No abstract

Since the abolition in China of unequal regulations and controls related to the urban labour market and rural–urban migration in recent years, attention has been paid to migrants’ settlement intentions and their integration into host cities. Settlement channels have become more diverse and more accessible to migrants, because of relaxed institutional constraints and the advanced market mechanism, which are essential to the pace and process of urbanisation, and welfare and service provisions in host cities. Using data from a survey conducted by the Institute of Population and Labor Economic of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in Ningbo in 2014, this study examines migrants’ various settlement intention patterns, including traditional permanent settlement intention involving the transfer of one’s household registration ( hukou) status; de facto permanent settlement intention through purchasing urban housing; and long-term temporary settlement intention and short-term temporary settlement intention not involving the transfer of one’s hukou. This paper finds that hukou status has a limited impact on permanent settlement intention, and rural migrants tend to achieve permanent settlement through more flexible channels, such as purchasing urban housing in their host cities, thereby avoiding the institutional hurdle of obtaining a local urban hukou. The paper contributes to the study of migration in China by introducing a new concept of settlement intention, de facto permanent settlement intention, which has not yet been investigated empirically in the existing literature.

No abstract

No abstract

China has seen an unprecedented increase in rural-to-urban migrants in the last three decades, and the extension of welfare programmes to these migrants has been a public concern in urban society. The wellbeing of rural-to-urban migrants is closely associated with their access to various welfare programmes. Although pilot reforms on social insurance extension, which often require co-contribution from both employers and employees, have been implemented in several cities, the participation rate remains low. Participation in non-contributory welfare programmes is closely related to the hukou status, which is also undergoing reform. From a social exclusion perspective, this paper examines the critical issues in China's welfare reforms in relation to the wellbeing of rural to urban migrants. Using qualitative data on welfare programme participation on both institutional and individual levels, this paper argues that the trends of welfare marketization and decentralization lead the welfare provision system to be more selective than universal. This welfare selectivity helps rural migrants with higher economic status become integrated into urban society and enjoy a sense of belonging in cities, while also creating a dual exclusion for rural migrant workers who are disadvantaged in the urban labour market. Individuallevel factors, including employment selectivity, information obtainment, settlement intention, and confidence in future reform, influence the choice to participate in welfare programmes. This paper calls for an increased centralization in welfare system reforms.