The Transformation, Adaptation, and Self-Identity of New Urban Migrants

Abstract

As a result of the development of the social economy, China is currently urbanizing at an unprecedented rate: a particular social group with an extremely large number of members is in the process of being involuntarily peeled away from the traditional, agricultural mode of production. These people have to face an unfamiliar life in the city and constitute a subset within the social group of new urban migrants—landless rural residents. Because landless rural residents have a unique self-identity, this article was based upon two related presuppositions: first, landless rural residents possess the characteristics of peasants; their social memories of the past and the temporal and spatial transformation of their personal experiences in modern society could potentially influence and restrict the depth and development of their self-identification with their status. Second, as with urban residents, the status of landless rural residents is externally recognized by the household registration system; however, status and self-identity are more directly informed by the attitudinal and behavioral choices that the landless rural residents individually make with regard to urban society, which could potentially affect their adaptation to urban life. On these grounds and based upon field research on the landless rural residents of X village, Y province, this article analyzes the issue of their transformation, adaptation, and self-identity, from the three perspectives of their nonagricultural occupations, their urbanized living environment, and the status that the household registration system granted to these new urban residents. The study shows that the social memories of rural life can influence the life paths of the elderly among the landless rural residents: in getting or seeking employment, the elderly display numerous disadvantages; in their interaction with their neighbors, they are unable to recapture their familiar memories of social contact; they are not aware of the rights and benefits attached to their urban residential status; they are not willing to assimilate into the urban environment, so vastly different from rural life; and their aspirations for their self-identity are low. However, the new generation of landless rural residents displays fairly strong aspirations to become urban residents: they distance themselves from agricultural production early on; they show understanding of their new completely different urban life; and they are willing to become members of the urban residents' community. Thus, there are fairly distinct internal disparities within the group of landless rural residents.