Childhood Left-Behind Experience and Employment Quality of New-Generation Migrants in China

Jianbo Liu, Xiaodong Zheng, Marie Parker and Xiangming Fang
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Jianbo Liu: China Agricultural University
Xiaodong Zheng: Zhejiang Gongshang University
Marie Parker: Georgia State University

Population Research and Policy Review, 2020, vol. 39, issue 4, No 4, 718 pages

Abstract: Abstract This is the first study that empirically investigates the associations between left-behind experience in childhood and the quality of employment in adulthood for young rural-to-urban migrants in China, a population known as new-generation migrants. Toward this end, we consider several indicators of employment quality, including wages, employee benefits, work intensity and employment stability, and explore the possible channels between the childhood left-behind experience and employment quality indicators. Our 2013 Migrant Worker Survey shows that 40% of young migrants (n = 1802) have been left-behind for more than 6 months before 16 years of age and 7% of new-generation migrants have childhood left-behind experience for at least 3 years. Through empirical analysis, we find that the childhood left-behind experience, especially long-term experience, adversely affects the wages and employment stability of young migrants. In addition, the results of this study show that long-term left-behind experience is adversely associated with correlates of human capital, especially mental health, which subsequently affects adulthood employment quality. Policies should be improved to decrease the occurrence of left-behind children and, when this cannot be avoided, programs and services are required to reduce the negative effects of childhood left-behind experience on new-generation migrants.

Keywords: Left-behind experience; New-generation migrant; Employment quality; Human capital; China (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (11)

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DOI: 10.1007/s11113-020-09568-w

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