Marriage and Migration in Transitional China: A Field Study of Gaozhou, Western Guangdong

Abstract

Marriage and marriage migration are often downplayed in the migration literature. The role of location in the decisionmaking underlying marriage migration, and the relations between marriage and labor migration, are little understood. Research that focuses on international marriages and on Western or capitalist economies has highlighted marriage as a strategy, but little attention is given to domestic marriage migration and to socialist and transitional economies. In this paper, through a field study of two villages in western Guangdong, China, and analysis of quantitative and qualitative data from that study, we wish to advance two arguments. First, we argue that changes in the spatial economy have reinforced the importance of location in the matching and trade-off processes that lead to marriage migration. Evidence of spatial hypergamy across long distance supports the notion that marriage is a means for peasant women to move to more favorable locations. Second, we show that increased opportunities for labor migration—a product of economic transition—have enlarged peasants' marriage market and at the same time promoted division of labor within marriage. The findings underscore household and individual strategies in response to macrolevel constraints and opportunities, the centrality of marriage for understanding migration, and the relations between marriage and labor migration.