Since the 1980s, migration within China has increased considerably along with the economic upturn. It now represents a third of all internal migration worldwide, and is equal to the entirety of international migration.
Since the 1980s, migration within China has increased considerably along with the economic upturn. It now represents a third of all internal migration worldwide, and is equal to the entirety of international migration.
The concept of internal migration differs from the general concept of migration in that the latter embraces international migration across state borders. In China, internal migration most commonly takes the form of migration from the country to the city which is predominantly labor migration.
Of fundamental importance for an understanding of Chinese internal migration is, firstly, the disparity between city and country and, secondly, the rise and changing function of the Chinese system of household registration.
Internal migration in China is predominantly rural-to-urban migration and is accompanied by a rapid process of urbanization.
The majority of migrant workers are employed in the manufacturing industry and work predominantly in the developed regions along the east coast.
A second generation of migrants, who were born in the 1980s and 1990s, has now grown up. Those who belong to this generation not only have fewer ties to their place of origin than the first generation (whether because as children of migrant families they grew up in cities, or because although they grew up in the country they themselves have had no experience whatsoever of agriculture), they also (thanks to their access to new media and the stories told by other migrants) are much more strongly oriented toward the city in their whole lifestyle.
Ever since the beginning of the reform process introduced in the late 1970s by Deng Xiaoping, the direction of Chinese migration and urbanization policy has been determined by the need to promote economic growth.
With the lowly status conferred on them by their rural origins, migrants must therefore survive in the cites without the privileges and advantages that are taken for granted by the city dwellers.
On the whole, Chinese internal migration makes a substantial contribution to the improvement of rural household incomes and to that extent should be seen as an important way out of rural poverty.
Here you can find references for the Policy Brief "Internal Migration in China – Opportunity or Trap?" by Bettina Gransow.
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