China and the Internationalisation of the Sociology of Contemporary Work and Employment

The China e-Special Issue brings together 11 articles on the sociology of contemporary work and employment in China which have been published in WES in the past two decades, highlighting the increasing frequency of submissions, and also reflecting the diversity, complexity and plurality of work and employment in the region. The foci of debates include the changing fault lines of work and employment; the changing relationships between state, employers and workers; the impact of rural to urban migration and urbanisation on the labour process and employment configurations; the interrelations between production and social reproduction and its gendered dimensions; and the need to develop established methodologies further given the changing nature of the research subject.

318Earlier migration, better cognition? The role of urbanization in bridging the urban-rural cognition gaps

Background With the process of population aging and urbanization, a vast amount of studies has confirmed the increasing urban-rural cognitive inequality. While less is known about the extent to which cognition gaps can be explained by birth inequality and urbanization. This study aimed to examine the role of urbanization and related factors in bridging the cognition gaps for middle-aged and older adults in China. Methods Based on the national representative China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS) 2015, the Blinder-Oaxaca decomposition method was employed to decompose the cognition gaps. We quantified both the explained and unexplained parts of the cognition gaps, as well as the absolute and relative attribution of related factors. Results We found significant cognition gaps between urban and rural samples. Among the rural sample, the fully-urbanized and the semi-urbanized had better cognition than the non-urbanized. The fully-urbanized migrating at the age of 0-17 years old showed higher cognition scores than those migrating at 18+ years old. Besides urban-rural inequality and urbanization disparities, the cognition gaps could be largely explained by their socioeconomic status, and in part by their demographic background, physical functioning, life styles, social support and childhood status. Conclusions Urban-rural migration have a lasting effect in bridging the cognitive gaps in middle-aged and older adults, and those who migrating had more improvements in cognition than those migrating in adulthood. Public health actions targeting cognitive disparities could benefit from focusing on inequalities in urban-rural social and economic recourses. Key messages Rural-to-urban migration can bridge the urban-rural cognitive gaps in Chinese middle-aged and older adults. In the rural-to-urban migration groups, people migrating in childhood had more improvements in cognition than those migrating in adulthood.

Conditions under Which Rural-to-Urban Migration Enhances Social and Economic Sustainability of Home Communities: A Case Study in Vietnam

Rural-to-urban migration contributes to the economic and social sustainability of sending communities. The aim of this study was to obtain quantitative evidence supporting the theoretical argument that (i) rural-to-urban migrants contribute to the sustainability of their sending communities, and (ii) once they return, they are likely to behave prosocially as return migrants because they feel a responsibility to apply the knowledge and skills they acquired during migration for the sake of others in their sending communities. A cross-sectional survey was conducted in Hanoi, Vietnam, a typical destination city of domestic rural-to-urban migrants. Three hundred rural-to-urban migrants participated in this survey. The ultivariate regression analysis results indicate that rural-to-urban migrants contribute more to the social and economic sustainability of their rural home communities when they have spent longer in their migration destinations and have accumulated skills and knowledge because their experiences foster a sense of responsibility toward their home communities. This is the first quantitative investigation of the relationship between rural-to-urban migrants’ characteristics representing their accumulation of skills and knowledge in their destination cities and their supportive attitudes toward their home communities. This investigation seemed important because it was expected to clarify the conditions under which rural-to-urban migration stimulates migrants’ sense of responsibility and thus their contributions to the social and economic sustainability of their sending communities.

Willingness to help climate migrants: A survey experiment in the Korail slum of Dhaka, Bangladesh

Bangladesh faces a severe rural to urban migration challenge, which is accentuated by climate change and the Rohingya crisis. These migrants often reside in urban slums and struggle to access public services, which are already short in supply for existing slum dwellers. Given the inadequacy of governmental efforts, nonprofits have assumed responsibility for providing essential services such as housing, healthcare, and education. Would local slum-dwellers in Dhaka be willing to support such nonprofits financially? We deploy an in-person survey experiment with three frames (generic migrants, climate migrants, and religiously persecuted Rohingya migrants) to assess Dhaka slum-dwellers’ willingness to support a humanitarian charity that provides healthcare services to migrants. Bangladesh is noted as a climate change hotspot and its government is vocal about the climate issue in international forums. While we expected this to translate into public support for climate migrants, we find respondents are 16% less likely to support climate migrants in relation to the generic migrants. However, consistent with the government’s hostility towards Rohingya, we find that respondents are 9% less likely to support a charity focused on helping Rohingya migrants. Our results are robust even when we examine subpopulations such as recent arrivals in Dhaka and those who have experienced floods (both of which could be expected to be more sympathetic to climate migrants), as well as those who regularly follow the news (and hence are well informed about the climate and the Rohingya crisis).

Rural to urban migration of disaster induced displaced people in coastal area of Bangladesh: An analysis of risk and opportunity

Displacement is the earlier concept of civilization but climate induced displacement is the contemporary issue as climate victim of modern and industrialized world. The prime aim of the study was to investigate the rural to urban migration of disaster induced displacement in coastal area of Bangladesh addressing to risks and opportunities. The study mainly based on primary data and secondary data was used for validation. Primary data have been obtained through the quantitative along with qualitative sources. Qualitative data were attained through Participant Observation, Key Informant Interview (KII) and Focus Group Discussion (FGD) methods. Quantitative data have been acquired through the field study consisting of a questionnaire survey. Data were interpreted by the Statistical Package for the Social Science (SPSS-20). The study reveals that after displacement nearly 89% displaced people migrated from rural (Kutubdia Island) to Cox’s Bazar urban area. Consequently, meantime their monthly income, occupational status, housing and sanitation condition, source of drinking water and health care facilities were changed positively but in most cases they are dissatisfied. Because they lost their traditional and indigenous occupations system (after migration nearly 30% dissatisfied about their occupation but before migration it was 16%) and their housing pattern and conditions become worsen. Availability of water and sanitation facility and healthcare seeking behavior changed positively in the urban area. However, in urban area they faced multi-dimensional problems such as harassment by mussel man (14%) and local elite group influence (32%), loss of identity and dignity, freedom of speech, social stratification, loss of socio-cultural harmony and fear of eviction as well as involvement of different types of illegal activities, such as drug addiction and smuggling and so on. Finally, the study revealed that there is risk and opportunity for climate displaced people in urban migration. However, planned migration of disaster induced displaced people can reduce the risk factors in the urban setting.