What Influences The Family Migration Decision of China’s New Generation Rural-urban Migrants? A Multilevel Logistic Regression Analysis

The massive scale of new-generation rural-urban migrants in China has attracted extensive scholarly attention in recent years.While previous studies on China’s rural migrant workers focus on migrants’settlement intentions,migrants’family migration decision-making and the intergenerational differences between the old-generation migrants and new-generation migrants are underexplored.Based on the data of the 2017 China Migrants Dynamic Survey,this paper adopts a multilevel logistic regression approach to explore family and destination factors influencing the family migration decisions of China’s new generation of rural migrant workers.The empirical results reveal that both the migrants’family and destination attributes significantly influence their family migration decision.The demographic and socioeconomic characteristics of the family have been pivotal factors underlying the family migration decision of China’s new generation rural-urban migrants,while 16.9%of the chances are explained by between-destination differences.Self-employed migrants with housing properties in host cities,long migration duration and high-income levels are more likely to migrate with their family members.Yet,the possibility of family migration is found to be significantly and negatively correlated with the age,education level,number of children and inter-provincial mobility of the new generation of migrant workers.In addition,new-generation rural-urban migrants’family migration is more likely to be found in cities with service-oriented industry structures,better environmental quality,and higher hukou barriers which is possibly related to more job opportunities.These research findings not only complement the existing literature on China’s new generation of rural urban migrants,but also have important policy implications for reforming the hukou system and enhancing social integration of the rural-to-urban migrant population.

Subjective Well-being and Family Functioning among Adolescents Left Behind by Migrating Parents in Jiangxi Province, China

We sought to identify the differences between adolescents left behind in their home villages/towns （LBA） and non-left behind adolescents （NLB） on subjective well-being and family functioning due to parental migration in south China. We used a stratified cluster sampling method to recruit middle school students in a city experiencing population-emigration in Jiangxi Province in 2010. Participants included adolescents from families with： （1） one migrant parent, （2） both parents who migrated, or （3） non-left behind adolescents （i.e., no migrant parent）. To determine predictors of subjective well-being, we used structural equation models. Adolescents left behind by both parents （LBB） were less likely to express life satisfaction （P = 0.038） in terms of their environments （P = 0.011） compared with NLB. A parent or parents who migrated predicts lower subjective well-being of adolescents （P = 0.051） and also lower academic performance. Being apart from their parents may affect family functioning negatively from an adolescent＇s viewpoint. Given the hundreds of millions of persons in China, many who are parents, migrating for work, there may be mental health challenges in some of the adolescents left behind.