DISEÑO DE LA ASIGNATURA

More than thirty years after economic reform, the obstacles to internal migration from villages to cities in the PRC caused by hukou system have gradually loosened. In 2010, Chinese non-agricultural household registration accounted for 34.17 percent of the population of the country, while those living in urban areas for more than half a year accounted for 49.68 percent, a difference of 15.51 percent (Qiu, 2013). The National Bureau of Statistics reported 242 million migrants in 2010 and 253 million in 2011. The 2012 National Survey of Migrant Workers Supervision reported the total number of migrant workers in 2012 in the PRC reached 262.61 million people, with roughly 16 million migrant workers working outside their counties, of which only over three million (less than one fifth) left their county with their entire family (National Bureau of Statistics of China, 2013). The number of internal rural-urban migrants in China was 270 million in 2013 and higher than the 232 million international migrants.

Meng (2014) in her dissertation of Feminization of Agricultural Production in Rural China, had a relative well-round literature review on migration including the definition of migration, the reasons for the engagement of people in the labour migration at the macro and micro level. the strong impact of culture on migration. Migration as a reflection of dysfunctional social or institutional arrangement at the macro level, migration as a household strategy and it is not just an individual choice. The importance of understanding the reasons behind those stay behind. A gender difference in migration in China with women normally stay behind in the village.

115 Due to institutional reasons (see 2.1.), namely the hukou and HRS, Chinese migration remains temporary, with rural households retaining members and agricultural land in their ancestral villages (Mu & de Walle, 2011). With a large number of rural Chinese men working away from home for long periods until they reach late middle age, rural women, usually fresh out of middle school, also migrate. However, in their early twenties, they normally return to the countryside to get married (Fan,2003). After marriage and childbirth, some women may return to off-farm employment (Ministry of Agriculture, 2013).

Figure 5-1. The Left-behind Elderly and Children in Rural China

Source: (Chinadaily, 2011, September 2)

With no access to urban public service due to one’s rural hukou, migrant workers’ wives have to stay at home to raise their children and take care of their parents and in-laws. Starting in 2000, the number of left-behind rural women15_{, or using a specific Chinese term Liushou}

116 women keeps increasing. According to Liang, Tang, and Huo (2014), Liushou women has increased significantly and continues to increase each year. In 2000, the total number reached 13 million. By 2004, it increased to 43.1 million and, in 2005, it went over 47 million women. The estimated number of left-behind rural women in 2011 was over 50 million. The re-allocation of traditional farm labour among women and the elderly during China's rapid economic development has been substantial and appears to be a persistent effect. Figure5-1 and Figure 5-2 using empty stools to represent the family members who have gone out of rural hometowns and migrate to cities to find off-farm employment, show the impact of the unprecedented migration on PRC’s rural area and its aging farming and feminization of

agriculture.

Figure 5-2. Left-behind Rural Women in China

Source: (Chinadaily, 2011, September 2)

However, the feminizing and aging of farming in China also has two sides: on the positive

Brauw, Huang, Zhang, & Rozelle, 2012), Alan de Brauw, Li, Liu, Rozelle, and Zhang (2008) find no evidence that the proportion of hours put into farming by women is rising.

117 side, it has created a precondition for land transfer and a moderate scale of farming. On the negative side, Chinese rural women and the rural elderly tend to shoulder the agricultural production for this most populous country; however, their voices are seldom heard, and their productive potential remains low.

Lots of domestic study supports the view that most female migrants are very young. A study done in the typical migrant areas of Sichuan and Anhui showed that most migrant women were between 23.1 and 27.9 years old (Y. Jin, 2001). Li’s research is similar to Jin’s findings,

claimed that over 60 percent of migrant women were under twenty-five years old (Shi, 2001). L. Zhang, de Brauw, and Rozelle (2004) claim both men and women in the 16- to 20-year-old age groups have similar off-farm participation rates (about 75%), specifically, the majority of young women who work off-farm in 2000 do not work on the farm (59%). Similarly,

education figures as another significant factor in women’s off-farm employment. Migrants are widely acknowledged as being generally better educated than the rural labour force (Jacka & Arianne, 2004; Song et al., 2009). It is said that more education usually means greater human capital and increased confidence as well as stronger bargaining power in society and the family (Song et al., 2009). Zhu (2002) finds that education only plays a positive role for males, but not for females.

For most rural women, marriage is synonymous with the termination of migrant work and a return to the village. Thus, older and married women continue to stay behind in rural areas (Fan, 2003). Su and Liu (2003) find that married rural women’s migration possibilities were

23.76 percent lower than those for single ones. This could be explained as a consequence of greater family responsibilities, such as the presence of pre-school children or children in the primary or junior middle schools that reduced their likelihood of migration (Li & Zahniser,

118 2002), and more rigid social norms faced by married rural women.

However, the relationship between rural women’s marital status and migration decisions can

change over time (Jacka & Arianne, 2004; Song et al., 2009). Song, Zheng, and Qian (2009)

argue that marriage does not have a significant negative effect on women’s migration

decisions, and Mu and de Walle (2011) also claim that, controlling for age, marital status is not a significant determinant. Split by the Hukou system, migrant workers as a whole were being discriminated against, segregated, and harassed (Jiang, 2003; Li, 2003), and were the most impoverished and vulnerable group in urban communities, yet the female migrant

workers’ situation is even worse (Song et al., 2009).

Most of the time, female migrant workers had to accept the urban residents’ unwanted, dirty,

difficult, and dangerous jobs. Meanwhile, they have to change their jobs frequently, with little advancement in their careers, income, and social status (Zhang, 1999). To keep their hard-earned jobs, they often have to work overtime without extra pay, which sometimes endangers their health and even their lives (Tan, 2005). When all other conditions are equal, female migrant workers still earn less than their male counterparts, and the majority of female migrants are under forty years old (Song et al., 2009).

Mu and de Walle (2011) analysed the reasons for lagging female migration. First, market and governmental failures cause various constraints on opportunities binding on women. Second, women are more likely than men to stay behind in rural areas with their families due to gender norms. Meanwhile, the induced migration patterns with women taking responsibility for cooking, looking after children, elderly parents and the farm produce a distorted gender division of labour and excessively gender-differentiated labour markets.

119