IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/urbstu/v59y2022i7p1389-1405.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Moving down the urban hierarchy: Turning point of China’s internal migration caused by age structure and hukou system

Author

Listed:
  • Xiaoyan Mu

    (The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR)

  • Anthony Gar-On Yeh

    (The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR)

  • Xiaohu Zhang

    (The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR)

  • Jiejing Wang

    (Renmin University of China, China)

  • Jian Lin

    (Peking University, China)

Abstract

Internal migration is critically important in China, where the fertility rate is declining and international immigration is under strict control. This study explores the massive population movement in China, examines the migration pattern of non- hukou migrants, 2010–2015 and 2014–2015 migration patterns through the urban hierarchy of the urban system using migration trajectories derived from the 2015 One Percent Population Sample Survey. Results reveal an emerging reversal from a predominantly upward pattern (e.g. most of the net flows move to high-level cities) to a downward one (e.g. from super-large/extra-large cities to large cities) in the recent migration trend. Regional disparities are significant. An upward and eastward tendency still dominates in the western, central and northeastern regions, whereas a downward and decentralised tendency has been initiated in the eastern region. The causes for the structural change include common factors found in developed countries, such as the influence of age and life courses. The age structure of China’s population caused by the ‘one-child’ policy weakened the upward momentum and led to a strengthening downward trend in the current migration pattern. The contextual and institutional factor hukou also has a significant effect on people’s migration directions. Hukou attracts people to move up or down the hierarchy to their registered place or where they can acquire registration. The characteristics of registered migrants reflect the different criteria of cities in granting hukou .

Suggested Citation

  • Xiaoyan Mu & Anthony Gar-On Yeh & Xiaohu Zhang & Jiejing Wang & Jian Lin, 2022. "Moving down the urban hierarchy: Turning point of China’s internal migration caused by age structure and hukou system," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 59(7), pages 1389-1405, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:urbstu:v:59:y:2022:i:7:p:1389-1405
    DOI: 10.1177/00420980211007796
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/00420980211007796
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/00420980211007796?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Fang Cai & Yang Lu, 2013. "Population Change and Resulting Slowdown in Potential GDP Growth in China," China & World Economy, Institute of World Economics and Politics, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, vol. 21(2), pages 1-14, March.
    2. Z Ma & K-L Liaw & Y Zeng, 1997. "Migrations in the Urban—Rural Hierarchy of China: Insights from the Microdata of the 1987 National Survey," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 29(4), pages 707-730, April.
    3. Everett Lee, 1966. "A theory of migration," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 3(1), pages 47-57, March.
    4. Jiejing Wang & Anthony GO Yeh, 2020. "Administrative restructuring and urban development in China: Effects of urban administrative level upgrading," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 57(6), pages 1201-1223, May.
    5. Xiaoyan Mu & Anthony Gar-On Yeh, 2020. "Regional delineation of China based on commuting flows," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 52(3), pages 478-482, May.
    6. Wenfei Winnie Wang & C Cindy Fan, 2006. "Success or Failure: Selectivity and Reasons of Return Migration in Sichuan and Anhui, China," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 38(5), pages 939-958, May.
    7. Shunfeng Song & Kevin Honglin Zhang, 2002. "Urbanisation and City Size Distribution in China," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 39(12), pages 2317-2327, November.
    8. J. Vernon Henderson, 2010. "Cities And Development," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 50(1), pages 515-540, February.
    9. Zhao, Yaohui, 2002. "Causes and Consequences of Return Migration: Recent Evidence from China," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 30(2), pages 376-394, June.
    10. Mathias Lerch, 2016. "Internal and International Migration Across the Urban Hierarchy in Albania," Population Research and Policy Review, Springer;Southern Demographic Association (SDA), vol. 35(6), pages 851-876, December.
    11. Martin Korpi & William A. V. Clark & Bo Malmberg, 2011. "The urban hierarchy and domestic migration: the interaction of internal migration, disposable income and the cost of living, Sweden 1993--2002," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 11(6), pages 1051-1077, November.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Jie Chen & Wei Wang & Yan Song, 2023. "Economic Potential Gain, Income Uncertainty, and Rural Migrants’ Urban Homeownership: Evidence from China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(9), pages 1-22, April.
    2. Jian Zhou & Jingjing Deng & Li Li & Shuang Wang, 2023. "The Demographic Dividend or the Education Dividend? Evidence from China’s Economic Growth," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(9), pages 1-17, April.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Li Hao, 2022. "Impact of Relaxing the Hukou Constraints on Return Migration Intentions: Evidence from China," Population Research and Policy Review, Springer;Southern Demographic Association (SDA), vol. 41(2), pages 583-607, April.
    2. Zhang, Lin & He, Xiaoxia & Jia, Zhenli, 2023. "Industrial agglomeration, public services and city size: Evidence from 286 cities in China," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 131(C).
    3. Karina Acosta & Hengyu Gu, 2022. "Locked up? The development and internal migration nexus in Colombia," Documentos de Trabajo Sobre Economía Regional y Urbana 19931, Banco de la República, Economía Regional.
    4. Démurger, Sylvie & Xu, Hui, 2011. "Return Migrants: The Rise of New Entrepreneurs in Rural China," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 39(10), pages 1847-1861.
    5. Lianying Yao & Xuewen Li & Rongrong Zheng & Yiye Zhang, 2022. "The Impact of Air Pollution Perception on Urban Settlement Intentions of Young Talent in China," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(3), pages 1-16, January.
    6. Zane Varpina & Kata Fredheim, 2022. "The Covid-19 pandemic’s impact on migrants’ decision to return home to Latvia," SSE Riga/BICEPS Occasional Papers 16, Baltic International Centre for Economic Policy Studies (BICEPS);Stockholm School of Economics in Riga (SSE Riga).
    7. Yinxin Su & Mingzhi Hu & Yuzhe Wu, 2023. "Rural Land Transfer and Urban Settlement Intentions of Rural Migrants: Evidence from a Rural Land System Reform in China," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(4), pages 1-15, February.
    8. Junge, Vera & Revilla Diez, Javier & Schätzl, Ludwig, 2015. "Determinants and Consequences of Internal Return Migration in Thailand and Vietnam," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 71(C), pages 94-106.
    9. Yuyu Chen & Ginger Zhe Jin & Yang Yue, 2024. "Peer Migration in China," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 86(2), pages 257-313, April.
    10. Qiong An & Linxiu Zhang, 2022. "Public Health Service and Migration Destinations among the Labor of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region of China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(8), pages 1-17, April.
    11. Zhang, Jipeng & Huang, Jin & Wang, Junhui & Guo, Liang, 2020. "Return migration and Hukou registration constraints in Chinese cities," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 63(C).
    12. Hirvonen, Kalle & Lilleør, Helene Bie, 2015. "Going Back Home: Internal Return Migration in Rural Tanzania," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 70(C), pages 186-202.
    13. Girimallika Borah, 2022. "Distress Migration and Involuntary Return During Pandemic in Assam: Characteristics and Determinants," The Indian Journal of Labour Economics, Springer;The Indian Society of Labour Economics (ISLE), vol. 65(3), pages 801-820, September.
    14. Shenghua Xie & Juan Chen & Veli-Matti Ritakallio & Xiangming Leng, 2021. "Welfare migration or migrant selection? Social insurance participation and rural migrants’ intentions to seek permanent urban settlement in China," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 58(10), pages 1983-2003, August.
    15. Bai, Y. & Wang, W. & Zhang, L., 2018. "How long do returning migrants stay in their home county: Evidence from rural China during 1998 to 2015," 2018 Conference, July 28-August 2, 2018, Vancouver, British Columbia 277380, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    16. Xin Lao & Tiyan Shen & Hengyu Gu, 2018. "Prospect on China’s Urban System by 2020: Evidence from the Prediction Based on Internal Migration Network," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(3), pages 1-21, February.
    17. Feiwei Shen & Jing Zou & Xianhong Huang & Cong Wang & Mingjie Zhao, 2022. "Career Development, Institutional Factors, Social Factors and Urban Young Returnees’ Happiness in the Context of Healthy China," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(15), pages 1-20, July.
    18. Chen Chen & C Cindy Fan, 2018. "Gender and generational differences in first outward- and first inward-moves: An event-history analysis of rural migrants in China," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 50(8), pages 1646-1669, November.
    19. Xia Sun & Juan Chen & Shenghua Xie, 2022. "Becoming Urban Citizens: A Three-Phase Perspective on the Social Integration of Rural–Urban Migrants in China," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(10), pages 1-19, May.
    20. Zhongshan Yue & Shuzhuo Li & Marcus W Feldman & Haifeng Du, 2010. "Floating Choices: A Generational Perspective on Intentions of Rural–Urban Migrants in China," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 42(3), pages 545-562, March.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:urbstu:v:59:y:2022:i:7:p:1389-1405. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.gla.ac.uk/departments/urbanstudiesjournal .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.