Varieties of Population Mobility in Relation to Development in China

In: Studies in comparative international development, Band 22, Heft 4, S. 101-124

Abstract

An examination of the impact of short-term, temporary migration on the national development process of the People's Republic of China. China has a strongly stated policy regarding population movement & the distribution of population between Ru & Ur places & among Ur places of different size. Migration to large Ur places is strictly controlled, as is Ru-to-Ur movement; at the same time, frontier migration has been encouraged, as has settlement in cities developed about extractive industries. The efforts to control Ur growth have been both undermined & reinforced by the economic reform policies articulated since 1979. By allowing development toward a market economy, Chinese planners are creating a need & a demand for greater labor mobility; by recognizing the need to develop China's teritary sector, planners are also implicitly encouraging Ru workers to move to cities to provide badly needed services. Concurrently, China is actively promoting the growth of small towns & commune centers as incipient Ur places, to absorb surplus labor & to provide alternatives to cityward migration. During this period of rapid economic change, temporary mobility is providing a flexible adjustment mechanism for China's population. As the labor surplus in Ru areas increases, & consumer demands in both Ur & Ru places are raised, such mobility will undoubtedly become an increasingly important way to reestablish equilibrium. In the longer run, policymakers may come to recognize both the desirability of permanent population redistribution & the fact that a considerable amount of such movement has already occurred de facto, if not de jure. 3 Tables, 57 References. Modified AA