Are adaptation challenges relevant to the location choices of internal migrants? Evidence from China

This paper highlights the relevance of adaptation challenges to the location choices of internal migrants, thereby adding to the recognition that they are newcomers to the host society. To achieve this, it presents an examination of how cultural, institutional and social differences between origin and destination regions, which internal migrants need to adapt to, impact their location choices, using labour migration within China as a case study. Competing-destination models show that these adaptation-related differences are indeed significant to internal migration, especially for younger and older women, more educated migrants, the self-employed, singles, and households moving together.