Study Of Rural Female Labor Migration And Its Influencing Factors

Migration of surplus rural labour to the non-farm industries and cities is an inevitable trend in the process of industrialization and modernization. At present, the number of floating population has been as large as 140,000,000, accounting for 10 per cent of the total national population and 30 per cent of the rural labour force. One third of the floating population are women whose number is increasing much faster than that of the male migrants. However, women are facing greater risks when they're making decision on migration. Besides the household registration, which is a hurdle to both rural men and women, rural women have to challenge the traditional gender roles and expectations.They are under the pressure of a dual competition with both rural male and urban female in the labour market and are constrained by the traditional division of labor and power between men and women, and of course by women's unique psychological and physical characteristics. In such a background, any study regarding the determinants of rural women's migration decision-making will produce new theoretical and empirical insights into internal migration in China and hence have pragmatic value for policy makers to improve and protect rural women's rights.The research systematically reviewed the domestic and international literature on the rural labour migration and built a theoretical analysis framework which consisted of theories on human capital, family economics, externality, social capital, life course, social capital and social exclusion. Taking the Yangtze Delta as an example, the research classified the female rural labour into three groups, i.e., migrants, returned migrants and non-migrants to analyze the impact of the individual factors, household factors and institutional factors on their migration decision. The related policy suggestions were put forward based on the research findings.The paper consists of 7 chapters:Chapter 1 "Introduction" expatiated on the significance and objectives of the research on the determinants of the rural women's migration. It identified the definitions of the related concepts, explained the research contents and methods and built a theoretical model based on the economics and sociology. Finally, it introduced the data source, and the innovations and limitations of the research.Chapter 2 "Literature review" systematically reviewed the domestic and international literature on China's labour migration, and classic economic and sociological theories on labour migration.Chapter 3 "Background and status quo of rural labor migration" introduced the background and status quo of rural labor migration from five perspectives including rural-urban income gap, surplus rural labor, urbamzation, migrant wave and migrant labor shortage.Chapter 4 "Background and status quo of female rural labor migration in the Yangtze Delta" introduced the background and status quo of female rural labor migration in the Yangtze Delta. Based on the interview materials, it analyzed the migration decision of rural women, and the impact of their decisions on their life.Chapter 5 "Impact of rural women's individual factors and household factors on their migration" analyzed the impact of rural women's individual and household factors including age, education, skills, marriage, children on their migration decision with a Probit model, and made a comparative study of the migrants, returned migrants and non-migrants from the perspective of age, education, skills, marriage, number of children, pre-school children, children in the primary or secondary schools, social networks. It also made a theoretical explanation of the above factors with the theories of human capital, life course, family economics and social capital.Chapter 6 "Impact of institutional factors on the migration of the female rural labour" analyzed the impact of 9 institutions on the migration of female rural labour from the perspective of social exclusion and externality. The 9 institutions included household registration system, urbanization system, birth planning system, compulsory education system, land contract system, farmer training system, social security system and gender norms.Chapter 7 "Conclusions and policy implications" summarized the research findings of the research and put forward related policy suggestions.