Social Sciences in China (Chinese Edition)

No.2, 2013

Migration and Its Impact on the Differences in Health between Rural and Urban Residents in China

(Abstract)

Niu Jianlin

Rural-urban migration has an important impact on the general health conditions of rural residents. On one hand, the migration experience has produced a dissipative effect on the health of migrants. And on the other, rural-urban migration has reallocated the residents in different health conditions across rural and urban areas by way of selection mechanism: in the earlier period of migration, the younger and healthier individuals in the rural area tend to leave their registered permanent residence; and in the later period, individuals who are obviously in poorer health are the first ones to return to their registered permanent residence. Before urban registration constraints are truly removed, it would be inevitable for rural-urban migration to transfer some of the health risks and disease burdens to the rural area, thereby hindering the socio-economic development of the rural area and the improvement of rural residents’ livelihood, and further intensifying the contradiction between the distribution of rural-urban health resources and their demands.