Does Childhood Left-Behind Experience Affect New Generation of Migrant Workers’ Willingness to Settle in Towns and Cities?

This paper investigates whether the experience of being left during childhood affects the new generation of migrant workers' willingness to settle in towns and cities and its internal mechanism from a life-cycle perspective. Using the 2017 China Migrants Dynamic Survey, we found that the experience of being left behind during childhood has a significantly negative impact on people's willingness to settle in towns and cities, and it has an impact through the individual's education level, health status, financial situation and social skills. Furthermore, heterogeneity analysis reveals that the abovementioned effects were more notable in the samples left-behind experience with female, high frequency of mobility, short period of mobility, cross-provincial, and being left behind when both parents are working in cities. These findings add to the research on population migration.