A study of urban population migration and urbanization in China]

Under the auspices of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and UN funding, a study was undertaken to assess Chinese urban migration and urbanization. A 2% random sample was taken of 74 cities of varying densities (divided into 5 categories ranging from "especially large city" to "town") from 16 provinces. This encompassed 23,895 households, 1,643 collectives and 100,167 people. Major data include: 38% of the subjects had migrated at least once; 7.58% lived away from home for at least 1 year; 23.98% were temporarily away from home at the time of the study; 3.6% were at home. With the exception of the "especially large city," which absorbed 46.5% of urban migrants, more migrants entered "towns" than they did "large city." Migration to the "especially large city" fell from 56.6% in the 1950s to 32.5% between 1981-86, whereas migration into the other categories increased. For example, population movement into towns jumped from 12.3% in the 1950s to 28.6% in 1981-86. In all 5 categories, intra-province migration was larger than inter-province migration. Over half of the urban migrants moved from villages to towns. More men migrated to cities than women, but slightly more women than men migrated from villages to cities (due to marriage customs). 56.6% of migrants were between 15-30 years; 23.34% were workers; 21.54% were farmers. Reasons given for moving were many, but the most often cited was work related. Work related moves often meant that such migration was dictated, rather than voluntary. Also, social, economic and political upheavals directly affected the pattern of urban migration from 1949-86. Current government policy is to develop smaller cities and to limit the growth of already densely populated areas. Until cities can provide adequate housing, food and jobs for its inhabitants, governmental intervention in some areas will continue to be necessary.