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Left-behind children and return migration in China

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  • Sylvie Démurger
  • Hui Xu

Abstract

This paper examines how left-behind children influence migration duration in China. We first present a simple illustrative model that incorporates economic and non-economic motives to migration duration. Using individual data from a survey carried out in Wuwei county (Anhui province) in 2008, we find that migrant parents of children in primary school tend to delay their return, a result we interpret as illustrating the need for migrant parents to accumulate money for their offspring’s education. In contrast, parental time appears substitutable by coresiding grandparents who contribute to delay the parents’ return, especially mothers, when they have children below the age of 12. JEL classification: J61, J13, C41, O53 Copyright Démurger and Xu; licensee Springer. 2015

Suggested Citation

  • Sylvie Démurger & Hui Xu, 2015. "Left-behind children and return migration in China," IZA Journal of Migration and Development, Springer;Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 4(1), pages 1-21, December.
  • Handle: RePEc:spr:izamig:v:4:y:2015:i:1:p:1-21:10.1186/s40176-015-0035-x
    DOI: 10.1186/s40176-015-0035-x
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    Cited by:

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    2. Sylvie Démurger & Hui Xu, 2015. "Left‐Behind Children and Return Decisions of Rural Migrants in China," Post-Print halshs-01159072, HAL.
    3. Akay, Alpaslan & Bargain, Olivier B. & Giulietti, Corrado & Robalino, Juan D. & Zimmermann, Klaus F., 2016. "Remittances and relative concerns in rural China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 37(C), pages 191-207.
    4. Xing, Chunbing & Sun, Yan, 2019. "Economic Opportunities and Gender Equity: The Migration and Education Decisions of Young Women from Rural China," IZA Discussion Papers 12311, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    5. Démurger, Sylvie & Wang, Xiaoqian, 2016. "Remittances and expenditure patterns of the left behinds in rural China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 37(C), pages 177-190.
    6. Sihong Xiong & Ya Wu & Shihai Wu & Fang Chen & Jianzhong Yan, 2020. "Determinants of migration decision-making for rural households: a case study in Chongqing, China," Natural Hazards: Journal of the International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, Springer;International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, vol. 104(2), pages 1623-1639, November.
    7. Anas, Yulia & Alisjahbana, Armida & Purnagunawan, Rd. M. & Fahmi, Mohamad, 2022. "The Effect of Parental Internal Migration on Children’s Education: Evidence from Indonesia," Jurnal Ekonomi Malaysia, Faculty of Economics and Business, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, vol. 56(2), pages 115-127.
    8. Yang, Guanyi & Bansak, Cynthia, 2020. "Does wealth matter? An assessment of China's rural-urban migration on the education of left-behind children," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 59(C).
    9. Connelly, Rachel & Maurer-Fazio, Margaret, 2016. "Left behind, at-risk, and vulnerable elders in rural China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 37(C), pages 140-153.
    10. Minmin Li & Ni Zhu & Lingxia Zeng & Duolao Wang & Shaonong Dang & Victoria Watson & Tao Chen & Zhongqiu Hua & Zhaoqing Li & Yijun Kang & Hong Yan & Chao Li, 2020. "Effect of Parental Migration on the Intellectual and Physical Development of Early School-Aged Children in Rural China," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(1), pages 1-10, January.
    11. Qing Wang & Ting Ren & Ti Liu, 2019. "Training, skill-upgrading and settlement intention of migrants: Evidence from China," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 56(13), pages 2779-2801, October.
    12. Bai, Y. & Wang, W. & Zhang, L., 2018. "How long do returning migrants stay in their home county: Evidence from rural China during 1998 to 2015," 2018 Conference, July 28-August 2, 2018, Vancouver, British Columbia 277380, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    13. Björn NILSSON, 2019. "Education and migration: insights for policymakers," Working Paper 23ca9c54-061a-4d60-967c-f, Agence française de développement.
    14. Ye Ye & Rosmini Omar & Binyao Ning & Hiram Ting, 2020. "Intergenerational Transmission of Occupation: A Qualitative Inquiry into Frontline Factory Workers in China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(20), pages 1-17, October.
    15. Wang, Chunchao & Zhang, Chenglei & Ni, Jinlan & Zhang, Haifeng & Zhang, Junsen, 2019. "Family migration in China: Do migrant children affect parental settlement intention?," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 47(2), pages 416-428.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Return migration; Left-behind children; Discrete-time duration analysis; China;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J61 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers - - - Geographic Labor Mobility; Immigrant Workers
    • J13 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Fertility; Family Planning; Child Care; Children; Youth
    • C41 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Econometric and Statistical Methods: Special Topics - - - Duration Analysis; Optimal Timing Strategies
    • O53 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economywide Country Studies - - - Asia including Middle East

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