Rural to urban migration and distributive justice in contemporary China

This paper examines perceptions of micro justice and macro justice in contemporary China, focusing on comparisons among rural–urban migrants, urban locals and rural villagers. It puts forward three possibilities concerning distributive justice among rural–urban migrants relative to other groups, based on the social position hypothesis, reference group hypothesis, and subjective mobility hypothesis. Data from the 2010 Chinese General Social Survey largely support the reference group hypothesis. Rural–urban migrants are significantly more likely than urban locals to view their income level and society as fair, and the difference in perceived fairness of own income between the two groups varies by income level. Rural villagers and rural–urban migrants hold similar views on micro justice and macro justice. This paper contributes to the existing literature by suggesting that: (1) socio-economic status is not necessarily positively associated with favorable views of the current distributive system; and (2) social comparisons may play a more important role.