Suspension 2.0: Segregated Development, Financial Speculation, and Waiting among Resettled Peasants in Urban China

2021 ◽  
Vol 94 (2) ◽  
pp. 347-369
Author(s):  
Yang Zhan
Keyword(s):  
Research Literature ◽  
Urban China ◽  
Rural Land ◽  
Land Dispossession ◽  
State Compensation ◽  
Urban Migrants ◽  
Financial Speculation ◽  
Private Lending ◽  
Development Plans ◽  
Capital Intensive

Since the late 2000s, many rural-to-urban migrants in China have lost their rural land to development plans, resettled in designated areas, and acquired formal urban residency. They stopped migrating, and have apparently ended their life of "suspension," namely protracted mobility. While most existing research literature on this population foregrounds the issue of land dispossession, this article argues that, following resettlement, these former migrants' lives can be more accurately characterized as a state of suspension instead of dispossession. Many resettled young adults, while having secured livelihood thanks to state compensation, are excluded from the technology- and capital-intensive developments to which they have lost their land. Some of these young people instead became petty speculators and rentier capitalists by liquidating their compensated assets through mortgages, private lending, rent, and other financial means. They are constantly waiting for the next investment opportunity and windfall gain. Although physically settled down and economically secure, they remain anxious and unsettled. They continue to orient their lives towards an elusive future rather than striving to transform the here and now, thus living in a state that I call "suspension 2.0."

Women and Self-employment in Post-socialist Rural China: Side Job, Individual Career or Family Venture

2015 ◽  
Vol 221 ◽  
pp. 229-242 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jing Song
Keyword(s):  
Private Sector ◽  
Rural China ◽  
Urban China ◽  
Younger Women ◽  
Self Employment ◽  
Good Mother ◽  
Wage Employment ◽  
Rural Industries ◽  
Capital Intensive ◽  
Depth Interviews

AbstractThe rise of private sector business in urban China has led to more women engaging in low-end self-employment. This study, however, reveals a more complicated story in the countryside. Drawing on in-depth interviews conducted in a Chinese village, this study finds that the women took the lead in developing sideline self-employment and were then attracted to rural wage employment in the 1980s. With the privatization of rural industries and the rise of capital-intensive self-employment in the 1990s, some women were forced into low-end self-employment, but others were attracted to high-end self-employment, forging individual careers and family ventures. In more recent times, younger women have been more inclined to work on-and-off, balancing self-employment pursuits with the desire to be a good mother. This pattern marks a shift from the continuous multitasking practised by the older generation.

Urban Elites and Income Differential in China: 1988–1995

2004 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 51-68 ◽  
Author(s):  
YANJIE BIAN ◽  
ZHANXIN ZHANG
Keyword(s):  
Research Literature ◽  
Urban China ◽  
Free Entry ◽  
Economic Sectors ◽  
Income Levels ◽  
National Surveys ◽  
Income Differential ◽  
Open Sector ◽  
Urban Elites ◽  
Institutional Contexts

Urban elites and their relative income levels are windows on the emerging socioeconomic order in China. We add to the research literature a new view that economic sectors are the institutional contexts in which different elites seek their material gains. Conducting a trend analysis with 1988 and 1995 national surveys of urban China, we found that political, administrative, and managerial elites maintained consistently higher levels of income relative to professional elites, but this applied mainly to a monopoly sector of industries that were restricted to state operation. Managers in the open industry sector that allowed for free entry and exile experienced income declines relative to professionals within the sector, even though the former had moderately higher income levels than the latter in 1988 and 1995. All elite groups in the monopoly sector retained higher incomes than their counterparts in the open sector in 1995, but not necessarily in 1988.

scholarly journals Associations between Leisure Activities and HIV Risk Behaviors among Rural Migrants in Urban China

2009 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 1-15
Author(s):  
Xinguang Chen ◽  
Xiaoming Li ◽  
Bonita Stanton ◽  
Xiaoyi Fang ◽  
Danhua Lin ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Risk Behavior ◽  
Risk Behaviors ◽  
Hiv Risk ◽  
Leisure Activities ◽  
Hiv Risk Behaviors ◽  
Urban China ◽  
Hiv Risk Behavior ◽  
Influential Factor ◽  
Urban Migrants ◽  
The Impact

Although much has been documented on factors affecting HIV risk behavior among rural-to-urban migrants in China, data are lacking on the impact of leisure activities. In this study, we examined the association between leisure activities and HIV risk behavior among a sample of rural-to-urban migrants from two large cities (Beijing and Nanjing) in China. Cross-sectional data were analyzed for a sample of 4,085 participants aged 18 to 30 years (40.5% females). Findings from the analysis indicated that although the migrants worked long hours, they engaged in a number of activities when they did not work, including watching television (60.2%), reading (59.1%), sleeping (55.6%), and chatting with friends and co-workers (45.0%). Multiple regression analysis indicated that reading, doing chores (females only), listening to radio programs/audio CDs (male only) were associated with reduced likelihood of HIV risk behavior while playing cards in groups, visiting entertaining installments, watching videos (including Xrated, males only), and wondering around (females only) were associated with increased likelihood of HIV risk behavior. Findings of this study suggest that constructive and individualized activities (e.g., reading, listening to radios, and doing chores) may prevent migrants from engage in HIV risk behaviors while group and entertaining activities related to drugs and sex may increase the odds for migrants to engage in HIV risk behaviors. Prevention research should consider leisure activities as both an influential factor (including time trends and gender differences) for program development and an important venue for program delivery.

The Effects of Peer Parental Education on Student Achievement in Urban China: The Disparities Between Migrants and Locals

2021 ◽  
pp. 000283122198965
Author(s):  
Jinho Kim ◽  
Yuying Tong ◽  
Skylar Biyang Sun
Keyword(s):  
Parental Education ◽  
Positive Influence ◽  
Urban China ◽  
Migrant Students ◽  
Positive Effects ◽  
Rural Migrant ◽  
Urban Migrants ◽  
Quasi Experimental ◽  
Local Students ◽  
The Impact

Despite scholarly consensus on the positive influence of peers’ parental education on students’ academic achievement, less is known about whether marginalized students reap similar benefits as their nonmarginalized counterparts. Using data from the China Educational Panel Survey and a quasi-experimental design, we show that the impact of classmates’ parental education on test scores is significantly stronger for local students than for migrant students in urban schools. These differential effects are largely driven by rural-to-urban migrants and not by urban-to-urban migrants. Additionally, we find that rural migrant students benefit less from the positive effects of peer parental education than their local counterparts, especially when their local peers hold higher levels of discriminative attitudes toward rural migrant students in their classes.

scholarly journals Intergenerational co-residence during later life in Europe and China

2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 241-259 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tom Emery ◽  
Pearl A. Dykstra ◽  
Maja Djundeva
Keyword(s):  
Adult Children ◽  
Rural China ◽  
Later Life ◽  
Urban China ◽  
Policy Framework ◽  
Male Adult ◽  
National Differences ◽  
Urban Migrants ◽  
Education Levels ◽  
Lower Education

Individuals in China are much more likely than Europeans to live with their adult children during later life. In this paper, we examine the extent to which this holds true across the diverse contexts and circumstances faced by Europeans and Chinese. We use comparative data from the Survey for Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe and the China Family Panel Studies to examine cross-national differences in whom adults in later life choose to live with. We find that in rural China and among urban migrants there is a tendency to live with higher-educated children, whilst among urban Chinese and Europeans, individuals live with those with lower education levels. We also find that in Europe there is only a small preference for living with male adult children, whilst across China this preference is much stronger. However, we also note that this preference is weakest in urban China. These findings indicate strong differences in co-residence patterns between China and Europe, but also some similarities between specific subpopulations. We explain these differences and similarities using a social policy framework.

scholarly journals City Size and Permanent Settlement Intention: Evidence from Rural-Urban Migrants in China

2022 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 676
Author(s):  
Yanjiao Song ◽  
Nina Zhu ◽  
Feng Luo
Keyword(s):  
Air Pollution ◽  
Social Network ◽  
Negative Impact ◽  
Housing Price ◽  
Probit Model ◽  
Urban China ◽  
City Size ◽  
Urban Migrants ◽  
Permanent Settlement ◽  
Mega Cities

The location choice and livelihoods of rural-urban migrants are critical to the sustainable development of cities. By using data from the China Migrants Dynamic Survey (CMDS) in 2017, this paper extant the Rosen–Roback’s model by adding factors of urban social network and air pollution to the function of the individual utility of migrants. Both the Probit Model and IV estimates imply evidence of an inverse U-shaped pattern of city size and migrants’ permanent settlement in urban China. This view proves that Chinese migrants like to settle permanently in large cities, but not mega-cities, such as Beijing and Shanghai. The internal mechanism is explained by the agglomeration economies and the crowing effect brought by city size. In mega-cities, the attractiveness of the city caused by wage premium cannot offset the combined repulsive force caused by the high housing price, bad urban social network, air pollution, and health deterioration. It is worth noting that air pollution has a significant negative impact on the settlement intention of migrants, such as health conditions and precipitation. Besides, there is heterogeneity among high-skilled migrants and low-skilled migrants in different city sizes. Our findings enhance the understanding of “Escape from megacities” in China and have implications for the reform of the housing security system and the exploration of the urbanization path.

Bolivia’s ambitious development plans face challenges

2021 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Public Investment ◽  
Import Substitution ◽  
Economic Diversification ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Fiscal Constraints ◽  
Policy Orientation ◽  
Development Plans ◽  
Capital Intensive

Significance The strategy, which has attracted criticism from opponents as being overly statist, is based largely on the policy orientation adopted by the Morales administrations between 2006 and 2019. Broadly, it seeks to promote economic diversification and import substitution under the aegis of an interventionist state. Impacts Import substitution will face problems arising from the scale of contraband shipped through neighbouring countries. Most of Bolivia’s main exports are capital intensive, providing only limited employment spin-offs. Fiscal constraints and lower reserves may limit the resources available for public investment.

scholarly journals Social capital and social trust in urban China

2018 ◽  
Vol 4 (4) ◽  
pp. 481-505 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yinxuan Huang
Keyword(s):  
Social Capital ◽  
Social Network ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Social Trust ◽  
Labour Force ◽  
Urban China ◽  
Rural Migrants ◽  
Network Support ◽  
Urban Migrants ◽  
Social Network Support

Owing to the dynamics of internal migration and the hukou system, urban areas in China always consist of a four-tiered structure of urban locals, urban migrants, new urbanites and rural migrants. This paper aims to examine the differences among these four groups in terms of social capital and to explore how the association between social capital and social trust may vary across the four groups. Data are based on the 2014 China Labour-force Dynamics Survey. Our analysis of 7662 responses first indicates that patterns of social capital in the four urban groups appear to be largely distinct. Second, we find a clear rural–urban division in social trust in the Chinese city: rural migrants and new urbanites tend to be less trusting than urban locals and urban migrants. Among the aspects of social capital under consideration, social network support and neighbourhood attachment are associated with higher levels of social trust, whereas the effects of bonding and bridging civic organizations on social trust are relatively weak. However, these patterns indeed tend to vary across the four groups of urban residents in the cases of civic engagement and social network support. Consequently, these findings suggest that the interplay of individuals’ hukou identities and migration experiences in urban China has an important impact on their social connectedness, which also presents distinctive implications for social trust.

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