Urban migration in China : a case study of three urban areas

Abstract

The study of migration is recognized as one of the most important areas of contemporary research in population. In the past few years there has been a growing interest in the study of migration in developing countries, largely because of its close ties with economic development. However, in China, migration has not been the subject of many studies by social scientists. This study contributes to filling one of the many gaps in the knowledge of this subject in China. The first objective of this study is to examine the trends, volume and patterns of migration in three urban areas during the period 1949 to 1986. The study shows that the migration patterns and volume have been strongly affected by government policy and the pattern varied considerably from time to time. Generally speaking, migration does not contribute much to urban population growth in China, and this is especially true in large cities like Shanghai. The other focus of this study is to examine the social and economic characteristics of in-migrants out-migrants and non-migrants. The study indicates that like migrants in many other developing countries, migrants in China are also selective in terms of age, sex, marital status and education. The individual characteristics of migrants also affected the spatial pattern of migration. However, unlike migrants in some other developing countries, migrants in urban China are not concentrated in informal or labour intensive sectors, instead, they are more educated and, therefore, are better off than non-migrants in terms of occupation and income. The study also accesses the migrants' attitudes to and satisfaction with their present situation including income, working conditions and housing conditions. The study shows that there is an inverse relationship between the satisfaction of migrants and their personal social status. In other words, those with higher education, white collar occupation and urban origin tend to be less satisfied with their present situation in the urban destination. The fourth perspective of this study is to evaluate the motive and reasons of migrants on both macro- and micro-level. In China, government interference is the most important motive for migration. Beside this, on a macro-level, the shortage of land and surplus labour in agricultural production are the main factors on the 'push' side, while the better living standards, higher income and guaranteed welfare system in urban areas are the main factors on the 'puli' side which attracted millions of people to migrate. On the micro-level, the prevailing reasons for migration are economic. Family related reasons are the second major group of reasons for migration. Show more