Patterns of Temporary Labor Migration of Rural Women from Anhui and Sichuan

Based upon recent data from a sample of over 3000 women from Anhui and Sichuan provinces this paper argues that the situation had radically changed by the end of 1990s. Single women still migrate and in growing numbers but the assumption that most female migrants today are young women who return to their villages to marry and bear children and then cease to migrate homogenizes a more complex reality. Single women from Anhui and Sichuan frequently engage in several migration episodes and married women are migrating both with and without their husbands or their children. Patterns of migration vary among regions and relate to the occupations of women at their destination which are normally gained through access to networks based in their place of origin. Many of these married women with and without their families are creating niches for themselves in sales and service occupations in urban destinations renting accommodation from local residents and even enrolling their children in school. These findings have significant implications for a deeper understanding of a number of issues including the establishment of effective protective mechanisms and services for women and their children in destination areas the effect of past and potential migration income and experience upon womens status in rural areas and (because it is women and their children who can transform a process of circular migration into one of permanent settlement) the pace and character of urbanization in China. (excerpt)