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Migration, environmental hazards, and health outcomes in China

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  • Chen, Juan
  • Chen, Shuo
  • Landry, Pierre F.

Abstract

China's rapid economic growth has had a serious impact on the environment. Environmental hazards are major sources of health risk factors. The migration of over 200 million people to heavily polluted urban areas is likely to be significantly detrimental to health. Based on data from the 2009 national household survey “Chinese Attitudes toward Inequality and Distributive Injustice” (N = 2866) and various county-level and municipal indicators, we investigate the disparities in subjective exposure to environmental hazards and associated health outcomes in China. This study focuses particularly on migration-residency status and county-level socio-economic development. We employ multiple regressions that account for the complex multi-stage survey design to assess the associations between perceived environmental hazards and individual and county-level indicators and between perceived environmental hazards and health outcomes, controlling for physical and social environments at multiple levels. We find that perceived environmental hazards are associated with county-level industrialization and economic development: respondents living in more industrialized counties report greater exposure to environmental hazards. Rural-to-urban migrants are exposed to more water pollution and a higher measure of overall environmental hazard. Perceived environmental risk factors severely affect the physical and mental health of the respondents. The negative effects of perceived overall environmental hazard on physical health are more detrimental for rural-to-urban migrants than for urban residents. The research findings call for restructuring the household registration system in order to equalize access to public services and mitigate adverse environmental health effects, particularly among the migrant population.

Suggested Citation

  • Chen, Juan & Chen, Shuo & Landry, Pierre F., 2013. "Migration, environmental hazards, and health outcomes in China," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 80(C), pages 85-95.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:80:y:2013:i:c:p:85-95
    DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2012.12.002
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Xepapadeas, Anastasios, 2005. "Economic growth and the environment," Handbook of Environmental Economics, in: K. G. Mäler & J. R. Vincent (ed.), Handbook of Environmental Economics, edition 1, volume 3, chapter 23, pages 1219-1271, Elsevier.
    2. Landry, Pierre F. & Shen, Mingming, 2005. "Reaching Migrants in Survey Research: The Use of the Global Positioning System to Reduce Coverage Bias in China," Political Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 13(1), pages 1-22, January.
    3. Chen, Juan, 2011. "Internal migration and health: Re-examining the healthy migrant phenomenon in China," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 72(8), pages 1294-1301, April.
    4. Macintyre, Sally & Ellaway, Anne & Cummins, Steven, 2002. "Place effects on health: how can we conceptualise, operationalise and measure them?," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 55(1), pages 125-139, July.
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    Cited by:

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    2. Audrey Dorélien & Hongwei Xu, 2020. "Estimating rural–urban disparities in self-rated health in China: Impact of choice of urban definition," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 43(49), pages 1429-1460.
    3. Tian, Zhihua & Tian, Yanfang & Shen, Liangping & Shao, Shuai, 2021. "The health effect of household cooking fuel choice in China: An urban-rural gap perspective," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 173(C).
    4. Juan Chen & Shuo Chen & Pierre F. Landry, 2015. "Urbanization and Mental Health in China: Linking the 2010 Population Census with a Cross-Sectional Survey," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 12(8), pages 1-13, July.
    5. Zhuoran Shan & Hongfei Li & Haolan Pan & Man Yuan & Shen Xu, 2022. "Spatial Equity of PM 2.5 Pollution Exposures in High-Density Metropolitan Areas Based on Remote Sensing, LBS and GIS Data: A Case Study in Wuhan, China," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(19), pages 1-22, October.
    6. Man Yuan & Mingrui Yan & Zhuoran Shan, 2021. "Is Compact Urban Form Good for Air Quality? A Case Study from China Based on Hourly Smartphone Data," Land, MDPI, vol. 10(5), pages 1-14, May.
    7. Huang, Hongfu & Xing, Xinjie & He, Yong & Gu, Xiaoyu, 2020. "Combating greenwashers in emerging markets: A game-theoretical exploration of firms, customers and government regulations," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 140(C).

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