The Impact of Rural-Urban Migration on Gender Relations of Rural-Urban Migrant Households in China

IntroductionEconomic reform has generated profound social, economic and cultural changes in China since the late 1970s. One of the most important impacts is the influx of peasants into urban areas. According to the latest official census from Ministry of Agriculture of China, the rural-urban migrant population has increased from around two millions in the early 1980s to about 147 millions in 2005 (National Bureau of Statistics in China, 2006). The rapid growth of rural-urban migrant workers is one of the most important factors contributing to the miraculous economic growth of modem China. In recent years, the proportion of children among these populations has increased sharply, which indicates that entire family migration is becoming the primary option of most rural families rather than the migration of individual family members (Duan et al, 2008, Zhou, 2003). Due to the constraint from long-term household registration system and rural-urban dichotomy on employment and social welfare policy, the migrants can only do the low-grade works that are usually dirty, risky and low-income. They have to change their jobs and circulate between rural and urban areas. Therefore they are usually called "floating or circular families. " Understanding life of these families is crucially important for constructing more appropriate rural-urban migration models and perfecting policies with the aim to improve their lives in the city, especially by comparing the change of their life prior and subsequent to migration.In the last few years, the issue of gender has become overwhelming in the literature of migration due to the feminization of migrant labor force in China. As one of the weakest social groups, individual female migrants have aroused wide academic interest in recent years. The research covers a wide range of topics including abuse and exploitation, emotional and psychological distress, voluntary or involuntary choices. However, the family dynamics of migration seem to have received less attention, especially the empirical research on rural-urban migrant households in China. It is assumed here that rural-urban migration of entire families will offer certain opportunities to study the impact of migration on gender relations-it is more so since it is often assumed that gender relations in cities differ from those in the countryside (Xu and Liu, 2003). The circulation status of ruralurban migrant families in present China showed its great uniqueness and it can certainly show its distinguished features from any other type of internal and international migration, which definitely generates significance for further exploration into this topic. Based on this hypothesis, this paper presents data from a research project conducted with 89 rural-urban migrant households in three types who are currently living in the Haidian District, Beijing. Changes in gender relations of the rural-urban migrant households were investigated by comparing the situations prior and subsequent to migration with regard to three aspects: the gendered division of labor, gendered decision-making process and perceived fairness and satisfaction toward their gender relations.Literature reviewGender has been treated as a central organizing principle in migration studies by many scholars. A host of significant topics include how migration has changed the gendered labor markets in sending or receiving areas, how men and women experience migration differently and how this contrast such process as settlement, return, and transmigration were examined among different diasporas (Pessar, 1999) in certain regions. For example, the immigration of Dominican and Colombia immigrants to New York City increased the rate of female labor force participation greatly (Gurak and Kriz,1982); immigrant women are more employable in labor- intensive industries than their male counterparts due to patriarchal assumptions that women can afford to work less-paid, more suited physiologically detailed and routine work (Espiritu, 1997); how the male supremacy-dominated culture reinforces gender discrimination in the enclave labor market (Zhou, 1992; Portes & Jensen, 1989), and so on. …