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What Influences Philanthropic Participation by Chinese Internal Immigrants: Research Based on the Perspective of Integration

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Abstract

Philanthropic participation is a stepping stone to integration for immigrants. However, the philanthropic participation behavior of Chinese internal immigrants, the largest immigrant group in the world, is not well understood. Data from the Special Survey on Social Integration and Mental Health of the Chinese Immigrant Population are employed to examine philanthropic participation among Chinese internal immigrants based on the perspective of integration. The study demonstrates that Chinese internal immigrants are less likely to engage in philanthropic activities than non-immigrants in China. The regression results suggest that, with the exception of social security, integration factors at the economic level are not important drivers to participate in philanthropic activities, while integration factors at the social, psychological and cultural levels, including social networks, social identity and acculturation, are positively related to philanthropic participation. In addition, social integration circumstances, including perceived inclusion and community services, are significant drivers of immigrants’ philanthropic participation. These findings improve our understanding of the philanthropic behaviors of Chinese internal immigrants and have important policy implications for government and NPO to promote immigrants’ philanthropic engagement.

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Notes

  1. China's social security system is mainly composed of four parts: social welfare, social insurance, social assistance and special care and placement system, among which social insurance plays a core role in the whole social security system. Social insurance is a type of social and economic system that provides income or compensation to people who have lost their ability to work, temporarily lost their jobs or lost their health. It mainly includes endowment insurance, medical insurance, unemployment insurance, work injury insurance and maternity insurance.

  2. In 2014, the National Population and Family Planning Commission of China also conducted the Special Survey on Social Integration and Mental Health of the Chinese Registered Population. According to this survey data, approximately 27% of non-immigrants in China participated in philanthropic activities.

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Funding

Funding was provided by Guangzhou Social Science Fund (CN) (Grant No. 2018GZGJ38) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 71673091).

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  1. School of Public Management, South China Agricultural University, 483 Wushan Road, Tianhe District, Guangzhou, 510642, People’s Republic of China

    Zhiming Liu & Haiwei Jia

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  1. Zhiming Liu
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  2. Haiwei Jia
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Correspondence to Haiwei Jia.

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Liu, Z., Jia, H. What Influences Philanthropic Participation by Chinese Internal Immigrants: Research Based on the Perspective of Integration. Voluntas 31, 390–403 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11266-019-00166-9

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