, and characteristics of both the victim and the perpetrator that influence individual response to stressors (e.g., Niu & Laidler, 2015; Tu & Lou, 2017; Zhang et al., 2019). Relationship factors shape the immediate setting in which DV occurs and include factors such as social support and marital relationship (e.g., Hu et al., 2021b; Tu & Lou, 2017). Sociocultural perspective views how attitudinal, political, and cultural factors are associated with DV, including patriarchal practices, gender role attitudes, and political/legal protections provided by the state-based actors (Li & Wang, 2021; Song et al., 2021; Tang & Lai, 2008).

These theoretical perspectives have significantly broadened our understanding of the factors that contribute to the occurrence of DV against women. However, comparatively less research has focused on the multiplicity of women's experiences of DV. One of the core principles of feminist social work practice is to adopt an intersectionality approach to examine how various dimensions of cultural identity (e.g., migration, sexuality, ability, age, etc.) interact to form interrelated systems of power and oppression to affect marginalized or disadvantaged groups of women (Mehrotra, 2010). Women migrants in China vary by their individual migration decisions, social–economic status, structural constraints, and hukou assignment (Luo & Chui, 2019). Permanent migrants are granted full local citizen status in their new location. Temporary migrants lack access to the institutional, economic, and social statuses of permanent migrants and local residents. Return migrants are discouraged from living in a host city by discriminatory urban policies engendered by the hukou system. Structural discrimination has played a significant role on marginalized and oppressed women in abusive relationships (Sokoloff & Dupont, 2005). The goal of this study was to analyze the relation of hukou-based migration status and DV against women by focusing on within-gender heterogeneity among migrant women at the intersections of institution, class, and regionality.

Methods

Source of Data and Sampling

Data were drawn from the third wave survey on the Social Status of Women in China (SSWC 2010), jointly administered by the state-owned organizations, ACWF and the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS). The SSWC is a nationwide decennial survey, with three waves completed in 1990, 2000, and 2010 in mainland China. The third wave was conducted in the context of China's rapid economic progress, massive rural–urban migration, deteriorated social equality, and strengthened social stratification. It collected detailed information on respondents’ demographic characteristics, socioeconomic status, migration status, and most importantly, their experiences of DV (Song et al., 2021). SSWC 2010 is found to be the most complete survey measuring a great number of DV behaviors compared with previous surveys conducted in China (Yang et al., 2019).

The survey adopted a stratified three-stage sampling design to select a representative national sample from women living in 31 provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities (Project Group of the Third Wave of SSWC, 2011). In stage one, the primary sampling units were counties, districts, and cities, with around 40 units for each province, region, and autonomous city and a total of 460 primary sampling units. In stage two, village and neighborhood committees were sampling units. Five urban communities were randomly selected from each city (or from a county). In stage three, households were the sampling units. Fifteen households were randomly selected from each city or village community, and one resident in each household was randomly selected for an interview. Data were weighted to correct for over-sampling or under-sampling according to gender, region, and household size.

The third wave of SSWC included 29,698 individuals aged above 18 years old. As a government-administered survey, it had a high response rate of 99% (Project Group of the Third Wave of SSWC, 2011). Our sample was restricted to married female respondents (18–60 years old). As we aimed to study how hukou-based migration status was associated with DV against wives within a six-month period, we excluded (a) women whose migration status was unknown and whose migration duration was less than six months; (b) urban native women without hukou conversion; (c) policy-based converters who were granted urban hukou through land expropriation and hukou reform in the situ urbanization process. The final sample size for analysis was 5411.

Measures

Dependent Variables: Physical, Psychological, and Sexual Violence

The dependent variables were physical, psychological, and sexual violence against wives with rural–urban migration experience in China. The respondent reported the frequency of the following behaviors by her spouse in the six months preceding the survey: (a) restrictions on physical freedoms, (b) financial control, (c) wife-beating, (d) verbal abuse, (e) refusal to talk, or (f) forced sex within marriage. Responses ranged from “never” to “more than five times” (Cronbach's alpha was 0.66). The internal consistency, as measured by Cronbach's alpha coefficient, should be at least 0.60 (e.g., for a 15-item scale) for a self-report instrument to be reliable (Nunnally & Berstein, 1994). Thus, this scale was considered acceptably reliable as a self-report instrument for measuring DV.

Physical and sexual violence were indicated by item three and item six, respectively. Item three, “wife-beating,” is the most common form of physical assault by a husband in China (Liu & Chan, 1999). If the respondents reported being beaten by their husbands at least once during the six months before the survey, they were counted as having experienced physical violence. Item six, “forced sex within marriage,” is an indicator of sexual violence (Bagwell-Gray et al., 2015). If the respondents reported experiencing forced sex by their husbands at least once during the six months, they were counted as having experienced sexual violence.

The measure of psychological violence included items one, two, four, and five. Psychological violence can take the form of verbal insult, threats, isolation, monitoring movements, and restricting access to financial resources (Dokkedahl et al., 2019). Item one was a form of controlling movements, item two was restricting the wife's access to financial resources, item four was verbal abuse, and item five was an indicator of indifference and isolation. If the respondents reported experiencing at least one type of abusive behavior by their husbands, they were counted as having experienced psychological violence (Cronbach's alpha for this scale was 0.62).

Independent Variable: Hukou-based Migration Status

The independent variable was hukou-based migration status, which was a multi-categorical variable. Its operationalization is based on measures of the respondent's migration experience, residence location, and hukou status. If the respondents had stayed in urban areas for over six months but had their hukou registered in rural areas, they were counted as temporary migrants. If the respondents reported having migration experience for over six months but had suspended migration and returned to their rural hometown at the time of the survey, we counted them as return migrants. If the respondents had transferred agricultural hukou to local non-agricultural through college admission, military service, or state employment, they were categorized as permanent migrants. Rural natives without migration experience served as the reference group, including those residing in rural areas and possessing local-agricultural hukou.

Co-variates: Demographic, Relationship, and Sociocultural Related Factors

Previous research applied individual, relationship, and sociocultural perspectives to explain factors associated with DV occurrence (e.g., Li & Wang, 2021; Tang & Lai, 2008; Zhang et al., 2019). Individual-level demographic variables included the wife's age, the educational attainment of the wife (measured in years) and the husband (measured in eight levels), the employment status of the couple (employed and unemployed), the combined income from the husband and wife, the number of children, the wife's physical health problems (higher scores indicating worse physical health status), and the wife's mental health problems (Cronbach's alpha was 0.86; higher scores indicating more severe depressive symptoms). The relationship perspective was indicated by the respondent's participation in social organizations, as social participation has a positive influence on the level of social support.

The sociocultural perspective was indicated by patriarchal practices and gender ideology. We hypothesized that DV would be related to patriarchal practice operationalized these practices through two measures: the family economic structure and the conjugal power structure (Li & Wang, 2021). The former was measured by the question, “Who contributes more to family finance?” The responses included “the husband was the primary economic provider (the reference group),” “the wife was the primary economic provider,” and “equal contribution.” The latter was measured by the question, “Who has more power at home?” The responses included “the husband had more power (the reference group),” “the wife possessed more power,” and “the couple was equal in power.” Gender ideology was indicated by four items, including (a) men should be career-oriented, and women should be family-oriented; (b) men should take the primary breadwinner-responsibility; (c) the husband's career is more important than the wife's; and (d) for a woman, a good career is incomparable to a good marriage. The responses were rated on a scale of “strongly agree” to “strongly disagree,” with lower scores representing a highly patriarchal perspective (Cronbach's alpha was 0.76).

Data Analysis

Descriptive statistics were used to present sociodemographic characteristics and the prevalence of different types of DV by migration status. Logistic regression models were applied to estimate the effects of migration status on the wife's experience of the three types of violence. We estimated sequential models for the three outcome variables. In each set of models, migrant status was first entered (model A), followed by the addition of other potentially confounding variables (model B). Couple income was calculated by adding both the husband's and the wife's income, and the natural logarithm value was used to reduce skewness. The prediction equation of the logistic regression model is:

\log i t (p_{i}) = \log (\frac{p_{i}}{1 - p_{i}}) = β_{0} + β_{1} x_{i 1} + β_{2} x_{i 2} + \dots β_{k} x_{i k}

where i = 1, 2, 3…n, indicates the cases; k = 0, 1, 2, 3…k, indicates the number of independent variables; β₀ is the intercept, x_k is the kth independent variable, β_k is the estimated coefficient for variable x_k ; and p_i is the predicted probability. Reported p-values are two-tailed with statistical significance set at .05. The Hosmer–Lemeshow (HL) test was used to evaluate the goodness of fit for the logistic regression models.

Results

Descriptive Statistics

The descriptive statistics for each group of women are presented in Table 1. Our sample (n = 5411) included rural native women without migration experience, return migrants, temporary migrants, and permanent migrants. Rural residents without migration experience accounted for 78.91% (n = 4270), return migrants made up 10.11% (n = 547), temporary migrants accounted for 3.09% (n = 167), and the remaining 7.89% were permanent migrants (n = 427). Among migrants, half-year rates of physical and sexual violence were highest for return migrants (physical violence 4.20%; sexual violence 2.76%). Rates of physical and psychological violence were lowest for permanent migrants (physical violence 1.41%; psychological violence 14.05%). Temporary migrants had the highest rates of psychological violence (21.56%), but relatively lower rates of physical violence (2.40%) and sexual violence (0.60%). The descriptive analysis also revealed disparities in socioeconomic status and family relations among migrant women. The return migrants had the fewest years of schooling, the lowest family income, and were most likely to live in a traditional patriarchal household. Permanent migrants had the highest average number of years of schooling, highest family income, and the lowest percentage of having dominant husbands. Temporary migrants were intermediate for educational attainment, family income, and family patriarchal oppression.

Table 1.

Descriptive Statistics for Variables in Regression Analysis.

	Women grouped by migration status									Total M (SD) or n (%)
	Rural natives		Return migrants		Temporary migrants			Permanent migrants
	M (SD) or n (%)		M (SD) or n (%)		M (SD) or n (%)		M (SD) or n (%)
Physical violence	78	(1.83)	23	(4.20)	4	(2.40)	6		(1.41)	111	(2.06)
Psychological violence	660	(15.52)	115	(20.99)	36	(21.56)	60		(14.05)	871	(16.18)
Sexual violence	27	(0.63)	15	(2.76)	1	(0.60)	4		(0.93)	47	(0.87)
Age	43.11	(9.97)	36.53	(9.32)	36.12	(7.50)	37.39		(8.90)	41.78	(10.09)
Wife's educational years	5.63	(3.51)	6.48	(3.10)	7.46	(3.45)	10.15		(3.42)	6.13	(3.68)
Wife's employment	3629	(85.01)	458	(85.73)	125	(74.85)	280		(65.73)	4,492	(83.05)
Husband's educational level	2.80	(0.94)	2.95	(0.88)	3.28	(1.12)	4.46		(1.64)	2.96	(1.10)
Husband's employment	4,140	(98.71)	531	(99.07)	165	(99.40)	403		(95.50)	5,239	(98.51)
Family income (yuan)	22,545	(129,250)	25,985	(43,982)	42,218	(34,994)	54,416		(249,407)	35,932	(109,209)
Number of children	1.98	(0.94)	1.82	(0.88)	1.45	(0.68)	1.20		(0.64)	1.89	(0.94)
Social participation	231	(5.43)	35	(6.42)	12	(7.19)	89		(20.89)	367	(6.81)
Wife's physical health	2.14	(1.04)	2.10	(1.02)	1.80	(0.82)	1.97		(0.96)	2.11	(1.03)
Wife's mental health	11.81	(4.38)	12.10	(4.58)	10.53	(3.70)	11.88		(4.27)	11.80	(4.38)
Husband as breadwinner	3046	(71.96)	426	(78.45)	108	(65.45)	241		(56.97)	3821	(71.02)
Wife as breadwinner	197	(4.64)	20	(3.68)	13	(7.88)	38		(8.98)	268	(4.98)
Equal contribution	1006	(23.68)	97	(17.86)	44	(26.67)	144		(34.04)	1291	(24.00)
Husband having more power	1844	(43.32)	234	(43.41)	60	(36.36)	120		(28.50)	2258	(41.95)
Wife having more power	588	(13.81)	78	(14.47)	18	(10.91)	79		(18.76)	763	(14.18)
Equal power	1825	(42.87)	227	(42.12)	87	(52.73)	222		(52.73)	2361	(43.87)
Gender ideology	23.56	(3.12)	24.07	(3.37)	24.30	(3.32)	25.24		(3.20)	23.78	(3.20)
n	4270	(78.91)	547	(10.11)	167	(3.09)	427		(7.89)	5411	(100)

Regression Results

Logistic regression results are presented in Table 2. Model 1A shows that return migrant wives were more likely to experience physical violence compared with rural non-migratory wives (β = 0.86, p < .001). After controlling for sociodemographic, social participation, patriarchal practices, and ideology in Model 1B, return migrants were still more likely to experience physical violence (β = 0.74, p < .05), while temporary migrants (β = 0.64, p > .05) and permanent migrants (β = −0.28, p > .05) did not have significantly higher odds of physical violence. The control variables showed that the wife's educational attainment decreased the likelihood of physical violence (β = −0.12, p < .01). Depression was positively associated with the odds of physical violence (β = 0.11, p < .001). Compared with those whose husbands were the primary breadwinners of the family, women who were the primary economic provider (β = 1.51, p < .001) or who made an equivalent contribution to family income (β = 0.95, p < .001) were at higher risk for physical abuse. Compared with a wife in a household where the husband had more power, the wife had a lower chance of experiencing physical violence if she had more power (β = −0.90, p < .05) or if she had equal power with her husband (β = −1.11, p < .001). Model 1B had an acceptable fit (p = .79).

Table 2.

Logistic Regression Models on Physical, Psychological, and Sexual Violence Against Wives Within a Six-Month Period.

Variables	Physical violence				Psychological violence				Sexual violence
	Model 1A		Model 1B		Model 2A		Model 2B		Model 3A		Model 3B
	β	(SE)	β	(SE)	β	(SE)	β	(SE)	β	(SE)	β	(SE)
Return migration	0.86***	(0.24)	0.74*	(0.33)	0.37**	(0.11)	0.38**	(0.14)	1.49**	(0.33)	1.39***	(0.39)
Temporary migration	0.27	(0.52)	0.64	(0.57)	0.40*	(0.19)	0.58*	(0.23)	−0.06	(1.02)	0.10	(1.10)
Permanent migration	−0.27	(0.43)	−0.28	(0.51)	−0.12	(0.15)	0.13	(0.19)	0.39	(0.54)	−0.27	(0.84)
Age			−0.02	(0.01)			−0.01	(0.01)			0.00	(0.02)
Wife's education			−0.12**	(0.04)			−0.02	(0.02)			−0.02	(0.06)
Wife's employment			0.28	(0.36)			0.30*	(0.13)			0.33	(0.50)
Husband's education			−0.05	(0.13)			−0.11*	(0.05)			−0.10	(0.19)
Husband's employment			−0.57	(0.68)			−0.09	(0.38)			−1.42	(0.83)
Couple income			−0.05	(0.14)			0.09	(0.06)			−0.01	(0.21)
Children number			−0.08	(0.14)			0.07	(0.05)			0.11	(0.20)
Social participation			0.50	(0.39)			0.13	(0.17)			0.79	(0.48)
Physical health problems			0.07	(0.12)			0.09	(0.05)			−0.31	(0.18)
Mental health problems			0.11***	(0.02)			0.07***	(0.01)			0.15***	(0.03)
Wife earning more			1.51***	(0.37)			0.21	(0.19)			0.16	(0.60)
Equal contribution			0.95***	(0.28)			0.10	(0.11)			−0.56	(0.55)
Wife having more power			−0.90*	(0.37)			−0.18	(0.14)			−0.34	(0.46)
Equal power			−1.11***	(0.29)			−0.26**	(0.10)			−0.98*	(0.43)
Gender ideology			−0.04	(0.04)			−0.02	(0.01)			0.06	(0.05)
Constant	−3.98***	(0.11)	−1.86	(1.90)	−1.69***	(0.04)	−2.60**	(0.80)	−5.05*** (0.19)		−6.00*	(2.78)
X ²	11.86		96.26		14.77		129.90		17.50		59.13
Log likelihood	−535.10		−348.71		−2375.59		−1678.63		−260.84		−190.11
p (HL test)	–		0.79		–		0.54		–		1.00

Note. Standard errors are in parentheses.

*p < .05, **p < .01, ***p < .001.

Model 2A reveals that return migrants (β = 0.37, p < .01) and temporary migrants (β = 0.40, p < .05) were more likely to have psychological violence. Model 2B shows that return migrants (β = 0.38, p < .01) and temporary migrants (β = 0.58, p < .05) still remained more vulnerable to psychological violence while no significant differences were found in psychological violence between permanent migrants (β = 0.13, p > .05) and the reference group. The control variables showed that employed wives were more likely to have psychological abuse than those who were not employed (β = 0.30, p < .05). The husband's educational level decreased the odds of psychological violence (β = −0.11, p < .05). Depression in wives was a significant predictor of psychological violence (β = 0.07, p < .001). Compared with a wife whose husband had more conjugal power, the wife had a lower likelihood of psychological violence if the couple had equal power (β = −0.26, p < .01). Model 2B had an acceptable fit (p = .54).

Model 3A suggests that return migrants were more likely to experience sexual violence compared with rural non-migratory wives (β = 1.49, p < .01). In Model 3B, after controlling for covariates, return migrant wives still remained more vulnerable to sexual violence (β = 1.39, p < .001), while temporary migration (β = 0.10, p > .05) and permanent migration (β = −0.27, p > .05) were not significantly associated with increased odds of sexual violence. The control variables reveal that depression in wives was positively correlated with the experience of sexual violence (β = 0.15, p < .001). A wife who perceived she had equal power with her husband was less likely to experience sexual violence than those who reported their husbands had more power (β = −0.98, p < .05). Model 3B demonstrated adequate fit (p = 1.00).

Discussion and Conclusion

Adopting a feminist intersectionality lens, this study aimed to enhance our understanding of how institution, class, and regionality intersect to affect migrant women's experience of DV in China. The institutional hukou system has “filter effects” on the rural–urban migration process. The migrant population includes heterogeneous groups of temporary migrants, permanent migrants, and return migrants, who vary in institutional identity, social–economic status, and social space. From the 1990s to 2010s, two countervailing trends in social mobility have appeared in China's rural–urban migration process. First, rural–urban mobility has increased substantially (Zhou & Xie, 2019). Second, the selective hukou-based migration has strengthened social stratification among migrants, as the conversion of hukou status from rural to urban is a central aspect of upward social mobility (Wu, 2019). This study used a nationally representative dataset collected in the 2010s to investigate migrant women's varied experiences of physical, psychological, and sexual violence from their husbands.

First, we found that temporary migrant women had higher odds of suffering psychological violence. This finding is consistent with the results of previous research suggesting women who relocate from rural regions to major cities are at a higher risk for intimate partner violence (IPV) than their non-migrant counterparts (Hu et al., 2021b). Social and economic disadvantages, together with social isolation and limited family support, can all promote DV against temporary migrant wives (Chen & Ngoubene-Atioky, 2019). Notably, psychological violence is a kind of dyadic aggression that often occurs mutually among intimate partners (Chen & Chan, 2021). In our sample, we found that 11.76% of temporary migrant men also reported experiencing psychological violence. In addition to gender domination and control, the increased psychological violence experienced by temporary migrant women may be related to family pressure caused by adaptation to social and economic conditions in the host city. This pressure may lead to increased marital conflicts that are expressed as mutual emotional abuse, including verbal assaults, humiliating comments, stoic silence, and threats.

Second, the findings consistently demonstrated that return migration was a robust risk factor of the three forms of DV. This is consistent with prior research that suggests worsened gender relations for female returnees in rural households (Jacka, 2006). The findings could be explained from the gender power perspective and the marital conflict view. Return migrant women's marital power decreases upon their geographical return, as they transition from being cash earners in the labor market to working solely in the domestic sphere. In rural China, the traditional masculine value system has developed over thousands of years and still dominates gender relations. In the households where the traditional patriarchal system continues to affect women's labor, reproduction, and sexuality, women's failure to earn money decreases the stability of their position at home and reinforces unequal gender relationships (Zhang, 2013). The increased psychological violence experienced by return migrant women could be symmetric in nature. For women, after exposure to the urban lifestyle, their awareness of gender relations may increase, and their satisfaction with rural life may decrease, which may lead to domestic conflicts if the husband remains traditional and their masculinity is uncompromised in gender relations (Murphy, 2002).

In contrast, the odds of the three types of DV were not significantly increased among permanent migrants who have fewer risk factors compared with rural residents. Although DV permeates all levels of society, the findings in this study confirm that among migrants, wives of higher social class have a lower likelihood of reporting DV than those of lower social strata. However, notably, despite being socially and economically advantaged, permanent migrant women, as the elite group in the city, did not have a significantly decreased likelihood of suffering DV compared to women living in rural areas.

Taken together, this study expands the feminist social work literature on migrant women's varied experience of DV in the developing world, where women's experiences are altered by the processes of moving to urban areas, working in cities, and returning to the countryside. We conducted our study in China, where migration is shaped by the institutional hukou system. Hukou-based migration is an uneven social process that involves social selection and exclusion, discrimination, and injustice. Migrant women are divergent in the intersections of institution, class, and regionality, which may exert different influences on gender relationships in the private sphere, including their lived experience of DV. Feminist social work has long been dedicated to gender-based social justice and working holistically with women across diverse groups and communities, and it is critical for feminist social work scholarship to “theorize multiple, intersecting oppressions and identities in women's lives” (Mehrotra, 2010, p. 419). The findings in this article suggest 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.

We need to consider some limitations when interpreting the findings. First, the SSWC 2010 used six items to measure DV. Although other work has utilized these items as indicators of DV, the scale remains insufficient to capture DV complexity. The high cost of random sample surveys requires that interviews are short, limiting the amount of information elicited and increasing the challenge of adequate assessment of violence (Gelles, 1985). Future academic efforts should include the development of better DV measurement instruments, particularly for use in China, where empirical research remains in a developing stage. Second, our analysis utilized individual-level data that did not include all spousal characteristics related to DV. The bilateral nature of psychological violence among temporary migrant couples was not firmly established in this study, and a household survey that provides comprehensive data on couple characteristics related to DV is recommended for future research on the mutuality of DV. Third, due to its sensitive nature, the prevalence of DV is universally under-reported (Ellsberg & Heise, 2005), and that is likely here as well. In our survey, some respondents did not respond “no” when they were asked if there was any abusive behavior from their spouses, but they selected the option of “refuse to answer the question.” Finally, relying on cross-sectional data, the results were correlational, and the findings cannot be interpreted as evidence of causality.

Implications for Policy and Practice

The findings highlight some implications for policy and practice to reduce DV in China and other societies with mobile populations. First, attempts to alleviate the negative impact of temporary migration on DV require continuing reforms of the hukou system, particularly in cities with high populations of migrant workers. Urban hukou status is an effective means to protect rural migrant women from DV victimization. Although in recent years, migrants in some cities could be granted full urban hukou status, the criteria for local hukou registration in the first and second-tier cities are quite stringent (Zhang et al., 2019). Without easy attainment of urban hukou, DV services should be in particular provided to temporary migrant women in those cities.

Second, the reduction of psychological violence among temporary migrant women may require changes in both the husband and the wife to avoid marital conflicts. Psychological violence can be mutual, and this violence was reported by both male and female temporary migrants. Thus, some emotional abuse reported by women, such as verbal attacks, humiliation, intimidation, and isolation, may be bilateral. Intervention programs such as marital consultation and therapy for both partners are recommended as an essential step to protect both migrant women and their husbands.

Third, concerted efforts are needed to prevent DV against rural return migrant women who are susceptible to all forms of DV. Return women migrants in China face triple oppression of institutional discrimination, socioeconomic stratification, and regionality marginalization. Although battered women may receive temporary protection and shelter from their natal families, in rural settings where wife-beating is prevalent and socially acceptable, family support may be limited as spousal violence may be regarded as a private affair that needs no outside interference. Rural women in violent relationships typically face additional barriers when they need social support due to a shortage of social resources, poor economic conditions, and entrenched patriarchal control. The unavailability of public services may have severe harmful consequences for DV victims (Zosky, 2011). Public programs and services (e.g., DV shelters, counseling hotlines, and assistance to access legal resources) should be provided to better protect return migrant women from DV victimization in rural areas where public resources are quite limited.

Since the 2010s, positive changes have been made to protect DV victims in China; however, the country still has much work ahead. A big step was the recognition by the criminal justice system of violence against women as criminal in 2016. However, only physical harm perpetrated against adult women within a marital relationship is considered criminal behavior, and other less visible forms of DV have received less public and legal attention (Zhao & Zhang, 2017). Effective social strategies are needed to raise awareness of DV. There were more than 2000 DV shelters in China in 2016, but these shelters collectively provided just 149 person-time shelter services in 2015 (Wang, 2020). Over 73% of DV survivors chose to seek support from family and friends rather than from professional services. The main reasons for not seeking professional help include (a) the belief that they can handle the situation by themselves, (b) not knowing to whom they could turn for help, and (c) the belief that the violence experienced was not severe (Hu et al., 2021a). In transitional China, where women are at the crossroad between traditionalism and modernity, policies and interventions are continually needed to improve DV awareness, assist DV survivors, and punish perpetrators.

Taken together, in this study, we have found that the hukou institution, class, and regionality intersect to affect migrant women's experience of DV in China. In this context, social workers could utilize multi-level strategies to more effectively address DV among women with migration experience. At the individual-client level, direct serveries could be provided to evaluate the current needs of victimized temporary migrant women in low social strata and secure protective services for migrant women in the urban area where DV shelters are available, but with low usage. At the organizational level, social workers could work with the government and NGOs to establish programs and services that target return migrant women who are most vulnerable to DV in rural areas, where patriarchy remains deeply entrenched and there is little comprehensive public support. At the societal level, efforts are needed to advocate and facilitate reform or abolition of the institutional hukou system, as this system has exerted structural influence on migrant women's social marginalization in the public sphere but also has collaborated with patriarchy to promote uneven marital power dynamics in the private sphere.

Footnotes

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Funding

The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

ORCID iD

Jun Wang

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