Regional Identity of Migrant Children in Southern China: Hukou Status and Beyond

Wenyang Su, Chinese University of Hong Kong

This study is to explore whether China’s migrant children assimilate in a segmented way and to what extent the Hukou status matters in the assimilation process. Results show that holding local or urban Hukou indeed leads to higher assimilation. Besides, nativity, a good mastery of the local language, more local friends and less contact with hometowns also increase the sense of belonging to the host society. Moreover, despite the effect of the Hukou status, it isn't the strongest predictor and its effects can be offset by the non-Hukou factors. Furthermore, migrant children with different Hukou statuses may have different probabilities of falling into certain assimilation but the differences in the odds among various Hukou statuses are not necessarily significant. The relative importance of the Hukou status among different assimilation outcomes and to the non-Hukou factors clearly shows the limited and diversified effect of the Hukou status in the assimilation process.