Labour Mobility,Sense Of Place And Farmers’ Participation In Improving Rural Living Environments Behaviour ——An Empirical Analysis Based On Micro Research Data

While the rapid industrialization and urbanization have promoted the development of rural areas,they have also turned them into a place for urban resource replenishment and waste elimination,and the problem of rural habitat deterioration has become more and more prominent.Due to the indivisible utility of habitat improvement,the difficulty of resource and environmental exclusivity,and the low level of competition,rural habitat can be considered as a quasi-public good.As the main participants of rural habitat improvement,the number of household laborers and their decision of merit-based transfer will certainly have an impact on the process and effect of rural habitat improvement while promoting urban development.The outflow of labor makes a large number of rural young and strong laborers go to cities,which leads to the hollowing out and aging of rural development and the lack of environmental management subjects,which further increases the cost and difficulty of promoting habitat improvement and hampers the improvement of rural habitat environment;in addition,the outflow of laborers to cities alienates them from the familiar rural society,which leads to the lack of sense of place and reduces their participation in habitat improvement.This has led to the weakening of the collective action of farmers and the absence of the main body of environmental management.At the same time,as the cost of non-agricultural employment opportunities increases due to the downward pressure of the economy,and the implementation of the rural revitalization strategy has narrowed the gap between urban and rural development,the phenomenon of rural migrant laborers returning to their hometowns has gradually come to the fore.The impact of a large number of quality laborers returning to their hometowns on the improvement of rural habitat environment should not be underestimated,but unfortunately,the existing studies have failed to focus on the impact of returning laborers on the improvement of rural habitat environment.In the context of the coexistence of labor force outflow and return,how to further increase the participation of rural households in habitat improvement work and get rid of the rural environmental governance crisis has become an urgent and important issue in the process of promoting the modernization of rural governance in China.This paper focuses on the coexistence of labor outflow and return to rural areas,and constructs a theoretical analysis framework of "labor mobility-sense of place-habitat improvement behavior",using 913 microscopic research data from four provinces of Sichuan,Shaanxi,Lu and Yu,and employing an ordered Using 913 micro-research data from Sichuan,Shaanxi,Lu and Yu provinces,we analyzed the influence of labor mobility on farmers’ participation in habitat improvement behavior using the ordered Probit model and instrumental variables method,and verified the mediating effect of sense of place in the above process using the Bootstrap method.This study enriches the research on "sense of place" and "rural habitat improvement".The results of the study show that:（1）Labor mobility has a significant effect on farmers’ participation in habitat improvement behavior: labor outflow inhibits farmers’ participation in habitat improvement behavior,and labor return promotes farmers’ participation in habitat improvement behavior;the effect is still significant after solving the possible endogeneity problem of the model.（2）Sense of place plays a significant mediating role in the process of labor mobility affecting farmers’ participation in habitat improvement behavior: labor outflow inhibits farmers’ participation in habitat improvement behavior by weakening farmers’ sense of place,with a mediating effect coefficient of-0.114,which is 31.40% of the total effect;labor return promotes farmers’ participation in habitat improvement behavior by enhancing farmers’ sense of place,with a mediating effect The coefficient size of the mediating effect is 0.134,which is46.37% of the total effect.（3）The results of heterogeneity analysis show that there are intergenerational differences in the inhibitory effect of labor force outflow on the participation behavior of habitat improvement,and the negative effect of the new generation of farmers on the participation behavior of habitat improvement is greater than that of the older generation of farmers.The possible explanation is that the younger generation of laborers are more likely to find employment opportunities in the cities and thus "leave their hometowns",so the improvement of rural habitat has little impact on the welfare of the new generation of farmers;the negative impact of labor migration on farmers’ participation in habitat improvement increases with the increase of distance to work.The possible explanation is that laborers who work in other counties and cities have higher return costs and less time in the village,and their perception of environmental improvement is lower compared with those who work near the place of work.Based on the findings of this paper,the following policy insights can be obtained:（1）strengthen publicity and education to guide farmers to consciously establish the concept of environmental protection;（2）improve the supervision system to stimulate farmers’ sense of gain in participating in habitat improvement;（3）strengthen the guidance for returning laborers to give full play to their leading role in habitat improvement;（4）improve the quality of employment near farmers to solve the problem of farmers’ difficulty in participating in habitat improvement;（5）enhance farmers’ sense of place and stimulate their enthusiasm and initiative to participate in habitat improvement.