Internal migration in China: origins, development, and effects on the city of Chongqing

Abstract

China is the most populous nation in the world, and has had a steady economic growth for the past forty years. China’s growth was generated thanks to the immense population and labor force it had available. During this process, the government of China has managed to control the internal flows of migration to its production centers through various policies. This thesis firstly provides a broad description of the national situation, the legal and regulatory structure in correlation to the hukou household registration system, rural to urban migration, and the characteristics of migrants. It describes how migration evolved and developed thorough the years after Deng Xiaoping’s famous social and economic reforms of the late seventies and the promotion of the Xiaokang Shehui (Moderately Prosperous Society) concept. Attention is then brought to regional migration, by analyzing regional contexts, inter-provincial migration and intra-provincial migration, and how the various different “regional models” have developed different sectors and attracted different types of migrants with different characteristics. The focus will thereafter be brought to the study case of the Municipality of Chongqing, by analyzing official government data, describing the types of migrants within the municipality, the sector of employment, reasons for migrating, and characteristics.