Migration in China: a historical, social and economic analysis of Chinese internal migration

Abstract

Over the past forty years, migration in China have attracted the attention of scholars all over the world for its huge magnitude and peculiarities. Millions of migrant workers leave every day their house in search for a better life. However, once moved to the big city, migrants face discrimination from their urban neighbours and exclusion from the city life. The main driver for exclusion is the hukou, a family registration system that still ties Chinese citizens to the welfare system of their place of born; once an individual moves from the countryside to the city, they cannot benefit form State aid in medical assistance, education, housing or pensions anymore. The hukou is a fundamental tool in driving population movements and reconfiguring urban and rural spaces. In the recent years, the government have tried to reform the old system by introducing lower standards for the transfer of hukou from rural to urban in a few cities. In 2014, the leadership launched a New Urbanization Plan with the aim of transferring 60% of Chinese population into urban areas. Target cities of the project are small- and medium-sized cities, which are usually far from the coastal and more developed regions, and are ready to welcome migrants from both the poor countryside and the overcrowded metropolis. By offering an easier way to obtain urban hukou, the government is trying to create new consumer pools and solve the problems related to the cities. Will the “human-centered urbanization” solve the problems faced every day by rural migrant workers? What is the relation between the plan and migration? Is it possible to talk about a new wave of return migration? In this paper, I will analyse the topic of Chinese internal migration from different perspectives and I will try to answer these questions.