The effects of dialect distance on the migrant population’s settlement intentions: evidence from the china migrants dynamic survey

ABSTRACT

Based on the China Migrants Dynamic Survey (2017), this paper investigates whether the different linguistic environments effect migrant happiness and identity, and therefore further affect their settlement intentions. The empirical results show that dialect distance significantly dampens the settlement intentions of the migrant population through inhibiting their sense of urban identity and the social network renewal. This effect is contingent on migrant job types, the degree of Mandarin penetration, and the level of market-orientation in the specific region.

KEYWORDS:

• Migrant population
• dialect distance
• settlement intentions
• social network

JEL CLASSIFICATION:

• J61
• O15

Acknowledgments

We would like to acknowledge the support of the the National Social Science Fund of China [No.20BJL092]; National Natural Science Foundation of China [NO.71803136]; the Guangdong Provincial Department of Education 2017 key platform and scientific research project [NO.2017 GWQNCX058] and the Social Science Fund of Guangdong Province [No. GD19CYJ24].

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Social Science Fund of China [20BJL092]; Social Science Fund of Guangdong Province [GD19CYJ24]; National Natural Science Foundation of China [71803136]; Guangdong Provincial Department of Education 2017 key platform and scientific research project [2017GWQNCX058].