IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/socpsy/v54y2008i2p131-143.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Resilience of Migrant Workers in Shanghai China: the Roles of Migration Stress and Meaning of Migration

Author

Listed:
  • Daniel Fu Keung Wong

    (Department of Social Work and Social Administration, University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, dfkwong@hkucc.hku.hk)

  • He Xue Song

    (Department of Social Work, East China University of Science and Technology, China)

Abstract

Background: In China, more than 10 million rural migrants move to cities every year. Because of the Household Registration System, migrant workers are not entitled to subsidised housing, education, social security or medical benefits. Aims: Using a resilience perspective, this study attempted to explore not only the migration stress that is experienced by migrant workers, but also the protective function of meaning of migration in helping migrant workers withstand the stress of migration. Method: A survey design with multistage cluster sampling was used and 475 migrant workers were recruited. The questionnaire contained demographic data, the Brief Symptom Inventory, a migration stress scale and meaning of migration scale. Results: Financial and employment difficulties stood out as the most stressful issues for migrant workers. More financial and material gains and personal aspirations and achievement were the most common reasons for living in Shanghai. Regression analyses revealed that financial and employment difficulties and interpersonal tensions and conflicts significantly predicted the mental health of both male and female migrant workers. In addition, while marital status significantly predicted the mental health of male migrant workers, the subscale `more financial and material gains' in the meaning of migration scale predicted the mental health of female migrant workers. Finally, there was a moderating effect of meaning of migration on the mental health of female migrant workers. Conclusion: There is a need to consolidate and develop policies to protect the rights of migrant workers in China. Mental health counselling for migrant workers who are experiencing difficulties living in Shanghai should be introduced.

Suggested Citation

  • Daniel Fu Keung Wong & He Xue Song, 2008. "The Resilience of Migrant Workers in Shanghai China: the Roles of Migration Stress and Meaning of Migration," International Journal of Social Psychiatry, , vol. 54(2), pages 131-143, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:socpsy:v:54:y:2008:i:2:p:131-143
    DOI: 10.1177/0020764007083877
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0020764007083877
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/0020764007083877?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. 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.
    2. Ya Ping Wang & Alan Murie, 2000. "Social and Spatial Implications of Housing Reform in China," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 24(2), pages 397-417, June.
    3. Robyn Iredale & Naren Bilik & Wang Su & Fei Guo & Caroline Hoy, 2001. "Contemporary Minority Migration, Education and Ethnicity in China," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 2170.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Nabila El-Bassel & Louisa Gilbert & Stacey A Shaw & Gaukhar Mergenova & Assel Terlikbayeva & Sholpan Primbetova & Xin Ma & Mingway Chang & Leyla Ismayilova & Tim Hunt & Brooke West & Elwin Wu & Chris , 2016. "The Silk Road Health Project: How Mobility and Migration Status Influence HIV Risks among Male Migrant Workers in Central Asia," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 11(3), pages 1-16, March.
    2. Jin, Lei & Wen, Ming & Fan, Jessie X. & Wang, Guixin, 2012. "Trans-local ties, local ties and psychological well-being among rural-to-urban migrants in Shanghai," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 75(2), pages 288-296.
    3. Yan Guo & Xinguang Chen & Jie Gong & Fang Li & Chaoyang Zhu & Yaqiong Yan & Liang Wang, 2016. "Association between Spouse/Child Separation and Migration-Related Stress among a Random Sample of Rural-to-Urban Migrants in Wuhan, China," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 11(4), pages 1-13, April.
    4. Liu He & Hamedi Bin Mohd Adnan & Ali Fauzi & Muhamad Shamsul Ibrahim, 2024. "The effect of social media engagement on social integration of elderly migrants in China: the mechanism of perceived social support and psychological resilience," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 11(1), pages 1-17, December.
    5. Xiaohong Pan & Yingying Zhu & Qing Wang & Hui Zheng & Xin Chen & Jing Su & Zhihang Peng & Rongbin Yu & Ning Wang, 2013. "Prevalence of HIV, Syphilis, HCV and Their High Risk Behaviors among Migrant Workers in Eastern China," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 8(2), pages 1-9, February.

    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. Daniel Fu Keung Wong & Yingli Chang & Xuesong He & Qiaobing Wu, 2010. "The Protective Functions of Relationships, Social Support and Self-Esteem in the Life Satisfaction of Children of Migrant Workers in Shanghai, China," International Journal of Social Psychiatry, , vol. 56(2), pages 143-157, March.
    2. Mingxing Chen & Yuan Zhou & Xinrong Huang & Chao Ye, 2021. "The Integration of New-Type Urbanization and Rural Revitalization Strategies in China: Origin, Reality and Future Trends," Land, MDPI, vol. 10(2), pages 1-16, February.
    3. GAO Tianming & Anna Ivolga & Vasilii Erokhin, 2018. "Sustainable Rural Development in Northern China: Caught in a Vice between Poverty, Urban Attractions, and Migration," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(5), pages 1-20, May.
    4. Veena Ramachandran, 2017. "Redefining China’s Xinjiang policy: Rhetoric or reality?," International Area Studies Review, Center for International Area Studies, Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, vol. 20(3), pages 273-290, September.
    5. Tuo Shi & Yuanman Hu & Miao Liu & Chunlin Li & Chuyi Zhang & Chong Liu, 2020. "How Do Economic Growth, Urbanization, and Industrialization Affect Fine Particulate Matter Concentrations? An Assessment in Liaoning Province, China," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(15), pages 1-14, July.
    6. Zhen Yang & Jun Lei & Jian-Gang Li, 2019. "Identifying the Determinants of Urbanization in Prefecture-Level Cities in China: A Quantitative Analysis Based on Spatial Production Theory," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(4), pages 1-18, February.
    7. Yingjie Zhang & Siqi Zheng & Yan Song & Yongguang Zhong, 2016. "The Spillover Effect of Urban Village Removal on Nearby Home Values in Beijing," Growth and Change, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 47(1), pages 9-31, March.
    8. Jin Zhang and David C. Broadstock, 2016. "The Causality between Energy Consumption and Economic Growth for China in a Time-varying Framework," The Energy Journal, International Association for Energy Economics, vol. 0(China Spe).
    9. Chen, Quanrun & Dietzenbacher, Erik & Los, Bart, 2015. "The effects of ageing and urbanization on China's future population and labor force," Research Report 15002-GEM, University of Groningen, Research Institute SOM (Systems, Organisations and Management).
    10. Mary-Françoise Renard & Zelai Xu & Nong Zhu, 2011. "Migration, urban population growth and regional disparity in China," CERDI Working papers halshs-00556981, HAL.
    11. Marco G. Ercolani & Zheng Wei, 2010. "An Empirical Analysis of the Lewis-Ranis-FEi Theory of Dualistic Economic Development for China," Discussion Papers 10-06, Department of Economics, University of Birmingham.
    12. Xiang Kang & Mingxi Du & Siqin Wang & Haifeng Du, 2022. "Exploring the Effect of Health on Migrants’ Social Integration in China," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(8), pages 1-20, April.
    13. Zhang Jingchao & Koji Kotani & Tatsuyoshi Saijo, 2021. "Are societies becoming proself? A topographical difference under fast urbanization in China," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 23(9), pages 12976-12993, September.
    14. Dong, Xiao-Ying & Hao, Yu, 2018. "Would income inequality affect electricity consumption? Evidence from China," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 142(C), pages 215-227.
    15. Wang, Xiaobing & Yamauchi, Futoshi & Otsuka, Keijiro & Huang, Jikun, 2016. "Wage Growth, Landholding, and Mechanization in Chinese Agriculture," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 86(C), pages 30-45.
    16. Kato, Takao & Shu, Pian, 2016. "Competition and social identity in the workplace: Evidence from a Chinese textile firm," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 131(PA), pages 37-50.
    17. Jiachen Ning & Pingyu Zhang & Qifeng Yang & Zuopeng Ma, 2023. "Spatial Pattern of Farmland Transfer in Liaoning Province, China," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 13(7), pages 1-19, July.
    18. Jason Gagnon & Theodora Xenogiani & Chunbing Xing, 2009. "Are all Migrants Really Worse off in Urban Labour Markets?: New empirical evidence from China," OECD Development Centre Working Papers 278, OECD Publishing.
    19. Haining Wang & Fei Guo & Zhiming Cheng, 2015. "A distributional analysis of wage discrimination against migrant workers in China’s urban labour market," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 52(13), pages 2383-2403, October.
    20. Wenjie Wu & Jianghao Wang, 2017. "Gentrification effects of China’s urban village renewals," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 54(1), pages 214-229, January.

    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:sae:socpsy:v:54:y:2008:i:2:p:131-143. 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: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    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.