The Role of Internet Use in Internal Migration: Evidence From China
2025-12-29
With the rapid development of information and communication technologies (ICTs), there has been a growing interest in the effect of the internet on internal migration. This study contributes to the emerging literature by exploring the relationship between internet use and internal migration at different spatial scales in contemporary China. Using longitudinal data from the China Family Panel Studies (CFPS), we find that internet use facilitates long‐distance inter‐provincial migration, a result robust to individual fixed effects and instrumental variable estimations. In contrast, no significant effect is observed for short‐distance inter‐county migration. Further analyses show that the duration of internet use has a positive non‐linear effect on inter‐provincial migration with diminishing marginal effects. Moreover, the impact of different online activities is also heterogeneous: frequent engagement in socializing and entertainment activities significantly facilitates inter‐provincial migration, while study, work, and e‐transaction activities show no significant impact. Consistent with this, latent class analysis (LCA) of respondents’ internet use behaviors indicates that the latent class, “work users”, shows no significant difference from non‐internet users on migration, whereas “hyper‐users”, “leisure users”, and “inactive‐users” exhibit a significantly higher likelihood of migrating. Finally, the analysis of potential channels elucidates how internet use influences migration through information acquisition and the strengthening of family ties. This study contributes to the growing body of literature by providing new insights into the role of internet use and technology in general in internal migration from a micro‐level perspective.