Age at Marriage of Migrant Workers in China

• In Event: 038 - Section on Sociology of Population Roundtables (one-hour)
  In Refereed Roundtable: Table 06. Life Course Events and Health in China

Abstract

Since the beginning of the 1990s, the widening gap of age at first marriage among urban and rural Chinese has been a distinguishing feature of China’s population dynamics. The pattern of entry into marriage for rural-to-urban migrants who are the linkage of China’s dual societies, however, has drawn few discussions. This paper seeks to find the interrelation between migration and the timing of entry into marriage in the context of China’s internal labor migration. To reach this objective, the paper proceeds in three steps. First, by presenting the temporal change in the percentage of age groups at first marriage and the mean marriage-entry ages, I verify that China has been undergoing a widening rural-urban gap of mean age at first marriage since 1990. Next, the focus is shifted towards migrants. The marital status and age at marriage of migrants, urban and rural residents are compared using individual level data from the 2010 China Family Panel Studies baseline survey. It is evident that a marriage delay at the early marriageable ages has taken place among migrant workers but a rush to marriage at age 30 also occurred. To explain the finding, finally, I use logistic regression models to examine whether the probability of never-married after age 30 is correlated with the traditional familial values as rooted in rural society and the constraints from working and living accompanying the migration experience. Results show that familial values are significantly associated with marriage timing while the effects of migratory factors vary across different dimensions.

Author

• Renling Zhang, Cornell University