A survey of migrants in Beijing revealed that 80% of respondents plan to leave Beijing but that only 28% take any action to do so.
The survey, headed by Cai Xin, deputy professor at the School of Sociology and Social Work of the Capital Normal University, and Zhu Junying, president of the Institute of Social Psychologies in Beijing, collected data released at the end of 2014.
According to the survey, the stability of jobs and incomes, status as the only child in family and the health conditions of the parents left behind in home towns were strong influences on migrant people's decisions to abandon their lives in Beijing.
Factors also affecting the decision included migrant people's ages, educational backgrounds, the schooling of their children and a sense of belonging.
According to the survey, many migrant people do not feel the same connection to Beijing as native residents of the city.
It is therefore a complicated process for an individual to make a choice on integrating into the city; nevertheless, those who wished to go home showed reluctance to take any action.
Although the population of permanent residents in the city increased by 189,000 in 2015, the growth rate dropped 2% to 0.9% when compared with demographic growth of 574,000 in 2011.
Beijing had 21.705 million permanent residents, among which 37.9% were who had registered for permanent permits by 2015, according to National Bureau of Statistics and Beijing Statistics Bureau.
