WATERING THE NEIGHBOUR'S GARDEN: THE GROWING - CICRED

SOCIAL NETWORKS AND SON PREFERENCE AMONG RURAL-URBAN MIGRANTS …
above, while in analysis of behaviour they are divided into 4 years and
below, 5-7 years and 8 years and above. Times returned home per year
are categorical (we assume that this does not change over time) with
options twice and above, once and no times.
Control variables: Individual factors treated as control variables
include gender, education, marital status, sex composition of ever born
children, and residence region before migration. Education, sex
composition of ever born children, and residence region before
migration are included in the analyses of both attitudes and behaviours
about son preference. Gender and marital status are only included in
the analysis of son preference attitude. Education is divided into
elementary school and below, junior high school, and senior high
school. Residence region before migration is divided into three
categories: eastern, central, and western China. In the analysis of son
preference attitude, sex composition of ever born children is divided
into four categories: no child, only girl(s), only boy(s), and both boy
and girl, while in the analysis of son preference behaviour, sex
composition of ever born children is divided into two categories: only
girl and only boy. Marital status is divided into two categories: never
married and ever married (including first marriage, remarriage,
divorced, widowed).
4. Son preference after migration: attitude and determinants
For the response to the question “what will you do when your first
child is a girl”, 37.1 percent claim to have no son preference (“stop
childbearing”), 55.9 percent have weak son preference (“have a second
child and stop”), and only 7 percent have strong son preference (“have
more children until have a boy”). This indicates that only a minority of
rural-urban migrants claim to have strong son preference. It is
common to have two children in rural areas. Although rural-urban
migrants have been living in urban areas, they are still regarded as part
of the rural population because of the household registration (Hukou)
system (Chan and Zhang, 1999). They are not restricted by the family
planning policy in urban areas. Thus there is no bias in the responses here
considering that having a second child in cities is prohibited.
Table 1 records the sex ratio of rural-urban migrants’ children
born after migration and shows that the sex ratio of rural-urban
migrants’ children born after migration is significantly higher than
normal, suggesting that the migrants’ childbearing behaviours exhibit
strong son preference. It is interesting that the sex ratio at first birth is
also significantly higher than the normal level, which is not consistent
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