Do migration outcomes relate to gender? Lessons from a study of internal migration, marriage and later-life health in China

Abstract

There has been increasing recognition in the literature that migration and marriage events are interdependent. However, previous studies on migration and gendered health outcomes focus on isolated migration events and rarely embed the migration process in the context of family life course. This study aims to narrow the research gap by examining the impacts of combined internal migration and marriage histories on health and how these vary by gender from a life course perspective. We utilized the rich life history data from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study and the analytical sample is composed of people of age 50 years and above with rural origin, who have migrated and married (N = 3096). By employing sequence analysis, we identified eight typical patterns of marriage–migration histories for older Chinese people. Thereafter, linear regression and Poisson regression were used to examine the relationship between these patterns and four later-life health outcomes (depressive symptoms, self-rated health, physical functioning and cognitive impairment). To address the selectivity into different marriage–migration trajectories, we further employed inverse-probability-weighted regression adjustment estimators for robustness checks. Results show that migrating in early adulthood before marriage leads to better health outcomes than migrating after marriage or migrating and getting married simultaneously. Moreover, health differences among these three groups are larger among women than men. Further analysis suggests that the relative health advantages of those, in particular for women, who migrate before marriage compared with those who migrate and marry simultaneously can be partly explained by their higher chances of gaining urban citizenship (converting to a nonagricultural Hukou) and marrying highly educated spouses. We conclude with a discussion of the implications of these findings for both internal migration in China and international migration.