Focusing on a group of Chinese men who intend to work on foreign-owned, seagoing cargo ships, this article examines the demographics and motivations of these migrant workers. The study found that the trainees were more likely to be from rural areas than from cities and that significantly more trainees were residents of inland provinces than coastal provinces. The trainees tend to be young, well educated, and financially better off than average Chinese workers. Viewed in terms of the main economic theories of labor migration, Chinese government policy, and China's free market reform, the findings suggest that in the case of China, international, as well as internal, labor migration is influenced more by government migration policy and institutional changes under market reform than by individual motivations and job opportunities.
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