Abstract
While prior research has studied various outcomes of self-employment, there has been insufficient research to demonstrate the effect of self-employment on perceived discrimination, which can be an essential foundation for social stability. This paper distinguishes between two categories of rural-to-urban self-employed migrants: own-account workers and employers. Applying data from the China Migrant Dynamic Survey (CMDS) of 2017, we first find strong evidence that only the employer-type migrants are likely to have lower degrees of perceived discrimination than salaried migrants, and the results are robust to tests with alternative approaches of estimation and definition of self-employment. Moreover, we confirm that the employer-type migrants can indeed mitigate their perceived discrimination via three channels—individual income, social capital, and creation of employment opportunities. Further analysis reveals that the own-account migrants can also perceive lower levels of discrimination, but only in cities with higher levels of cultural diversity. Our study suggests that self-employed activities and cultural diversity can help relieve the perceived discrimination among rural-to-urban migrants in China, which provides important practical implications for urban policy making.
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Acknowledgements
This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (72504094), the National Planning Office for Philosophy and Social Science (25BKX035), and the Guangdong Planning Office of Philosophy and Social Science (GD24YSH01).
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Hu and X. Feng collected the data and wrote the manuscript. D. Feng collected the data, designed the model, and finished the empirical analysis. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
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The 2017 CMDS was approved by the National Bureau of Statistics (Approval No. NBS [2015] 72). This study was conducted with permission to use the data granted by the Migrant Population Service Center of the National Health Commission of China. As this study involved only secondary analysis of de-identified data collected by a government agency and did not include any human intervention or personally identifiable information, it was exempt from ethics review in accordance with relevant regulations.
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Hu, H., Feng, X. & Feng, D. Does self-employment mitigate the perceived discrimination? Evidence from Chinese migrant workers. Humanit Soc Sci Commun (2026). https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-026-06655-9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-026-06655-9
