Why Stay? Local Opportunity Anchoring and Gendered Immobility in Peri‐Urban China
2026-09-07
Why women remain in split households cannot be inferred from residence alone: staying may be desired, accepted, or constrained. Drawing on two interview rounds a year apart and later online follow‐up with 10 women in a peri‐urban Yunnan village whose partners worked elsewhere, this article examines how staying was sustained as local tourism contracted. Six sustained employment‐based staying through other local jobs; three remained through care, schooling, and remittances; one migrated as high household expenses coincided with reduced childcare demands. We define local opportunity anchoring as the employment‐based pathway through which work within commuting range sustains the feasibility of residence already organised around care, schooling, and hukou: nearby jobs become usable when social networks convey job information, care arrangements make employment feasible, and earnings meet household‐specific needs. The findings separate the feasibility of staying from women's orientations and show how life‐course positions, linked lives, and peri‐urban accessibility shape divergent trajectories.