Title: Migration and family living arrangements in China

Speaker: Démurger Sylvie

Abstract: This paper explores the extent and the determinants of various types of family living arrangements for internal migrants in China. Using the 2011 Dynamic Monitoring Survey of Migrant Population in Urban China, we show that 66% of married migrants with children live together with their spouse and children in cities, but a third of them leave their children behind. The decision to leave a child behind is driven by individual preference type factors and job related characteristics, as well as by institutional constraints. Leaving a child behind is not a matter of being rural rather than urban migrant. Having a spouse or a parent in city reduces the probability to leave a child behind, as does a longer experience as a migrant, shorter distance migration, and favorable job characteristics. On the other hand, having more than one child significantly increases the probability to leave them behind, especially for children of school-age, which corroborates the view that institutional constraints related to education strongly affect living arrangement decisions of the migrants.

About Démurger Sylvie: Research Professor, French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS)

Date: Oct, 28th, 2015

Time: 13:30-14:50 PM

Location: Room 608, Academic Hall, CUFE