Longitudinal Survey on Rural Urban Migration in China

The Longitudinal Survey on Rural Urban Migration in China (RUMiC) consists of three parts: the Urban Household Survey, the Rural Household Survey and the Migrant Household Survey. It was initiated by a group of researchers at the Australian National University, the University of Queensland and the Beijing Normal University and was supported by the Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), which provides the Scientific Use Files. RUMiC was established to study the patterns and effects of migration in China and was designed to provide a longitudinal dataset covering a five-year time span. It collects data on three populations:

- Rural households both with and without migrants (through the Rural Household Survey)
- Urban resident households (through the Urban Household Survey)
- Rural-to-urban migrants (through the Urban Migrant Survey)

The research topics of the RUMiC comprise the welfare status of migrants: their jobs, incomes, physical and mental health, their children's education and health, and the extent to which they assimilate into their city communities. The questionnaires obtained individual- and household-level information.

The individual-level component covers four areas:
1) Household composition
2) Adult education
3) Adult employment
4) Children

The household head answered questions covering:
1) Social networks
2) Lifecycle events
3) Household income
4) Household assets
5) Housing conditions
6) Information on the rural home village

The employment section focuses on the labor market performance of adults. Different questions were asked to salaried workers, the self-employed and unemployed. For the Migrant Survey, selected questions were also asked regarding migrants' first job in the city.

Children's module surveys children aged 0-15 or over 15 but still at school. The Migrant Survey covers both children who live in the city with their parents and those left behind in the countryside. The Rural Survey only covers children whose parents did not migrate. The same questions are used in both surveys.

The social network section contained several sub-sections covering also the network of spouses not present in the household, of children aged over 15, of the parents of both the household head and the spouse. Questions also cover the employment and education status of up to five closest contacts.

The survey locations are primarily based on whether a province is one of the major sending or receiving regions. The Rural Household Survey was conducted in 9 provinces: Anhui, Chongqing, Guangdong, Hebei, Henan, Hubei, Jiangsu, Sichuan, and Zhejiang.

The Urban Migrant Survey was conducted in the following 15 cities, which are provincial capital cities or other major migrant receiving cities: Bengbu, Chengdu, Chongqing, Dongguan, Guangzhou, Hefei, Hangzhou, Luoyang, Nanjing, Ningbo, Shanghai, Shenzen, Wuhan, Wuxi, Zhengzhou.

The Urban Household Survey was conducted in 19 cities and includes the following additional cities to the Urban Migrant Survey: Anyang, Jiande, Leshan and Mianyang.

The RUMiC survey is designed to provide a longitudinal dataset covering a four-year time span, tracking respondents so long as they remain in the surveyed cities and villages. The Rural and Urban Household Surveys follow a normal tracking method used in any longitudinal surveys with subjects having permanent living addresses. In general, the attrition rate for these two populations is within the normal range. Between the first and the second waves, the attrition rate for the Rural Household Survey was 1% and for the Urban Household Survey was 5.7%. The attrition rates for these two samples increased between the second and the third waves due to the change in survey conductor, but they still remain in a low range.

The tracking for the Urban Migrant Survey, however, is more difficult. The pre-test results indicate that migrant workers on average stay in a city for around 3 years, and none who lived in a residential address stays for more than a year. To ensure the tracking result, the survey team recorded the individual migrants? work and home addresses and other contact details in the cities as well as their home villages. We also recorded the phone numbers of three close relatives or friends of each interviewee so that we could track them even if they and their households moved. In addition, the team designed a tracking incentive scheme of three lotteries each year, with prizes from 50 to 2000 Yuan. Despite these efforts, the attrition rate for the Urban Migrant Survey has been very high.

The survey does not track returning migrants due to high costs. Between the first and the second wave, partly due to the high mobility and partly due to the global financial crisis, the attrition rate for the Urban Migrant Survey was 64%. In the subsequent waves the attrition rate gradually came down with the second to the third wave attrition rate being 52% and the third to the fourth wave rate being 43%.

The RUMiC survey was part of the RUMiCI project, which included surveys conducted in Indonesia.