Replication Data for: Characteristics and Formation Mechanisms of Government Care Responsibility Perception among Rural-to-Urban Migrants

The hukou division between urban and rural areas leads to objective disparities in the government welfare provision across different regions, resulting in the differentiation of residents' subjective welfare attitudes. With the deepening of household registration reforms, hundreds of millions of people in China have experienced the process of "rural-to-urban" migration. In-depth discussions on the welfare attitudes of this group not only help to fill the gap in research on the subjective characteristics of this group but also expand the discussion on the relationship between welfare attitudes, welfare systems, and population migration. Based on empirical analysis of CGSS data, it is found that significant and stable differences exist between the perceptions of government care responsibilities among rural-to-urban migrants and urban natives. The agricultural household registration life experience in the life course leads rural-to-urban migrants to uphold a welfare ethic where they assume more responsibilities themselves. The "life event" of cross-system migration makes them having more positive expectations for social and self-development, inhibiting their preference for the government to bear care responsibilities. The differences in the new citizens “conversion depend on policy programs” and "conversion by selective mobility means" enhance the heterogeneity of cognition. The study brings the following insights: In the process of gradually improving China's welfare system, the reality of increased welfare attitude differentiation and the complexity of formation mechanisms due to cross-system identity transfer challenges the theoretical reference value of using welfare attitude evaluations to determine the boundaries of government welfare responsibilities. Policymakers need to more consider the objective level of welfare provision，and continue to improve public wellbeing. At the same time, the research about welfare attitude also needs to go further from tracking explicit preferences to interpreting their ethical core, providing intellectual support for the profound connection between welfare system design and welfare ethics, and promoting the development and improvement of welfare policies with Chinese characteristics.