Migrant worker acculturation in China

Abstract Chinese migrant workers form a substantial body of people who move to large cities from rural areas to seek employment. As they settle into the large urban cities, these internal migrants experience challenges that are similar to those of international migrants, and of members of ethnic groups who engage in the process of acculturation. Many see this flow as a problem, one that needs to be understood through research using evidence based on concepts and methods used in international acculturation research. In the present study, we examine the Urban Identity of 787 migrants, using the Migrant Workers’ Urban Identity Questionnaire developed by Gui (2010) . This instrument distinguishes two aspects of urban identity: social identity and place identity. In addition, 328 of these respondents were tested with the Satisfaction with Life Scale ( Diener, Emmons, Larson, & Griffin, 1985 ) and the Global Self-Worth Scale ( Huang & Yang, 1998 ). Findings show that the acculturation strategies model based on international immigrants’ identity can apply to the seasonal migrant workers’ identity. With respect to their acculturation strategies: (1) different operationalisations of the second dimension in the two dimension model lead to a different classification of acculturation strategies; the ‘deeper’ the psychological phenomena the less migrant workers want to engage the national society; (2) different acculturation strategies were favored in social identity and place identity domains; (3) data from the Satisfaction with Life Scale and the Global Self-Worth Scale shows, by and large, that integration is the best acculturation strategy (and the marginalization the worst) for achieving wellbeing in both social identity and in place identity. This corresponds to findings and conclusions of much of the previous research on acculturation based on international migration.