POWRE: Marriage Migration in China: Structure, Agency, and Socialist Transition

University Of California-Los Angeles, Los Angeles CA

Investigators

Abstract

This research will study the processes and determinants of marriage migration in China. Marriage is the most important reason for female migration in that nation, where large proportions of women move over long distances to join their husbands' households upon marriage. This study will investigate macro-level structures, such as sociocultural traditions and legacies of socialist institutions, and micro-level strategies, responses, and processes of decision making, in order to understand the origins and nature of marriage migration. The research will involve analysis of census-type data, as well as in-depth field surveys and interviews, in two villages in western Guangdong and southern Beijing. The research will examine in what ways marriage is transactional and pragmatic, the varied opportunities, constraints, and considerations of men and women, the formation and evolution of social networks that facilitate and encourage marriage migration, and the implications of the above for women's mobility. Much of our knowledge about human migration is drawn from Western market economies. But Asian societies are increasingly mobile and are subject to sociocultural and institutional traditions that are poorly understood and seldom the subject of theory. Existing work on the internal migration of China focuses primarily on work-related migration and rarely differentiates between the movements of men and women. A better understanding of marriage migration in China will help advance our knowledge about the heterogeneity and complexities of human movements. Empirical evidence from this study will demonstrate the importance of integrating migration theory with perspectives on gender, culture, social hierarchy, inequality, and the status, constraints, and strategies of women. Findings from this study will yield insights for the relationships between socialist transition and spatial and social processes, and for hypothesis testing concerning marriage migration and women's mobility in other parts of the world. This research will further Fan's career goal to develop new research areas and methodologies and to prepare to play major leadership roles in the profession. Through this study, she will evaluate if gender, women and feminist perspectives should be central to her future research agenda. She will gain experience in using new qualitative methods such as focus group interviews, and will assess whether these methodologies should constitute new directions in her future research. These career developments may enable her to advance from middle to senior rank in the profession, increase her visibility through international collaborations, and support her goals of promoting diversity in education including studies of underrepresented populations and training of underrepresented students to become prominent scholars.