“Hukou” Status, Place Affiliation and Identity Formation: The Case of Migrant Workers in Metropolitan Beijing

This study analyzes how floating migrant workers settle in the suburban area of Beijing and pay special attention to factors affecting their identity formation as “guest Beijingers”. First, it examines the Chinese “hukou” policy and reveals the institutional restriction on gaining the Beijing “hukou”.Second, it attempts to show how migrant workers settle down and strive to construct the place identity through affiliation place and social networks. Specifically, it links the existence of place identities on the social context of migrant settlement with the varied factors that contribute to these identities. In other words, how migrants construct a sense of being at home through place affiliations and social networks. Moreover, this study shows that place identity and “hukou” status are not independent of one another, for they function in an interrelated manner to preserve migra identity formation. On one hand, migrants are not granted urban citizenship, since “hukou” restrictions greatly prompt them from becoming future Beijing citizens. On the other hand, place identity grows with regard to the expansion and intensification of migrant networks in the receiving society; several of the migrants are not floating anymore and grow strong ambitions for permanent residence in Beijing. As a result, the conflict of “hukou” restriction and place identity leads to the formation of a transitory identity as a “guest Beijinger”.