Migration policies on migrant–native marriage: A multilevel analysis of 43 Chinese cities

Abstract China's household registration ( hukou ) system creates internal migration patterns similar to international patterns. Variations in the stringency of city policies for acquiring local hukou provide a unique opportunity to examine how migration policies affect migrant–native marriage. In this study, we merge a city‐level index that measures the overall difficulty of obtaining local hukou in 43 Chinese cities with China's 2005 mini‐census. Results from multilevel logistic regression models reveal that migration policies have heterogeneous effects on intermarriage. For migrant men, as it becomes more difficult to acquire local hukou , it becomes less likely that a less educated migrant man will marry and more likely that a better educated migrant man will marry a local hukou holder. For migrant women, their likelihood of intermarriage does not vary much with the stringency of hukou policies. These findings suggest that migration policies reinforce inequality between migrants and natives and within the migrant population.