WATERING THE NEIGHBOUR'S GARDEN: THE GROWING - CICRED

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WU H. –M. FELDMAN –JIN X. –LI S.
to have a stronger son preference. Consequently, age cohort could
affect son preference (Hui et al., 2001). Second, rural-urban migrants
will gradually change their attitudes and behaviours during their
adaptation to the urban society, so length of residence in cities might
affect their son preference (Riley, 1971; Hui et al., 2001; Harding and
Jencks, 2003). Social organization theory suggests that members entering
an organization earlier have a greater impact on those entering
later, and are not much influenced by the latter (Pfeffer, 1983). Son
preference among permanent urban residents is weaker than that
among people in rural areas, and some permanent urban residents in
China even prefer girls to boys (Feng and Zhang, 2002). Thus
permanent urban residents could have a greater influence on ruralurban
migrants’ attitudes and behaviours towards childbearing and
might tend to weaken son preference among migrants. Migrants living
longer in urban areas should tend to have greater changes in their
attitudes and behaviours (Yu et al., 1996). Third, because these ruralurban
migrants reside in cities without permanent legal status under
the household registration system, they return to their original houses
annually at agricultural harvest seasons or during traditional festivals
(Ou and Xie, 1996). When they return home, “blood relationship” and
“geographical relationship”, such as family members and local friends,
could reinforce their son preference; this constitutes a negative effect
on their transition to a more urban attitude concerning son preference.
Thus, the fewer times migrants go home each year, the weaker their
son preference is expected to be.
2.3. Individual factors
Individual factors, such as age, education, sex of children ever
born, etc., affect individuals’ attitudes and behaviours related to son
preference. Fewer males are born as paternal age increases (James,
1987). Sons are particularly preferred among less educated parents
(Arnold and Liu, 1986). Couples with only a girl have been slightly
more likely than those with only a boy to have a second child; those
with two girls have been 5-6 times as likely as those with two boys to
have a third child in China (Maureen, Ulla and Xu, 1998). In addition,
gender, education, and marital status will also affect attitudes and
behaviours of son preference indirectly through their social network
effects (Fischer, 1982; Marsden, 1987). In sum, social networks,
migration and individual factors might influence migrants’ attitudes
and behaviours concerning son preference. Son preference among
rural-urban migrants might therefore be expected to change during the
process of reconstruction of social networks after migration.