Changing roles of marriage and family status for labor migration? The case of rural China

Background: China has witnessed a continuous rise of couple migration and family migration. These migration developments possibly signal individuals’ changing considerations of marital and parenthood responsibilities in their migration decisions over time. Objective: We focus on one specific type of migration, first labor migration, and examine the gender and birth cohort patterns of how marriage and family status are associated with first labor migration among rural-origin Chinese individuals born between 1951 and 2000. Methods: Data are drawn from the 2018 round of the China Household Income Project. We calculate the median values for ages at first labor migration, first marriage, and first childbearing and use discrete-time logistics models to examine the gender and birth cohort differences in how first labor migration is related to marriage and family status. Results: First labor migration is negatively related to marriage and family status for both genders. The pattern of parents’ lower migration risk is more marked among mothers than among fathers. Over birth cohorts, a lower risk of first labor migration is observed among both fathers and mothers. A cohort trend toward lower risk of first labor migration is observed for married individuals but among women only. Contribution: Using a precise definition of migration and a sample not conditional on migration outcomes, we have demonstrated Chinese individuals’ changing patterns of life course events across birth cohorts and showed that the negative relationships between marital as well as childbearing responsibilities and first labor migration have grown stronger over birth cohorts, especially among women.