The voice of migrants: How does hukou affect the public consciousness and participation in China?

Based on the China General Social Survey (CGSS) in 2010, this article investigates the impact of hukou status on urban residents’ public consciousness and public participation. Public consciousness includes the self-reported ability regarding political participation, the self-reported confidence in evaluating the government’s activity, the anticipation of the effectiveness of public participation, and the individual attitude indicating public consciousness, while public participation includes voting for neighborhood committee members, voting for property owner committee members, participating in public activities in the local community, and being involved in group events. We find that non-local hukou status has some negative effects on migrants’ public consciousness, and the effects are not significantly weakened by increases in migrants’ income or education levels. Migrants are more passive in public participation, mainly because of the institutional constraints. However, concerning involvement in group events or attitudes toward unfair treatment from the government, migrants are not that different from local citizens. That is to say, if no institutionalized mechanism effectively responds to migrants’ reasonable appeals, migrants might fight for their rights by engaging in public activities, such as group events, which may lead to social instability. We also find that urban residents with higher education levels or more income have stronger public consciousness, although their public participation is not necessarily more frequent.