Sage Journals: Discover world-class research

Abstract

China has witnessed the largest migration wave in human history, following the initiation of economic reforms in 1978. Around 150 million peasants have moved to cities for job opportunities and better lives. This article reviews studies on rural migrants in Chinese cities, to provide an overview of their characteristics, spatial distribution, reasons for migration, and working and living conditions. Challenges to public policy and areas for future research are then outlined.

Keywords

china migrant workers migrant workers’ housing migration

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

ACFTU (All-China Federation of Trade Unions) (2010) Report on new-generation migrants. Workers' Daily, 21 June. Available at: http://news.xinhuanet.com/politics/2010-06/21/c_12240721.htm (accessed 5 January 2011).

Bai

(2008) Migrant workers in China: A general survey. Social Sciences in China 29(3): 85–103.

(2011) The land and hukou reforms in Chongqing. State Weekly Magazine of Finance 17 January Available at: http://finance.sina.com.cn/china/dfjj/20110117/15509265929.shtml (accessed 20 January 2011).

Boyle

Halfacree

Robinson

(1998) Exploring Contemporary Migration, Harlow: Addison Wesley Longman.

Cai

(1997) On the issue of floating population. In: Xu

(ed.) Critical Moment: 27 Critical Problems in Contemporary China Beijing: Today Press, 423–435.

Cai

(2006) Introduction. In: Cai

(ed.) Reports on China’s Population and Labour No.7 Beijing: Social Science Academic Press, 1–3.

Cai

Chan

(2009) The global economic crisis and unemployment in China. Eurasian Geography and Economics 50(5): 513–531.

Cai

Wang

Zhang

(2010) Employment effectiveness of China’s economic stimulus package. China & World Economy 18(1): 33–46.

Chan

(1994) Cities with Invisible Walls: Reinterpreting Urbanization in Post-1949 China, Oxford: Oxford University Press.

10.

Chan

(2009) The Chinese hukou system at 50. Eurasian Geography and Economics 50(2): 197–221.

11.

Chan

(2010a) A China paradox: Migrant labor shortage amidst rural labor supply abundance. Eurasian Geography and Economics 51(4): 513–530.

12.

Chan

(2010b) The global financial crisis and migrant workers in China: ‘There is no future as a labourer; returning to the village has no meaning’. International Journal of Urban and Regional Research 34(3): 659–677.

13.

Chen

(2011) Occupational attainment of migrants and local workers: Findings from a survey in Shanghai’s manufacturing sector. Urban Studies 48(1): 3–21.

14.

Cheng

Selden

(1994) The origins and social consequences of China’s hukou system. China Quarterly 139: 644–668.

15.

Cui

(2004) An Investigation of Mobility of Chinese Peasants, Taiyuan: Shanxi Economics Press.

16.

Davin

(1999) Internal Migration in Contemporary China, London: Macmillan.

17.

Demurger

Gurgand

Yue

(2009) Migrants as second-class workers in urban China? A decomposition analysis. Journal of Comparative Economics 37(4): 610–628.

18.

Park

Wang

(2005) Is migration helping China’s poor? Journal of Comparative Economics 33(4): 688–709.

19.

Fan

(2001) Migration and labor market returns in urban China: Results from a recent survey of Guangzhou. Environment and Planning A 33(3): 479–508.

20.

Fan

(2008) China on the Move: Migration, the State, and the Household, London: Routledge.

21.

Goodkind

West

(2002) China’s floating population: Definitions, data and recent findings. Urban Studies 39(12): 2237–2250.

22.

Greenwood

(1985) Human migration: Theory, models, and empirical studies. Journal of Regional Science 25(4): 521–544.

23.

(1994) Suggestions and solutions on outlet of surplus rural labour in China. Zhongguo Shehui Kexue (China Social Science) 5: 11–15.

24.

Guang

(2005) The state connection in China’s rural-urban migration. International Migration Review 39(2): 354–380.

25.

Hao

Sliuzas

Geertman

(2011) The development and redevelopment of urban villages in Shenzhen. Habitat International 35(2): 214–224.

26.

Hare

(1999) ‘Push’ versus ‘pull’ factors in migration outflows and returns: Determinants of migration status and spell duration among China’s rural population. Journal of Development Studies 35(3): 45–72.

27.

Hsing

(2009) The Great Urban Transformation: Politics and Property in China, Oxford: Oxford University Press.

28.

Jian

Wang

(2007) Up to date situation of rural migrant workers in China: A survey of 765 rural migrant workers. Population Research 31(6): 37–44.

29.

Jiang

(2006) Living conditions of the floating population in urban China. Housing Studies 21(5): 719–744.

30.

Knight

Song

(2005) Towards a Labour Market in China, Oxford: Oxford University Press.

31.

Knight

Yueh

(2009) Segmentation or competition in China’s urban labour market? Cambridge Journal of Economics 33(1): 79–94.

32.

Knight

Song

Jia

(1999) Chinese rural migrants in urban enterprises: Three perspectives. Journal of Development Studies 35(3): 73–104.

33.

Lee

(2007) Against the Law: Labor Protests in China’s Rustbelt and Sunbelt, Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.

34.

(2004) Urban Social Exclusion in Transitional China. CASE paper 82, London: London School of Economics.

35.

(2006) Floating population or urban citizens? Status, social provision and circumstances of rural-urban migrants in China. Social Policy and Administration 40(2): 174–195.

36.

(2001) Studies on labour market of migrants in China. Xuehai (Studies) 1: 110–115.

37.

Liang

(2001) The age of migration in China. Population and Development Review 27(3): 499–524.

38.

Liang

(2004) China’s floating population: New evidence from the 2000 population census. Population and Development Review 30(3): 467–488.

39.

LSSB (Labour and Social Security Bureau) (2006) The number, structure and characteristics of rural migrant workers. In: State Council Research Team (ed.) Survey Reports on Rural Migrants in China. Beijing: Zhongguo Yanshi Press, 69–85.

40.

Xiang

(1998) Native place, migration, and the emergence of peasant enclaves in Beijing. China Quarterly 155: 546–581.

41.

Massey

Arango

JHG

Kouaouci

Pellegrino

Taylor

(1993) Theories of international migration: A review. Population and Development Review 19: 431–466.

42.

Murphy

(2009) Migrant remittances in China. In: Murphy

(ed.) Labour Migration and Social Development in Contemporary China New York and Abingdon: Routledge, 47–72.

43.

NSB (National Statistics Bureau) (2002) The number of temporary migrants in China reached 121.107 million. Xinhua News, 9 October.

44.

NSB (National Statistics Bureau) (2007) The number of temporary migrants in China reached 150 million. Beijing Evening Post, 2 June.

45.

Pan

Wei

(eds) (2010) Annual Report on Urban Development of China No. 3, Beijing: Social Sciences Literature Press.

46.

Pun

(2005) Made in China: Women Factory Workers in a Global Workplace, Durham, NC and London: Duke University Press.

47.

Pun

(2010) Unfinished proletarianization: Self, anger, and class action among thesecond generation of peasant-workers in present-day China. Modern China 36(5): 493–519.

48.

Roberts

(2001) The determinants of job choice by rural labor migrants in Shanghai. China Economic Review 12: 15–39.

49.

Sjaastad

(1962) The costs and returns of migration. Journal of Political Economy 70(1): 80–93.

50.

Smith

Pun

(2006) The dormitory labour regime in China as a site for control and resistance. International Journal of Human Resource Management 17(8): 1456–1470.

51.

Solinger

(1999) Contesting Citizenship in Urban China: Peasant Migrants, the State, and the Logic of the Market, Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.

52.

State Council (2010) Suggestions on Further Integrating Rural and Urban Development and Encouraging the Development of Agriculture and the Countryside Document No. 1. Available at: http://news.xinhuanet.com/politics/2010-01/31/content_12907829.htm .

53.

Tao

(2007) Urbanization, rural land system and social security for migrants in China. Journal of Development Studies 43(7): 1301–1320.

54.

Wang

(2004a) Reformed migration control and new targeted people: China’s hukou system in the 2000s. China Quarterly 177: 115–132.

55.

Wang

(2000) Rural-urban disparity increases. China Daily 11 August.

56.

Wang

(2010) Impact of the global economic crisis on China’s migrant workers: A survey of 2700 in 2009. Eurasian Geography and Economics 51(2): 218–235.

57.

Wang

(2004b) Urban Poverty, Housing and Social Change in China, London: New York: Routledge.

58.

Wang

(2009) Housing and migrants in cities. In: Murphy

(ed.) Labour Migration and Social Development in Contemporary China New York and Abingdon: Routledge, 137–153.

59.

Wang

(2010) Housing migrant workers in rapidly urbanizing regions: A study of the Chinese model in Shenzhen. Housing Studies 25(1): 83–100.

60.

Winters

Janvry

Sadoulet

(2001) Family and community networks in Mexico-US migration. Journal of Human Resources 36(1): 159–184.

61.

Webster

Liu

(2010) UrbanPoverty in China, Cheltenham: Edward Elgar.

62.

(2002) Migrant housing in urban China: Choices and constraints. Urban Affairs Review 38(1): 90–119.

63.

Wang

(2002) Analysis on current housing situation of migrants in Beijing and Shanghai. Shehuixue Yanjiu (Sociology Research) 3: 1–9.

64.

Xinhua (2007) Wider gap between rural and urban areas and the income ratio between rural and urban areas reaching 3.28 in 2006. 13 September. Available at: http://news.sina.com.cn/c/2007-09-13/110013882718.shtml (accessed 13 September 2007).

65.

Zhao

(1999) Leaving the countryside: Rural to urban migration decisions in China. American Economic Review 89(2): 281–289.

66.

Zheng

Long

Fan

(2009) Urban villages in China: A 2008 survey of migrant settlements in Beijing. Eurasian Geography and Economics 50(4): 425–446.

67.

Zhu

(2002) The impact of income gaps on migration decisions in China. China Economic Review 13(2–3): 213–230.

Rural migrants in urban China: Characteristics and challenges to public policy

Abstract

Keywords

Get full access to this article

References