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The Impact of Migration on Fertility under China’s Underlying Restrictions: A Comparative Study Between Permanent and Temporary Migrants

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Abstract

Compared with that in other countries, the issue of fertility in China is more complicated because of its restriction policy or system. Several major hypotheses have been proposed to explain and predict the impact of migration on China’s fertility regardless of China’s real situation. Therefore, this paper analyzes the impact of migration on fertility considering China’s underlying restrictions using the data from the Chinese General Social Survey carried out in 2008. The social class in this study was divided into two, namely urban class and rural class. By building the 2 × 2 mobility tables and the diagonal mobility model, the study determined the impact of migration on fertility and analyzed the influence of some restrictions, such as family planning, traditional fertility concept, and household registration system. Results show that migration greatly affects fertility: upward migration (i.e., from rural to urban) may decrease the fertility, whereas downward migration (i.e., from urban to rural) may increase it. The degree of decline on fertility is greater than that of increase. Family planning still plays a role in fertility decline. Traditional concepts on fertility, for example, bringing up sons to take care of parents in their old age and preferring boys to girls, are anchored on the people’s mind, which is detrimental to the stability of the fertility rate. Moreover, the household registration system primarily influences the fertility behavior of temporary migration, with a negative relationship between them.

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Acknowledgments

This article is supported in part by National Natural Science Foundation General Project (71173099) and National Natural Science Foundation Youth Project (70903002), supported in part by Trans-Century Training Program Foundation for the Talents of Humanities and Social Science by the State Education Commission (NCET-11-0228). We also thanks Yun Yu (graduate student in School of Humanity and Social Science, Nanjing University of Science and Technology) for making substantial contributions for translation and Yan Li (Zhejiang University) for making substantial contributions for data analysis.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Social Work and Social Policy, School of Social and Behavioral Sciences, Nanjing University, Nanjing, 210046, China

    Ying Liang

  2. School of Economics and Management, Nanjing University of Posts and Telecommunications, Nanjing, 210023, China

    Yingying Yi

  3. Department of Public Administration, Nanjing University, Nanjing, 210046, China

    Qiufen Sun

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  1. Ying Liang
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Correspondence to Yingying Yi.

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Liang, Y., Yi, Y. & Sun, Q. The Impact of Migration on Fertility under China’s Underlying Restrictions: A Comparative Study Between Permanent and Temporary Migrants. Soc Indic Res 116, 307–326 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11205-013-0280-4

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