The Mechanism of the Return Decision‐Making of Rural Migrants in China From the Translocal Perspective: The Case of County Towns in Yangzhou

ABSTRACT The return decision‐making of rural migrants is a crucial issue for China's advancement of a ‘people‐centred’ new urbanization. Existing research has often approached this phenomenon either from a narrow economic perspective or with a predominant focus on prefectural cities and rural areas, thereby overlooking the significance of county‐level units, individual agency and translocal linkages. Adopting a translocal perspective and using county towns in the Yangzhou area of Jiangsu Province as a case study, this study finds that the return decision‐making of rural migrants is a dynamic social process constituted by the tripartite interaction of the ‘individual‐family‐place’. The study reveals that return decisions are not only based on a rational weighing of local characteristics and personal needs but are also deeply influenced by emotional bonds among family members, daily translocal communication and family authority. Furthermore, contingent life events often serve as critical junctures triggering the decision. The development of communication technologies and social media has intensified the frequency and quality of translocal interactions, facilitating family‐unit negotiations. The analytical framework developed in this study systematically elucidates the micro‐level mechanisms underlying return decision‐making, highlighting the significance of county towns as key carriers of urban–rural integration in understanding the complexity of population mobility in China.