The trends of migration in China, 1949–2019

Abstract

Based on relevant policy documents and census data, the authors analyze the characteristics and trends of China’s population migration since the founding of People’s Republic of China (PRC) in 1949. The study finds that over the past 70 years, population migration in China has exhibited distinct stage-specific characteristics. From the founding of PRC to the period of reform and opening-up that got underway in 1978, China witnessed a shift from free population movement to restricted population movement, as well as a shift from population movement driven by the recovery of national economy to that driven by political reasons. With the launch of the reform and opening-up policy, China’s population migration entered an entirely new stage of development, exhibiting the following trends: (1) population migration was highly active, and there were changes in the size of the migrant population; (2) with regard to the direction of migration, rural to urban migration remained the dominant pattern, but the proportion of urban to urban migrants also rose; (3) with regard to the choice of destination, inter-provincial migrants were increasingly concentrated in the coastal areas of Eastern China, whilst the large cities in the Central and Western China were more favored by intra-provincial migrants; (4) the distances inter-provincial migrants traveled increased; (5) migration was motivated mainly by economic factors, yet the importance of social factors was on the rise; and (6) the educational level of migrants went up significantly and the sex ratio gradually became balanced. Accordingly, we must gain a deeper understanding of the trends and characteristics of population migration, taking into consideration the interrelationship between population migration and socioeconomic development. To begin, the equalization of basic public services and thorough-going reform of the household registration system can contribute to the development of a new urbanization strategy.