On Monday, Beijing Daily reported on a Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) study into marriage patterns among migrant workers living in cities, which found a stronger tendency for women to find spouses among resident populations.

The research, conducted by Zhang Yi from the CASS' Population Studies Institute and published in the CASS' Gazette on July 5, said that young migrant workers adapt more easily to city life, and often have no personal experience of farming.

Since many come to work in cities immediately after graduating from junior or senior high school, they seldom get married in their rural hometowns and are more inclined to look for a spouse in the city.

The report said that some female migrants take advantage of their youth and attractiveness to get permanent city residence by marrying city men, and that the men involved can be aware that being able to offer this makes them more of a catch.

It added that divorce rates are high among such marriages, and attributed this partly to the different backgrounds of the people involved.

Previous research has mainly focused on rural women marrying city men, it said, but now more men in the upper strata of the migrant population seek to marry city women, though it noted that they were less successful in this.

It also speculated that, with increasing numbers of migrant women marrying city men, city women may find it harder to find resident spouses.

(China.org.cn by Yuan Fang, July 13, 2005)