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This study uses mixed methodologies to reveal how structural and cultural changes are changing the connotations of home and aging in rural China. Based on surveys (n = 830) and 33 intensive interviews with older migrant workers, this study found that having rural public pensions, adult children living nearby, and owning land in their hometowns were associated with the respondents' desire for aging in place (AIP). Moreover, although the image of the rural home is idyllic, the reality is difficult. Aging migrant workers are gaining a strong sense of financial independence and their children's lack of parental care. The authors argue that having no social-care services, while adult children are rarely available for old-age care, is changing the connotations of AIP in rural China. These social and cultural transformations are making AIP more of a romantic ideal than a practical reality for migrant workers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BackgroundTransforming rural migrant workers’ consumption potential into a consumption booster requires ensuring their equal rights as urban residents. The adequate access to Basic Public Health Services (BPHS) help effectively tackle rural migrant workers’ health challenges and promote the well-being of this vulnerable population. Assessing the welfare effects of BPHS through a consumption perspective offers valuable insights and provides policy implications for enhancing the equity of BPHS and achieving common prosperity.MethodsUtilizing the household-level data from China Migrants Dynamic Survey 2017 (CMDS 2017), this study comprehensively evaluated the effects of BPHS on rural migrant workers’ household consumption by combining the methods of OLS, PSM, and IV.ResultsThe enhancement of BPHS promotes rural migrant workers’ household consumption even after considering endogeneity problems. Mechanism analysis indicates that BPHS imposes its positive effects on rural migrant workers through improving health literacy and increasing citizenization willingness. Furthermore, we identified heterogeneous effects across individual and household characteristics of rural migrant workers, and their flow patterns.ConclusionOur analysis indicates that BPHS plays a greater role in promoting household consumption of socially vulnerable groups, such as trans-provincial migration, rural migrant workers in old generations, and with lower-level income. Overall, these results suggest that the welfare effects of BPHS are inclusive in China.

Talent revitalization is the basis of rural revitalization, and the return of migrant workers to their hometowns is a critical way to improve rural human capital. Based on the perspective of individual–family interaction and collaboration, we constructed a theoretical model for maximizing the net benefits of rural migrant workers. Then, we use it to explore the impact of family support pressure and urban housing purchase on individuals' homecoming decisions. Firstly, we find the odds ratio of migrant workers with support pressure to return home is 14.013 times higher than those without, and the odds ratio of migrant workers with urban housing is 42.94% lower than those without. Secondly, in the process of supporting, the family, as a link between individuals and rural society, can enhance the connection for migrant workers, thus promoting their return behavior. The mediating effect of hometown connection is 1.342, accounting for 50.83% of the total effect. However, buying a house in the city reduces individuals' homecoming behaviors by encouraging "trailing spouse". Thirdly, individuals' homecoming intention is not consistent with their behavior. The moderating effect of a future house purchase plan changes the influence of support pressure on individuals' intention to return home to some extent. Finally, we should further strengthen rural infrastructure construction and elderly care service supply to reasonably guide capable and willing talents to return to the township. This study provides some implications for the revitalization of rural talent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Environmental regulation is an essential policy tool to curb environmental pollution, promote green and low-carbon transformation, and achieve the economic and social benefits of environmental policy under China's strategic goal of high-quality economic development. However, whether environmental regulation will promote rural migrant workers' job quality while improving the environmental quality has become a pivotal issue in achieving this goal. Based on theoretical analysis and data from the 2016–2018 China Migrants Dynamic Survey, this study explored how environmental regulations help solve ecological issues and improve job quality by estimating the influence of environmental regulation on the job quality of rural migrant workers, its mechanisms, and its heterogeneous effects on intergenerational differences based on gender, educational level, and spouse's registered residence. The results showed that environmental regulation significantly improves the job quality of rural migrant workers. This positive effect can be explained by industrial structure upgrading and industrial digital transformation accelerated by environmental policies under China's national economic development strategy. Further analysis indicated that heterogeneity exists between generations. The impact of environmental regulation on the job quality of the traditional generation (i.e., migrant workers born prior to the 1978 economic reform and opening of China) is more significant than that of the new generation (i.e., those born after 1978) for males, undergraduate or junior college educational level, and spouse with a local registered residence. However, environmental regulation substantially affects the job quality of the new generation more than that of the traditional generation in terms of females, educational level of high school or below, and non-local spouses. Our findings have implications for the Chinese government's formulation of differential employment policies for rural migrant workers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Background While reducing inequity in health service utilization is an important goal of China’s health system, it has been widely acknowledged that a huge number of rural migrant workers cannot be effectually protected against risks with the New Rural Cooperative Medical Insurance (NCMS). Method Data of the 2016 China Labor-force Dynamic Survey and the Chinese Urban Statistical Yearbook were used. The multilevel regression approach was implemented with a nationally representative sample of rural migrant workers with NCMS. Our study adopted the concentration index and its decomposition method to quantify the inequality of their health service utilization. Result The multilevel model analysis indicated that impact variables for health service utilization were not concentrated, especially the contextual and individual characteristics. The concentration indices of the probability of two weeks outpatient and the probability of inpatient were -0.168 (95%CI:-0.236,-0.092) and -0.072 (95%CI:-1.085,-0.060), respectively. The horizontal inequality indices for the probability of two-week outpatient and the probability of inpatient were -0.012 and 0.053, respectively. Conclusion The health service utilization of rural migrant workers with NCMS is insufficient. Our study highlighted that substantial inequalities in their health service utilization did exist. In addition, their need of health service utilization increased the pro-poor inequality. Based on the findings, our study offered notable implications on compensation policies and benefit packages to improve the equality among rural migrant workers with NCMS.

Introduction: With the rapid development of China’s “gig economy,” the on-call work model has grown increasingly prevalent in China and has attracted a large number of rural migrant workers with its low employment threshold. However, this irregular employment mode may negatively impact the mental health of workers. Methods: This paper uses an ordinal logistic regression model to study the relationship between Chinese rural migrant workers’ on-call work and their depression. Results: The results showed that after controlling for relevant variables, the odds ratio of depressive mood among rural migrant workers engaged in on-call work was 1.22 (95% CI 1.04–1.43) compared with rural migrant workers who did not need to be on call. In further heterogeneity research, we found that on-call work is more likely to aggravate the depression risk of rural migrant workers who are highly dependent on the internet and have low-wage incomes. Discussion: This research suggests that appropriate measures should be taken to mitigate the negative impact of on-call work on the mental health of rural migrant workers, and more attention needs to be paid to the mental health of lower salaried and gig workers. This paper provides a valuable sample of Chinese rural migrant workers for theoretical research on the relationship between on-call work and mental health and confirms the relationship between the two. These results contribute new ideas to the theory and practice of psychological crisis intervention aimed at Chinese rural migrant workers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the deepening of rural aging and the increasing role of human capital in the non-agricultural employment labor market, this paper uses the data of China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS), ordinary least squares (OLS) and instrumental variable method (IV) to try to examine the impact of rural migrant workers' education on their parents' health. Since a rural family may include more than one child, a sample of migrant workers with a high education level is used in the benchmark regression, and a sample of migrant workers with a low education level is used to test the robustness of the relationship. The results showed that the education of migrant workers had a significant positive impact on parents' health. The sample with the least education was used for the robustness, and the results did not change. The IV-probit method is used to address potential endogeneity, and the results remain stable. Heterogeneity analysis shows that there are significant differences in the impact of migrant workers' education on the health of parents from different groups. This positive effect has a greater impact on the health of parents who are older, less educated, and do not live with their children. Mediation analysis shows that children's economic ability, captured by income and work type, and their parents' health behavior, captured by sleep, alcohol consumption, and physical examinations, mediate this relationship. Thus, migrant workers' education affects their parents' health mainly through relaxing budget constraints and improving their parents' health production efficiency. In addition, this paper also found that education of migrant workers may significantly increase parental depression. Based on the above analysis, this paper argues that increasing investment in rural education is conducive to improving the health of migrant farmers' parents, thereby promoting the transfer of rural labor to non-agricultural industries and cities, curbing the rapid rise in labor costs, and promoting the healthy development of the economy.

Talent revitalization is the basis of rural revitalization, and the return of migrant workers to their hometowns is a critical way to improve rural human capital. Based on the perspective of individual–family interaction and collaboration, we constructed a theoretical model for maximizing the net benefits of rural migrant workers. Then, we use it to explore the impact of family support pressure and urban housing purchase on individuals’ homecoming decisions. Firstly, we find the odds ratio of migrant workers with support pressure to return home is 14.013 times higher than those without, and the odds ratio of migrant workers with urban housing is 42.94% lower than those without. Secondly, in the process of supporting, the family, as a link between individuals and rural society, can enhance the connection for migrant workers, thus promoting their return behavior. The mediating effect of hometown connection is 1.342, accounting for 50.83% of the total effect. However, buying a house in the city reduces individuals’ homecoming behaviors by encouraging “trailing spouse”. Thirdly, individuals’ homecoming intention is not consistent with their behavior. The moderating effect of a future house purchase plan changes the influence of support pressure on individuals’ intention to return home to some extent. Finally, we should further strengthen rural infrastructure construction and elderly care service supply to reasonably guide capable and willing talents to return to the township. This study provides some implications for the revitalization of rural talent.

Previous studies have revealed that stereotyping processes involving negative affective content (e.g., antipathy) can lead to a significant increase in insula activity. However, whether the insula is sensitive to stereotype inconsistency or plays a crucial role in stereotype regulation remains unclear. To help fill this gap, 21 young adults were presented with a modified single-category implicit association test (SC-IAT) that assessed their stereotypes about rural migrant workers. In a within-subjects design, participants completed separate blocks of compatible and incompatible trials, each of which consisted of stereotype-consistent or stereotype-inconsistent trait labels that had a positive or a negative valence. Functional MRI was used to identify specific brain regions associated with negative and positive stereotyping. The behavioral results revealed a typical stereotype regulation effect in which participants responded slower to stereotype-inconsistent condition than stereotype-consistent condition, although such effect was significantly modulated by IAT compatibility, rather than by emotional valence. MRI results revealed that activity in the right insula was significantly sensitive to stereotype regulation processes in negative incompatible tasks, whereas such effect was marginally significant in positive incompatible tasks. Moreover, psychophysiological interaction analyses indicated complex functional connectivity among the right insula and cognitive control regions [e.g., ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (vlPFC) and dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC)], social mentalizing regions [medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC)], and motivation regions (putamen) in the condition where negative stereotypes were violated. Taken together, these findings demonstrate that the right insula serves as a crucial node in regulating implicit stereotyping, particularly in negative stereotyping tasks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: While reducing inequity in health service utilization is an important goal of China's health system, it has been widely acknowledged that a huge number of rural migrant workers cannot be effectually protected against risks with the New Rural Cooperative Medical Insurance (NCMS).Method: Data of the 2016 China Labor-force Dynamic Survey and the Chinese Urban Statistical Yearbook were used. The multilevel regression approach was implemented with a nationally representative sample of rural migrant workers with NCMS. Our study adopted the concentration index and its decomposition method to quantify the inequality of their health service utilization.Result: The multilevel model analysis indicated that impact variables for health service utilization were not concentrated, especially the contextual and individual characteristics. The concentration indices of the probability of two weeks outpatient and the probability of inpatient were -0.168 (95%CI:-0.236,-0.092) and -0.072 (95%CI:-1.085,-0.060), respectively. The horizontal inequality indices for the probability of two-week outpatient and the probability of inpatient were -0.012 and 0.053, respectively.Conclusion: The health service utilization of rural migrant workers with NCMS is insufficient. Our study highlighted that substantial inequalities in their health service utilization did exist. In addition, their need of health service utilization increased the pro-poor inequality. Based on the findings, our study offered notable implications on compensation policies and benefit packages to improve the equality among rural migrant workers with NCMS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research explores Chinese rural migrant workers' perceived value of tourism from a social tourism perspective. The findings are based on 20 semi‐structured interviews and highlight the benefits that tourism can bring to Chinese rural migrant workers. Theoretically, the study led to the developed of a six‐dimension life work social self‐realization emotional epistemic scale that shows Chinese rural migrant workers' perceived value of tourism based on life value, work value, social value, self‐realization value, emotional value, and epistemic value. Practically, the research provides useful suggestions for government on policy development and opportunities for the design of tourism products for Chinese rural migrant workers. This study challenges the existing understanding of perceived value, which has highlighted tourism value from a macro perspective but neglected to look at perceived value on a micro or individual level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As China's urbanization process accelerates, the social integration of its mobile population has attracted increasing attention from researchers. Social participation is crucial for gauging social integration, with group identity and social exclusion as push and pull forces. However, existing studies have predominantly focused on qualitative and regional analyses, failing to capture the broader picture of the mobile population's social participation. The study utilizes data from 169,989 respondents in the 2017 China Migrants Dynamic Survey (CMDS 2017), integrating group identity and social exclusion concepts into a unified analytical framework. It examines their effects on the social participation of the mobile population and tests their interaction between these factors. These findings reveal that group identity significantly enhances social participation. Conversely, social exclusion hinders it. Moreover, group identity and social exclusion interact significantly, affecting social participation. A strong group identity can mitigate the adverse effects of social exclusion, which can diminish the positive impact of group identity. Additionally, the study uncovers intergenerational, working distances, and social strata variations in the effects of group identity and social exclusion on social participation. • First, this study explores the social integration of migrants in China, offering additional research insights. • Second, existing research on migrants' social integration, identity recognition, and social exclusion predominantly utilizes qualitative, regional approaches, lacking empirical analysis leveraging large datasets. This paper aims to fill this methodological gap. • Third, this paper introduces a comprehensive framework that amalgamates group identity and social exclusion to assess social integration and participation. • Enhancing the research framework, the study adopts the "push-pull" dynamic between group identity and social exclusion as its analytical lens. Employing a dataset of 1,699,899 migrant samples, it conducts an empirical analysis to investigate the effects of group identity and social exclusion on social participation among Chinese migrants, including examining their interactive effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study employs the haze data and micro-level data from China Migrant Data Survey to examine the relations of haze pollution, intergenerational migration experience and settlement intentions of rural migrant workers. We identify that there is an inverted-U relationship between haze pollution on rural migrant workers' settlement intention; the threshold for this inverted U-shaped relationship is 31; migrants are more likely to settle while haze pollution grows below the threshold; but they are more likely to leave while haze pollution increases above the threshold. Further, this study finds that intergenerational migration experience increases individual's perception of haze pollution. The results show that the impact of haze pollution on settlement intention of first-time rural migrant workers and those whose parents do not have migration experience is not significant. But the inverted U-shape effect remains significant for individuals with multiple migration experience and those whose parents have migration experience. Finally, compared to migration experience of father, that of mother exerts a more significant impact on individual's perception of haze. • Examining the relations of haze pollution, intergenerational migration experience and settlement intentions of rural migrant workers. • Matching the city-level haze data in China from the database of Earth Observing System Data and Information System (EOSDIS) with that of China Migrants Dynamic Survey (CMDS). • As long as the haze pollution is bearable, rural migrant workers will settle in their destination city in pursuit of economic benefits; once the haze pollution becomes too severe to bear, rural migrant workers will decrease their settlement intention to seek health. • We find that intergenerational migration experience increase individual's perception of haze pollution. • Compared to migration experience of father, that of mother exerts a more significant impact on individual's perception of haze. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Transforming rural migrant workers' consumption potential into a consumption booster requires ensuring their equal rights as urban residents. The adequate access to Basic Public Health Services (BPHS) help effectively tackle rural migrant workers' health challenges and promote the well-being of this vulnerable population. Assessing the welfare effects of BPHS through a consumption perspective offers valuable insights and provides policy implications for enhancing the equity of BPHS and achieving common prosperity., Methods: Utilizing the household-level data from China Migrants Dynamic Survey 2017 (CMDS 2017), this study comprehensively evaluated the effects of BPHS on rural migrant workers' household consumption by combining the methods of OLS, PSM, and IV., Results: The enhancement of BPHS promotes rural migrant workers' household consumption even after considering endogeneity problems. Mechanism analysis indicates that BPHS imposes its positive effects on rural migrant workers through improving health literacy and increasing citizenization willingness. Furthermore, we identified heterogeneous effects across individual and household characteristics of rural migrant workers, and their flow patterns., Conclusion: Our analysis indicates that BPHS plays a greater role in promoting household consumption of socially vulnerable groups, such as trans-provincial migration, rural migrant workers in old generations, and with lower-level income. Overall, these results suggest that the welfare effects of BPHS are inclusive in China., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2024 Pan, Li and Wan.)

Introduction: With the rapid development of China's "gig economy," the on-call work model has grown increasingly prevalent in China and has attracted a large number of rural migrant workers with its low employment threshold. However, this irregular employment mode may negatively impact the mental health of workers., Methods: This paper uses an ordinal logistic regression model to study the relationship between Chinese rural migrant workers' on-call work and their depression., Results: The results showed that after controlling for relevant variables, the odds ratio of depressive mood among rural migrant workers engaged in on-call work was 1.22 (95% CI 1.04-1.43) compared with rural migrant workers who did not need to be on call. In further heterogeneity research, we found that on-call work is more likely to aggravate the depression risk of rural migrant workers who are highly dependent on the internet and have low-wage incomes., Discussion: This research suggests that appropriate measures should be taken to mitigate the negative impact of on-call work on the mental health of rural migrant workers, and more attention needs to be paid to the mental health of lower salaried and gig workers. This paper provides a valuable sample of Chinese rural migrant workers for theoretical research on the relationship between on-call work and mental health and confirms the relationship between the two. These results contribute new ideas to the theory and practice of psychological crisis intervention aimed at Chinese rural migrant workers., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2023 Xu, Wang, Zhang and Jiang.)

With the deepening of rural aging and the increasing role of human capital in the non-agricultural employment labor market, this paper uses the data of China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS), ordinary least squares (OLS) and instrumental variable method (IV) to try to examine the impact of rural migrant workers' education on their parents' health. Since a rural family may include more than one child, a sample of migrant workers with a high education level is used in the benchmark regression, and a sample of migrant workers with a low education level is used to test the robustness of the relationship. The results showed that the education of migrant workers had a significant positive impact on parents' health. The sample with the least education was used for the robustness, and the results did not change. The IV-probit method is used to address potential endogeneity, and the results remain stable. Heterogeneity analysis shows that there are significant differences in the impact of migrant workers' education on the health of parents from different groups. This positive effect has a greater impact on the health of parents who are older, less educated, and do not live with their children. Mediation analysis shows that children's economic ability, captured by income and work type, and their parents' health behavior, captured by sleep, alcohol consumption, and physical examinations, mediate this relationship. Thus, migrant workers' education affects their parents' health mainly through relaxing budget constraints and improving their parents' health production efficiency. In addition, this paper also found that education of migrant workers may significantly increase parental depression. Based on the above analysis, this paper argues that increasing investment in rural education is conducive to improving the health of migrant farmers' parents, thereby promoting the transfer of rural labor to non-agricultural industries and cities, curbing the rapid rise in labor costs, and promoting the healthy development of the economy., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2022 Yang and Fahad.)