ABSTRACT

This chapter establishes benchmarks for evaluating temporal and regional variation in Chinese migration patterns. The comparison of a sample survey in Foshan and Shenzhen with other data on rural-urban migration confirms some general trends in the economic and demographic dynamics of China. Work related migration from villages to the cities is rising due to the decollectivization of agricultural production that brought to the fore rural underemployment, depressed peasant incomes and growing urban affluence. Typically, migrants originate from the poorer regions of the country: the northern districts of Guangdong and the largely agrarian hinterland provinces in southwest, central and south China. A different pattern of gender roles seems to prevail in the interior of China, which slants the national averages in the census results away from our own findings in Guangdong.