WATERING THE NEIGHBOUR'S GARDEN: THE GROWING - CICRED

Social Networks and Son Preference among
Rural-Urban Migrants in China: A Study in
Shenzhen 1
WU Haixia, Marcus W. FELDMAN, JIN Xiaoyi, LI Shuzhuo
1. Introduction
Son preference is embedded in traditional Chinese culture and has
been a fundamental cause of the high sex ratio at birth in China (Zeng
et al., 1993). Since the mid 1990s the number of migrants from rural
areas to Chinese cities, whom we refer to as rural-urban migrants, has
increased dramatically, and to some extent, strong son preference
among the rural-urban migrants results in a high sex ratio at birth in
urban areas (Wu et al., 2005). After migration, rural-urban migrants
rebuild their social networks along with changes in their occupations
and surroundings. Social interactions among network members have an
impact on the attitudes and behaviours of rural-urban migrants
(Bongaarts and Watkins, 1996; Friedkin, 1997; Kohler et al., 2001).
Accordingly, some aspects of the culture of childbearing among ruralurban
migrants are expected to change during the process of
reconstruction of their social networks after migration. It is possible
that modification of son preference among the rural-urban migrants
will exert an influence on the sex ratio at birth in urban areas. Social
network theory offers an important framework in which to analyze the
determinants of the attitudes and behaviours related to son preference
among the rural-urban migrants. Such analysis may lead to alleviation
of the dangerously high sex ratio at birth in contemporary urban
China.
Some studies of marriage and fertility control indicate that social
1 This work is jointly supported by National Social Science Foundation of China
Grant (05ARK001 and 05CRK002), Stanford University and Santa Fe Institute
International Program.