Return Migration and Cultural Scripts: A Study of Male Hairstylists in China

• In Event: 549 - Section on International Migration Refereed Roundtable Session and Business Meeting
  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: Table 08. Migration and Integration in China

Abstract

Over the past 2 decades, China has experienced increasing return migration: the flow of migrants from big cities, back to their rural sending regions. This ethnographic and interview based study of hairstylists in Fujian province suggests that in the early years of migration (roughly 17-25), migrants flow freely to the major cities following economic development and social networks. But as they age into their late 20’s, cultural scripts —the expectations of home purchase, marriage, and child rearing, plus looming care for elders—render settlement in urban centers increasingly less tenable. This incentivizes a return to the sending region and thus engenders flows of return migration.

Author

• Benjamin D Ross, University of Chicago