Evolution of migrant workers’ roles and attitudes amidst robotic production: Evidence from China

IF 7 1区经济学 Q1 DEVELOPMENT STUDIES

Habitat International Pub Date : 2025-09-18 DOI:10.1016/j.habitatint.2025.103588

Zhihao Zhao , Xin Lao , Ping Lei , Hengyu Gu , Dayi He

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引用次数: 0

Abstract

Sustainable development requires more intelligent production and the effective allocation of labour. The impact of increasing robot penetration on migrants' employment has led to fluctuations in their attitudes toward urban settlements. However, the mechanism of influence remains dormant in a black box. Using the China Migrants Dynamic Survey data, we estimate the impact of industrial robot penetration on migrants' settlement intentions. The results show that the increased penetration of robots exerts complementary and substitution effects, leading to a nonlinear characteristic of rising and falling settlement intentions among migrants. Their skills and income drive migrants’ migration direction, and this process is moderated by technological progress. We also discuss the role of inequality factors in the city that prevent migrants from achieving citizenship. The key to improving urban sustainability is mitigating the income and institutional inequalities that disadvantaged migrants suffer in cities. Reducing the income and institutional inequalities suffered by disadvantaged migrants in cities is important to mitigate the human-technology conflict in the urbanisation process and thus promote sustainability.

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机器人生产中农民工角色和态度的演变：来自中国的证据

可持续发展需要更加智能化的生产和有效的劳动力配置。机器人日益普及对农民工就业的影响，导致了他们对城市定居态度的波动。然而，影响的机制仍然在一个黑盒子里休眠。利用中国流动人口动态调查数据，我们估计了工业机器人渗透率对流动人口定居意愿的影响。结果表明，机器人渗透的增加产生了互补和替代效应，导致移民定居意愿呈上升和下降的非线性特征。他们的技能和收入驱动移民的迁移方向，这一过程受到技术进步的缓和。我们还讨论了城市中阻碍移民获得公民身份的不平等因素的作用。改善城市可持续性的关键是减轻弱势移民在城市遭受的收入和制度不平等。减少城市中处境不利的移民所遭受的收入和制度不平等，对于缓解城市化进程中的人与技术冲突，从而促进可持续性至关重要。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Habitat International Multiple-

CiteScore

10.50

自引率

10.30%

发文量

151

审稿时长

38 days

期刊介绍： Habitat International is dedicated to the study of urban and rural human settlements: their planning, design, production and management. Its main focus is on urbanisation in its broadest sense in the developing world. However, increasingly the interrelationships and linkages between cities and towns in the developing and developed worlds are becoming apparent and solutions to the problems that result are urgently required. The economic, social, technological and political systems of the world are intertwined and changes in one region almost always affect other regions.