Why Migrant Workers in China Continue to Build Large Houses in Home Villages: A Case Study of a Migrant-Sending Village in Anhui

Abstract

This article uses a case study of a migrant-sending village in Anhui to understand why migrant workers build large houses in home villages. The rural sex-ratio imbalance at marriageable ages, heightened by the rural-urban migration of women, has led to an increase in the negotiating power of young women in the rural marriage market. Young men’s families construct large houses to attract potential brides and facilitate patrilocal residence. The lack of maternity leave and affordable childcare in migrant destination cities encourages female migrants to return to the countryside to give birth to and raise children. Large rural houses offer young female migrants comfortable places to live and privacy when they cohabitate with their parents-in-law, who help them raise their children. Although most new-generation migrant workers do not have agricultural experience, rural areas are important to this generation because they provide affordable housing and family support.

Incomplete Urbanization and the Trans-Local Rural-Urban Gradient in China: From a Perspective of New Economics of Labor Migration

“…Households maximize their income and control risks through the geographic diversification of productive resources and family assets. NELM fits into Chen's [23] observation in 2019 in the migrant-sending village in Anhui, China, wherein the migrant workers continued to build large houses in home villages to attract their potential brides and facilitate the patrilocal residence while living in the urban village of destination to save money. NELM gives attention to attachments such as birthplace, homeownership, and identity; but NE understates the effects of attachment to the place of origin.…”

“…Migrant-sending and -receiving places have the multi scales (e.g., national, regional, and local scale), as the migration is multi-scalar. For instance, the spatial units can involve the migrant-sending and -receiving countries, provinces (including inter-or intra-provincial migration comparison), cities, communities, and households in the previous international and internal migration studies [22][23][24]. The complex migration patterns link the urban village mosaics between different rural-urban settlements.…”

The Perpetrator-Victim Relationship: An Important Clue in Understanding Intimate Partner Homicide in China

“…At the same time, migrant workers have not fully accepted the modern concept of marriage based on legal contracts in the city, so marriage becomes unstable (Li, 2018). Migrant workers have fewer possibilities of settling down and living normal family lives with their spouses in the city, because their spouses, especially women, have to stay back in their hometowns to take care of the elderly and raise the children (Chen, 2019; Hall et al, 2019). The low incomes of migrant workers also make it difficult to pay high rent.…”

Intergenerational gendered livelihoods: Marriage, matchmaking and Rural-Urban migration in China

“…The imbalanced sex ratio, mentioned earlier, is another reason for the use of go-betweens. Shortage of women of marriageable age, particularly pronounced in rural areas and exacerbated by the birth-control policy (Chen, 2019), makes the marriage market very competitive for men, as described by this villager:The biggest problem is that there are more men than women in the village. It is hard to find a wife.…”

“…Ironically, many of the big houses are scantly occupied, as migrant workers are away most of the year. Chen (2019) provides two explanations for the phenomenon of building big houses. First, women in marriageable age may be encouraged by their parents to consider the size of a house as her “price.” In other words, if a woman is hotly sought after in the marriage market, she should demand a big house from the prospective husband.…”