ABSTRACT
Given the importance of economic factors to the process, it is hardly surprising to find that internal migration is much less extensive in China than in countries further along the path of economic development. In China there is an additional factor working against internal mobility: namely, the government’s policy of controlling the growth of the urban population. The importance of government policy to the pattern of migration in China can be seen not only in the direction and rate of movement but also in its timing. The rate of migration was approximately the same among both males and females, although there were some minor differences between them by size of locality, males being especially more likely to go to medium-sized and extra-large cities, and females being especially more likely to go to large cities. In China largely because of the government’s policy of controlling migration – particularly that into the larger cities – it is the other way around.
