Migration Decision-making: a Case Study of Rural-Urban Labour Migration in Shanxi Province, China linbo Liu Submitted in accordance with the requirements for the degree of PhD The University of Leeds Department of East Asian Studies June, 2007 The candidate confinns that the work submitted is his own and that appropriate credit has been given where reference has been made to the work of others This copy has been supplied on the understanding that it is copyright material and that no quotation from the thesis may be published without proper acknowledgement. Acknowledgements I would like to acknowledge and extend my heartfelt gratitude to the people who have offered me the help over the years that has made the completion of this thesis possible. My first thanks go to my primary supervIsor, Profes~lia Davin, for her continuous, encouragement and support and over the last four years. She helped me select the research topic, and think about my research questions and evidences she read and commented on each draft of the thesis. She also encouraged and advised me about my life in the UK, which was especially of important to me, a foreign student far away from the family and friends. Without her I could not have make finished the thesis. My special thanks also go to my second supervIsor, Professor Flemming Christiansen for his invaluable guidance on my theoretical approach, my fieldwork and the outline of the thesis. His theoretical approaches made me rethink and clarify my ideas. His help greatly improved my work. I am greatly indebted to Mr. Fred Hey and Dr. W Gregg Huff, my supervisor and my tutors during my M.Phil study at the University of Glasgow. They triggered my interest on migration studies and gave me a rigorous training that was also useful for my PhD studies. Dr. Huff suggested that I should study under Prof. Davin at University of Leeds which proved to be a wonderful place for migration research. If it had not been for them, I might not have gone on to doctoral research. In addition, I am grateful to Dr. Yang Lan, Dr. Huang Xiyi, Mr. Li Renqing, Dr. Caroline Rose, Dr. Henrietta Harrison, Dr. Li Ruru and Dr. Luo Qi for their support and warm-hearted encouragement during research at different stages. I would like to express my appreciation to Vue Liming, Wang Liming and Lu Weizhong who helped me to contact my interviewees and arrange interviews. I would like to thank all the interviewees in my fieldwork, who kindly shared their time even in the harvest season and told me their own stories. The Universities' China Committee in London and the Great Britain-China Educational Trust provided the necessary funding for my four-month fieldwork in Shanxi and for writing up thesis respectively. I am very grateful for their help. A number of friends enlivened my life in the UK. Yan Zhiyong, Dr. Xin Cao, Liu Feng, You Van, Dr. Zheng Yunan, Cindy Yang, Zhan Hao, Wu Xin, Wang Hui, Lii Chengguang, Li Xiaorui, Zhao Hui, Zheng Lei and Ye Qing with whom I made friends in Scotland gave me frequent encouragement. In Leeds, Dr. Hsu lui-ying, Dr. Dong lie, Wang lingfang, Zhang Xiaoxin, Zhou Yuanyuan, Ivy Zhang, Grace Yang, Monica Zhang, Li Yigeng, Wang Lin, Cheng Zhang, lackie Xu and his family, gave me great help with daily life. I am deeply indebted to my parents and relatives for their love and encouragement. My dad was deeply involved in my research and often gave me his advices and pushed me forward. My mum gave me unconditional and bountiful emotional support. In addition, I am particularly appreciative of my parents' financial support and for uncomplainingly sparing me from their lives so that I could study abroad for six years. Finally, I am very grateful to Prof. Beverley Hooper and Dr. Heather Xiaoquan Zhang for the invaluable advices during the viva. I thank all of those named above and others too who supported and helped me during my research whom I have not named. II Abstract Rural to urban migration In China from early 1980s has been an important phenomenon influencing China's society, economy and politics. Large scale migration has attracted attention from both scholars and policy makers and has given rise to much debate on questions such as who migrates, why and how do they migrate and what influence will migration have. My study examines labour migration decision-making in Shanxi, a relatively poor province in north China. On the basis of qualitative interviews conducted in villages in Xinzhou, this empirical study explores how individuals make their decisions to migrate from rural to urban areas in relation to three main sets of factors: 1) the costs and benefits of migration 2) the attitudes and norms relevant to migration in rural society and 3) some institutions relevant to migration such as the labour market, social networks and the household. This study reaches the conclusion that rural people make rational migration decisions based not only on their perceptions of the costs and benefits of migration but also influenced by attitudes, norms and institutions. This study not only contributes to knowledge about migration in Shanxi where little study has previously been done but also adds to our understanding of the nature of migration decision­ making. III Contents ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS .................................................................................................................... 1 ABSTRACT ................................................... .-.................................................................................... 111 CONTENTS .......................................................................................................................................... IV LIST OF FIGURES ............................................................................................................................... V LIST OF TABLES ................................................................................................................................ VI GLOSSARY ........................................................................................................................................ VII INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................................................. 1 CHAPTER ONE: LITERATURE REVIEW, THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK AND CONCEPTS ............................................................................................................................................ 6 1.1 LITERATURE REVIEW ................................................................................................................ 6 1.1-1 THEORIES AND MODELS RELATED TO DECISION-MAKING IN MACRO-APPROACHES ....................... 6 1.1-2 THEORIES AND MODELS RELATED TO DECISION-MAKING IN STUDIES USING MICRO-APPROACHES ........................................................................................................................................................... 10 1.1-3 LITERATURE ON CHINA .............................................................................................................. 18 1.2 THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK FOR INDIVIDUAL MIGRATION DECISION-MAKING 24 1.2-1 RATIONAL CHOICE: COST BENEFIT ANALySIS .............................................................................. 24 1.2-2 ATTITUDES AND NORMS ANALYSIS ............................................................................................ 27 1.2-3 THE INSTITUTIONAL APPROACH ................................................................................................. 28 1.3 CONCEPTS .................................................................................................................................... 30 CHAPTER TWO: SHANXI AND FIELDWORK ............................................................................ 32 2.1 GENERAL HISTORICAL BACKGROUND IN SHANXI ...................................................... 32 2.2 MIGRATION IN SHANXI .......................................................................................................... 35 2.3 FIELDWORK CITY AND VILLAGES ..................................................................................... 38 2.4 FIELDWORK METHODS ......................................................................................................... 46 CHAPTER THREE: COSTS OF MIGRATION ............................................................................... 49 3.1 INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................................ 49 3.2. MONETARY COSTS .................................................................................................................. 50 IV 3.2-1 MONETARY COSTS IN CITIES ....................................................................................................... 51 3.2-2 MATERIAL OPPORTUNITY COSTS ................................................................................................ 57 3.3 NONMATERIAL COSTS ........................................................................................................... 64 3.3-1 HARDSHIPS OF WORK AND LIFE IN CITIES ................................................................................... 64 3.3-2 POOR RELATIONSHIPS WITH THE EMPLOYERS AND CITY RESIDENTS ........................................... 68 3.3-3 SECURITY PROBLEMS ................................................................................................................. 70 3.3-4 PSYCHOLOOICAL COSTS OF MIGRATION: BOREDOM, LONELINESS, HOMESICKNESS AND