Rooted yet restless: City Governance, mobility, and the unfinished urban lives of China’s rural migrants

Rural–urban migration in China embodies the paradox of being rooted yet restless: migrants are embedded in dense social and familial networks while constantly navigating uncertain urban futures. This study revisits the sociology of migration by integrating psychological, social, and human capital into an analysis of settlement intentions among rural migrant workers. Using national survey data and multinomial logistic regression, we compare migrants who plan to stay, intend to leave, or have already settled in urban areas. The results reveal that psychological and social capitals exert limited influence, whereas human capital, particularly health and vocational training, emerges as a decisive factor shaping long-term integration. The findings highlight the uneven weight of different resources in migrants’ pursuit of belonging, suggesting that urban integration is not a linear process but an unfinished project conditioned by classed, emotional, and institutional constraints.