Impact of Relaxing the Hukou Constraints on Return Migration Intentions: Evidence from China

How does the change of migration policy or institutional context in receiving places influence return migration? This paper examined the impact of relaxing Hukou constraints in 2014 Hukou reform on return intentions by using longitudinal data of the China Labor-Force Dynamics Survey 2012, 2014, and 2016. The results show that the relaxation of the Hukou restrictions will reduce the return intentions of migrants living in cities with an urban population below 5 million. This effect is stronger among migrants who are low skilled and less educated, migrants without social welfare in urban cities, and migrants with lower social status, rural Hukou, and lower level of social integration in the receiving places. An important implication of this paper is that government should pay attention to the improvement of the institutional environment in receiving places and provide better public services and social welfare for migrants, especially for disadvantaged migrants, who are the necessary human capital for urbanization and driving forces to regional development.