Abstract: Massive domestic migration in China has attracted a lot of public concern about the living status of migrants in urban areas. Using data from recent surveys of migrants and local residents in 12 cities in 2004 and 2005, this paper examines how inclusion of migrants influences measurements of urban poverty and inequality, and also compares how other indicators of well-being differ for migrants and local residents. Contrary to previous studies that report that income poverty of migrant households is 1.5 times that of local resident households, we find relatively small differences in the poverty rates of migrants and local residents. Although the hourly wages of migrants are much lower than those of local residents, migrant households have lower dependency ratios and migrants have higher labor force participation rates and work longer hours. Including migrants does increase somewhat measures of urban income inequality. Significant differences between migrants and local residents are found for non-income welfare indicators such as housing conditions and access to social insurance programs.
Keywords: migration, urban, poverty, inequality, social protection, China
