ABSTRACT
Historically, population mobility in China has been low. This reflects partly the agrarian nature of the economy which bound people to the land. Low rates of rural-urban migration also explained the persistently low levels of urbanization. As late as 1953, the level of urbanization was only 13 percent (Zhou and Ma 2005). Over the past five decades, mobility levels and rates have fluctuated – they increased during the 1950s, decreased sharply during the 1960s due to migration control (see Chapter 3), and then increased in the 1970s and especially since the 1980s (Yang 1994: 103-122). This chapter aims at documenting the volume, rates and spatial patterns of migration between the mid-1980s and 2000, based primarily on comparisons between the 1990 and 2000 censuses. It begins by explaining migration as a flow measure and a stock measure and showing the trends of permanent and temporary migration. Discussion of the spatial patterns of migration focuses on places of origin and destination, interprovincial and interregional migration, and their changes.
