AEA PAPERS AND PROCEEDINGS MAY 1999 The mean rent paid by migrant renters is 130 households"(jitihu ). Even among those who yuan, almost six times that of urban resident live in a family household, the mean house renters and 22.5 percent of a rural migrant la- hold size among migrants is still smaller than borer's monthly income. Not only do rural mi- that of local residents: 2.9 versus 3.2(Pang grants pay much more for much less space, 1996 p 129). One study estimates that, among what they get is often also inferior housing. migrants in Haidian district of Beijing, a dis Whereas over 60 percent of local-resident trict with the highest proportion of migrants, renters have their own kitchen and over 50 only 20 percent have brought their families to percent have a toilet within the housing unit, Beijing among rural-migrant renters, only 12 percent and 6 percent have these facilities 5. Absence of social migrants are also socially separated from local 4. Individual Instead of Familial Migra- urban residents. The stereotype of rural mi tion -Because of such difficulties in obtain- grants is that they are uneducated, ignorant, ing housing and other benefits in cities, rural dirty, and also have high propensities to be migrants mostly move as temporary migrants, criminals. It is therefore no surprise that many without their families. Among those who mi- surveys have reported that rural migrants fine rated to Shanghai, for instance, most are ei- the following issues to be of great concern ther single or else married but living in legal housing, legal protection of personal Shanghai alone, without the company of safety, protection from arbitrary fees and spouse and family: 35 percent are never- charges, and following ever-changing proce- arried, and out of the 64 percent who are dures. As a result, most migrants sense little urrently married, only one out of every five chance to stay on. Their attitude is mostly has a spouse also in Shanghai. The average "wait and see. In a survey conducted in household size among migrants is only half Shanghai in 1995, when asked whether they that of city residents( Wang and Zuo, 1997 7). are likely to stay, most migrants responded Migrants in Beijing exhibit a similar de- that they are not thinking of staying PS ps rna mographic profile, Close to a third of the mi- nently. Only about a third of all migra grant population aged 15 and above are pressed an intention to stay, if possible. Al never-married,according to a 1994 survey, equal proportion said that they intend to return double that of Beijing local residents, which is home after a few years. Close to another third itself a late-marriage population. A main rea- of all respondents reported that they want to son for such an unusually high proportion of wait for their spouses to make a decision about singles is the presence of a large number of joining them; the remaining 5 percent re unmarried female maids in Beijing. In a soci- sponded that they were"unsure ety where almost all females are expected to marry before age 30, the Beijing survey re- I. Urban Institutional Barriers veals that more female than male migrants are unmarried: 37 percent versus 33 percent a key question regarding the fate of rural (Jiangqian Pang, 1996 p 128 ). Nearly half of migrants in urban China is whether their ex all migrants(45 percent) live in"collective perience is unique. One can argue that, be- cause of migrants'rural back ground and their latecomer status, it is inevitable that they are almost always initially situated in a disadvan- (27 percent)or own private tageous position. One can further ter, as reported by re- such a plight faced by migrants and the ine- ommercial housing qualities manifested are the necessary and un- the neighborhood, Such converts to roughly a avoidable evils in the process of economic of 45,000 yuan per apartment( with mean total growth and social development, and that they rea of 34 square meters and price of 1, 305 yuan per will eventually diminish or disappear percent extreme The monthly cost to renters, there A number of recent stu fore, is only 0 of the asset val suggested that the Chinese socialist legacy of