IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v16y2024i17p7375-d1465027.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Impact of Public Health Emergencies on the Willingness of Rural Migrant Workers to Return Home: Evidence from China

Author

Listed:
  • Chuanfeng Xie

    (School of Geographical Sciences, Southwest University, Chongqing 400715, China)

  • Tao Li

    (School of Geographical Sciences, Southwest University, Chongqing 400715, China)

  • Heping Liao

    (School of Geographical Sciences, Southwest University, Chongqing 400715, China)

  • Xinan Chen

    (School of Geographical Sciences, Southwest University, Chongqing 400715, China)

  • Tingting Zhou

    (School of Geographical Sciences, Southwest University, Chongqing 400715, China)

Abstract

In 2022, under the combined influence of the COVID-19 pandemic and the economic downturn. The employment landscape is grim, particularly for rural migrant workers, who are under immense pressure to secure employment. This study used structural equation modeling and bootstrapping methods to identify the influencing factors of migrant workers’ willingness to return home during public health emergencies and the potential multiple causal relationships, based on 2879 questionnaires on the employment status of migrant workers who are from Chongqing in 2022. The result of this study will be used as a reference by policymakers to formulate employment policies. The results show that: (1) Public health emergencies have no discernible direct impact on people’s willingness to return home. However, they have a significant positive effect on hometown belongings and a significant negative effect on income level and employment stability. These effects are ranked in order of influence: sense of belonging to hometown > income level > employment stability. (2) The willingness to return home is significantly impacted negatively by employment stability and income level, but it is significantly positively impacted by hometown belonging, with employment stability having the biggest impact. (3) There is a substantial inverse relation between income level and sense of belonging to hometown; the higher the income level, the stronger the capacity to withstand outside threats, and the greater the propensity to remain employed. (4) Three pathways exist by which public health emergencies affect migrant workers’ willingness to return home: “PHE→ES→HI”, “PHE→IL→HI”, and “PHE→ES→IL→HI”. (5) Income level and employment stability have multiple chain’mediating effects between public health emergencies and the willingness to return home, while only income level plays a partial mediating role between employment stability and the willingness to return hometown.

Suggested Citation

  • Chuanfeng Xie & Tao Li & Heping Liao & Xinan Chen & Tingting Zhou, 2024. "Impact of Public Health Emergencies on the Willingness of Rural Migrant Workers to Return Home: Evidence from China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(17), pages 1-20, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:16:y:2024:i:17:p:7375-:d:1465027
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/16/17/7375/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/16/17/7375/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Yumei Zhang & Yue Zhan & Xinshen Diao & Kevin Z. Chen & Sherman Robinson, 2021. "The Impacts of COVID‐19 on Migrants, Remittances, and Poverty in China: A Microsimulation Analysis," China & World Economy, Institute of World Economics and Politics, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, vol. 29(6), pages 4-33, November.
    2. Todaro, Michael P, 1969. "A Model for Labor Migration and Urban Unemployment in Less Developed Countries," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 59(1), pages 138-148, March.
    3. Yixuan Du & Zhe Zhao & Shuang Liu & Zhihui Li, 2023. "The Impact of Agricultural Labor Migration on the Urban–Rural Dual Economic Structure: The Case of Liaoning Province, China," Land, MDPI, vol. 12(3), pages 1-15, March.
    4. Zhang, Linxiu & Huang, Jikun & Rozelle, Scott, 2002. "Employment, emerging labor markets, and the role of education in rural China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 13(2-3), pages 313-328.
    5. Ha Thi Thu Bui & Duc Minh Duong & Thanh Quoc Pham & Tolib Mirzoev & Anh Thi My Bui & Quang Ngoc La, 2021. "COVID-19 Stressors on Migrant Workers in Vietnam: Cumulative Risk Consideration," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(16), pages 1-15, August.
    6. Denise Hare, 1999. "'Push' versus 'pull' factors in migration outflows and returns: Determinants of migration status and spell duration among China's rural population," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 35(3), pages 45-72.
    7. Lei Niu & Lulu Yuan & Zhongmin Ding & Yifu Zhao, 2023. "How Do Support Pressure and Urban Housing Purchase Affect the Homecoming Decisions of Rural Migrant Workers? Evidence from Rural China," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 13(8), pages 1-28, July.
    8. John Knight & Lina Song, 2003. "Chinese Peasant Choices: Migration, Rural Industry or Farming," Oxford Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 31(2), pages 123-148.
    9. James P. LeSage & R. Kelley Pace, 2008. "Spatial Econometric Modeling Of Origin‐Destination Flows," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 48(5), pages 941-967, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Vendryes, Thomas, 2011. "Migration constraints and development: Hukou and capital accumulation in China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 22(4), pages 669-692.
    2. SHI, Xiaoping & Heerink, Nico & Qu, Futian, 2007. "Choices between different off-farm employment sub-categories: An empirical analysis for Jiangxi Province, China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 18(4), pages 438-455.
    3. Dong, Qi & Murakami, Tomoaki & Nakashima, Yasuhiro, 2018. "Modeling the Labor Transfers from the Agricultural Sector to the Non-agricultural Sector under Food Supply Constraint in China," 2018 Annual Meeting, August 5-7, Washington, D.C. 274161, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    4. Gabriel Lyrio de Oliveira & André Luis Squarize Chagas, 2020. "Effects of a cash transfer programme on origin–destination migration flows," Regional Science Policy & Practice, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 12(1), pages 83-104, February.
    5. Chang, Hongqin & Dong, Xiao-yuan & MacPhail, Fiona, 2011. "Labor Migration and Time Use Patterns of the Left-behind Children and Elderly in Rural China," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 39(12), pages 2199-2210.
    6. Sanghamitra Bandyopadhyay & Elliott Green, 2018. "Urbanization and mortality decline," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 58(2), pages 483-503, March.
    7. Maëlys de La Rupelle & Deng Quheng & Li Shi & Thomas Vendryes, 2009. "Land rights insecurity and temporary migration in rural China," Working Papers halshs-00575041, HAL.
    8. Yang Cheng & Yuxia Lv & Mark Rosenberg & Linke Hou, 2018. "Decision Making of Non-Agricultural Work by Rural Residents in Weifang, China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(5), pages 1-15, May.
    9. Sylvie Démurger, 2012. "Mapping Modes of Rural Labour Migration in China," Working Papers halshs-00695632, HAL.
    10. Adriana Ana Maria Davidescu & Vasile Alecsandru Strat & Raluca Mariana Grosu & Ion-Daniel Zgura, 2017. "Determinants of Romanians' Migration within the European Union: Static and Dynamic Panel Gravity Approaches," The AMFITEATRU ECONOMIC journal, Academy of Economic Studies - Bucharest, Romania, vol. 19(46), pages 621-621, August.
    11. Zhong Zhao, 2005. "Migration, Labor Market Flexibility, and Wage Determination in China: A Review," Labor and Demography 0507009, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    12. Avato, Johanna, 2009. "Migration pressures and immigration policies : new evidence on the selection of migrants," Social Protection Discussion Papers and Notes 52449, The World Bank.
    13. Yuling Cui & Daehoon Nahm & Massimiliano Tani, 2017. "Employment Choice And Ownership Structure In Transitional China," The Singapore Economic Review (SER), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 62(02), pages 325-344, June.
    14. Ding, Sai & Dong, Xiao-Yuan & Maurer-Fazio, Margaret, 2016. "How Do Pre-School and/or School-Age Children Affect Parents' Likelihood of Migration and Off-Farm Work in Rural China's Minority Regions?," IZA Discussion Papers 10073, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    15. Delbecq, Benoit A. & Waldorf, Brigitte S., 2010. "Going West In The European Union: Migration And Eu Enlargement," Working papers 58946, Purdue University, Department of Agricultural Economics.
    16. Zhang, Kevin Honglin & Song, Shunfeng, 2003. "Rural-urban migration and urbanization in China: Evidence from time-series and cross-section analyses," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 14(4), pages 386-400.
    17. Liu, Zhiqiang, 2008. "Human capital externalities and rural-urban migration: Evidence from rural China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 19(3), pages 521-535, September.
    18. Guangzhong Cao & Ming Li & Yan Ma & Ran Tao, 2015. "Self-employment and intention of permanent urban settlement: Evidence from a survey of migrants in China’s four major urbanising areas," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 52(4), pages 639-664, March.
    19. Biliang Hu, 2008. "People's Mobility and Guanxi Networks: A Case Study," China & World Economy, Institute of World Economics and Politics, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, vol. 16(5), pages 103-117, September.
    20. Giles, John, 2006. "Is life more risky in the open? Household risk-coping and the opening of China's labor markets," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 81(1), pages 25-60, October.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:16:y:2024:i:17:p:7375-:d:1465027. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.