How culture promotes the social integration of migrants

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Rural-to-urban migration in China has intensified, highlighting the critical challenge of social integration, as migrants’ marginalization often leads to adverse socioeconomic outcomes. This study investigates how development and entertainment-type cultural consumption influence migrant social integration. By utilizing data from the 2011 China Migrants Dynamic Survey and employing instrumental variable approaches to address endogeneity, we found that development and entertainment-type cultural consumption significantly promote social integration. We identified three mechanisms affecting this result: development activities enhance social participation, entertainment activities increase happiness, and both types of cultural consumption enhance integration willingness. The heterogeneity analysis revealed that the effects of cultural consumption vary across migrant groups, highlighting the importance of tailored policies. Development-type consumption is more beneficial for migrants with larger families, and both types of consumption have stronger effects on older migrants. Migrants with higher education experience diminishing marginal returns from cultural consumption because they possess higher cultural capital. At the regional level, migrant discrimination does not significantly moderate these relationships, while the association between entertainment-type cultural consumption and integration is weaker in cities with greater migrant-origin diversity. This study contributes to the literature by examining the role of culture in promoting the social integration of migrants.