ABSTRACT
The economy of China before the establishment of the People’s Republic was largely agricultural. There was some city-ward migration in response to industrial development, but most of the migration at the time was either to overseas destinations or from one rural area to another – primarily out of the more densely populated central provinces and into the less densely populated border provinces. The establishment of New China brought marked changes in both the volume and direction of migration. Government policy on migration was one of essentially free movement until the introduction of extensive controls in the mid-1950s, initially to relieve pressure on grain supplies. Three training workshops – on migration theory, techniques of survey sampling and methods of data processing and analysis – were conducted for key personnel taking part in the Survey. The Survey used a broader definition of “migration” than that underlying the migration data published by the Public Security Administration.
