Does the rural homestead titling program promote the citizenization of rural migrants in China?

Abstract

The citizenization of rural migrants (CRM) is crucial for advancing the urbanization process and bridging the urban–rural gap in developing countries. In recent years, the Chinese government has initiated the rural homestead titling program to legally grant rural households’ property rights over their homesteads and housing, which may influence the process of CRM. Considering the reality of the citizenization process, this study classifies CRM into two dimensions: explicit CRM, characterized by social security participation and hukou transfer, and implicit CRM, reflected in urban life adaptation. Utilizing data from the 2016 China Labor-force Dynamics Survey (CLDS2016), this study examines the impact of rural homestead titling on both explicit and implicit CRM. The results show that homestead titling promotes implicit CRM but hampers explicit CRM. Mechanism analysis reveals that the security effect alleviates concerns about land disputes among rural migrants, thereby supporting implicit and explicit CRM. While the allocation effect increases the willingness and capacity of rural migrants to engage in urban social security and transfer hukou, the equity effect encourages return migration, thereby hindering the transition to explicit CRM. The study also reveals significant heterogeneity in the impact of homestead titling on CRM, along with differences in work regions, generations and education levels. These findings provide new perspectives for understanding the interaction between rural land systems and CRM in developing countries.