Spousal-residence separation among Chinese young couples

Spousal migration and married adults' psychological distress in rural China: The roles of intimacy, autonomy and responsibility

Spousal separation due to migration is a prevalent phenomenon in the developing world, but its psychological consequences for left-behind partners are largely understudied. Using data from 2010, 2012 and 2014 China Family Panel Studies (CFPS), this paper first examined whether spousal migration causes rural married adults any psychological distress; this finding was then advanced by testing the mechanisms that could potentially explain the linkage between these two variables. Inverse Probability Weighting (IPW) for multivalued treatment effect models and paired Propensity Score Matching (PSM) have been used to correct the potential selection bias of spousal migration. The results show that prolonged spousal separation through migration increases the depressive symptoms of married adults in rural China, and the detrimental effects on left-behind spouses' psychological well-being can be explained by the reduced level of emotional intimacy between husband and wife, and partially by women becoming the master of the household. Considering that being the master of the household is accompanied by elevated stress levels associated with increasing family responsibilities, further examination showed that economic resources can buffer the negative effect associated with being the master of the household when the spouse migrates. However, we did not find that time use is an effective mechanism to link spousal migration and left-behind spouses' well-being.

Temporary migration and regional development in China

"A new approach to migration in developing countries is used in this paper, which integrates into the migration process the experiences of moving to cities, working in urban areas, and returning to the countryside. As a result, rural labor migration is directly linked to rural development through remittances, as well as through physical and human capital brought back by return migrants. Migration information is mainly drawn from China's 1995 1% National Population Survey.... It has been found that patterns of temporary migration are mainly shaped by the magnetic force of the growth-pole region. Job opportunities created there in labor-intensive industries have attracted large numbers of migrants, first from the surrounding rural areas and then from the peripheral regions, enhancing migration propensity in both areas."

Migration in the urban-rural hierarchy of China: insights from the microdata of the 1987 National Survey

Microdata from the 1987 National Population Survey are used to analyze internal migration in China in the 1980s. The focus is on the impact of migration policies on rural-urban migration. "There are two main findings. First, although the migration policy resulted in a very low migration level and systematic distortions in migration schedules, its encouragement of downward migrations was very ineffective, whereas its control on rural-to-urban migrations was partially weakened by the strong upward aspirations of rural families awakened by recent economic reform. Consequently, net in-migration contributed substantially to the growth both of city and of town populations. Second, although the level of education had a strong positive effect on the migration propensities both of males and of females in general, it had a strong negative effect on the migration propensities of females at the time of marriage, a finding which suggests that the families at subsistence income level tended to marry their daughters to grooms in other communities in order to reduce the risk of familial income shortfalls."

Explaining hierarchical and interprovincial migrations of Chinese young adults by personal factors and place attributes: a nested logit analysis

"This paper uses a two-level nested logit model to explain the inter-stratum (city, town and rural county) and interprovincial migration behaviors of the young adults (aged 17-29) in China during a three-year period (1985-87), based on the micro data of the 1987 National Population Survey. The migration propensity of each person is represented by a departure probability and a destination choice probability. These probabilities are then expressed as functions of personal factors and place attributes. The main findings are that personal factors are of paramount importance in explaining the departure behaviors, and that both departure and destination behaviors responded to market forces in a sensible way, despite government control on territorial movements."