The urban integration of migrant workers in China: an assimilation–integration pattern

Abstract

Abstracts

The urban integration pattern of migrant workers in China has not been fully articulated. This paper seeks to work out this issue by using the questionnaire survey data from Wuhan, China. Based on social integration theories on international migrants, this paper developed four hypotheses on the urban integration pattern of migrant workers in China, including assimilation, integration, separation, and marginalisation, and examined the four hypotheses. The results show evidence to support both the assimilation and integration hypotheses, but no evidence to support the separation or marginalisation hypotheses. Based on the research findings, this study proposes the assimilation/integration pattern to summarise the urban integration pattern of migrant workers and argues that this pattern should be understood as being based on the social context of China.

中国农民工的城市整合模式暂未得到完全阐述。本论文透过在中国武汉采集的问卷调查数据尝试探讨这个议题。基于国际移民的社会融合理论，本论文提出四个中国农民工城市融合形式的假设，包括同化、融合、分离及边缘化，并分析了四项假设。结果显示，有证据支持同化及融合两项假设，但没有证据支持分离及边缘化两项假设。基于研究结果，本研究指出同化-融合可以总结农民工城市融合的形式，而这两种融合的形式必须放置在中国社会脉络下被理解。

Keywords:

• Urban integration
• rural identity
• urban identity
• migrant worker
• China

Notes

1. The magnitude of migrant workers in 2014 was about 274 million, and the total population of China in 2014 was approximately 1.37 billion. Therefore, migrant workers accounted for about 20% of the entire population in China in 2014.

2. For instance, the number of migrant workers in Shenzhen in 2014 was about 7.46 million, while the resident population of Shenzhen in 2014 was about 10.78 million (Shenzhen Statistics Bureau 2015). Hence, migrant workers accounted for nearly 70% of the total population of Shenzhen.

3. Other migrant workers refer to migrant workers either from the same place, for instance, the same village or province, or migrant workers from different places, for example, other villages or provinces.

4. The average annual wage of workers in non-private work units is 52,387 yuan. Therefore, the monthly salary of workers in non-private work units is calculated as 52,387/12 = 4,366 yuan.