Profile of rural migrants (%).

Leading with the principle of ‘people-oriented urbanization,’ the adaptation of rural migrants in urban China has attracted increasing concerns from policy-makers and scholars. Today, China has proceeded to a new stage of urbanization. Many rural migrants prefer moving to cities near their home villages rather than to large cities, reflecting the changes in migration patterns and expectations of rural migrants. Although migrant adaptation has been repeatedly investigated in academia, researchers tend to address the topic in one host setting, while migrant adaptation in diverse urban settings has rarely been compared. This paper seeks to fill this research gap via a survey conducted in two cities with different urban settings in Jiangsu. The rural migrant adaptation experiences in the two cities are systematically compared. Our statistical results show that economic structure and living costs, on the one hand, and local regulations and socio-cultural environments, on the other hand, determine rural migrant adaptation experiences in different urban settings. Despite abundant employment opportunities in more-developed cities, the high living costs, working pressure, and strict institutional schemes significantly hamper rural migrant adaptation. In less-developed cities, limited employment opportunities and conservative socio-cultural environments hinder rural migrants from adapting in host societies. Our findings suggest that the governments of different cities need to tailor strategies to assist rural migrants in adapting in urban communities.

秉持“以人为本的城镇化”原则，中国农村流动人口的城市适应问题日益受到政策制定者与学者的广泛关注。当前，中国城镇化已进入全新发展阶段，诸多农村流动人口更倾向于迁居至户籍地周边的中小城市，而非大型都市，这一现象反映出农村流动人口的迁移模式与预期均已发生转变。尽管学术界已对流动人口城市适应问题开展了诸多研究，但现有成果多聚焦于单一迁入地场景，鲜有针对不同城市环境下流动人口适应状况的对比分析。本研究通过对江苏省两座情境各异的城市开展问卷调查，旨在填补这一研究空白，并对两地农村流动人口的城市适应经历进行系统性对比分析。统计分析结果显示，经济结构与生活成本，以及地方规制与社会文化环境，分别从两个维度决定了不同城市环境下农村流动人口的适应体验。尽管发达城市拥有更为充足的就业机会，但高昂的生活成本、工作压力以及严苛的制度壁垒，均会显著阻碍农村流动人口的城市适应；而在欠发达城市，有限的就业机会与相对保守的社会文化环境，同样会制约农村流动人口融入迁入地社会。本研究结果表明，不同城市的政府需制定差异化适配策略，以助力农村流动人口更好地融入城市社区。