IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/pra/mprapa/19187.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Migration and Labor Mobility in China

Author

Listed:
  • Fang, Cai
  • Yang, Du
  • Meiyan, Wang

Abstract

China has witnessed the largest labor migration since the reform and opening up policies were implemented. According to the most recent statistics, the total number of rural to urban migrant workers reached 136 million. Migrants are defined as persons who have left out of township for more than 6 months. The migration flow has propelled the economic and societal transition in China through labor productivity enhancement and social restructuring. Accordingly, the Chinese government has improved the migration policies with increasing migration flow and the changes of labor market situations. This report is organized as follows. Section one briefly introduces when and how the migration started by reviewing the history, size and trend, impacts of migration in China and the vulnerability of migrants. Section two reviews the main migration policy changes in the past three decades. Section three illuminates the Lewisian turning point that marks economic development and transitioning in China. Section four discusses the relevance of China’s experiences to other developing economies in terms of economic development and migration policy changes.

Suggested Citation

  • Fang, Cai & Yang, Du & Meiyan, Wang, 2009. "Migration and Labor Mobility in China," MPRA Paper 19187, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    • Handle: RePEc:pra:mprapa:19187
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/19187/1/MPRA_paper_19187.pdf
    File Function: original version
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Cai Fang & Wang Meiyan, 2004. "Irregular Employment and the Growth of the Labor Market : An Explanation of Employment Growth in China's Cities and Towns," Chinese Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 37(2), pages 16-28, March.
    2. Zhu, Nong & Luo, Xubei, 2008. "The impact of remittances on rural poverty and inequality in China," Policy Research Working Paper Series 4637, The World Bank.
    3. Olson, Mancur, 1985. "The Exploitation and Subsidization of Agriculture in Developing and Developed Countries," 1985 Conference, August 26-September 4, 1985, Malaga, Spain 182530, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    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. Min Gong & David Krantz & Elke Weber, 2014. "Why Chinese discount future financial and environmental gains but not losses more than Americans," Journal of Risk and Uncertainty, Springer, vol. 49(2), pages 103-124, October.
    2. Michele Bruni & Claudio Tabacchi, 2011. "Present and Future of the Chinese Labour Market," Center for the Analysis of Public Policies (CAPP) 0083, Universita di Modena e Reggio Emilia, Dipartimento di Economia "Marco Biagi".
    3. John WHALLEY & Chunbing XING, 2014. "The regional distribution of skill premia in urban China: Implications for growth and inequality," International Labour Review, International Labour Organization, vol. 153(3), pages 395-419, September.
    4. Xing, Chunbing & Li, Shi, 2012. "Residual wage inequality in urban China, 1995–2007," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 23(2), pages 205-222.
    5. Nie, Haifeng & Xing, Chunbing, 2019. "Education expansion, assortative marriage, and income inequality in China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 55(C), pages 37-51.
    6. Martin Bell & Salut Muhidin, 2009. "Cross-National Comparisons of Internal Migration," Human Development Research Papers (2009 to present) HDRP-2009-30, Human Development Report Office (HDRO), United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), revised Jul 2009.
    7. Ha, Wei & Yi, Junjian & Zhang, Junsen, 2009. "Internal Migration and Income Inequality in China: Evidence from Village Panel Data," MPRA Paper 16896, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    8. Feng Li & Xuesong Lu & Paul S. F. Yip, 2021. "Comparing Accidental Drownings Between Local Permanent Residents and Internal Migrants in Pudong, Shanghai, China (2004–2017)," Journal of International Migration and Integration, Springer, vol. 22(2), pages 691-703, June.
    9. Yuwen Lyu & Julian Chun-Chung Chow & Ji-Jen Hwang & Zhi Li & Cheng Ren & Jungui Xie, 2022. "Psychological Well-Being of Left-Behind Children in China: Text Mining of the Social Media Website Zhihu," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(4), pages 1-13, February.
    10. Kleinwechter, Ulrich & Grethe, Harald, 2011. "Trade reform, migration, and a Chinese village economy," 2011 International Congress, August 30-September 2, 2011, Zurich, Switzerland 114753, European Association of Agricultural Economists.
    11. Luo, Dongdong & Xing, Chunbing, 2016. "Population adjustments in response to local demand shifts in China," Journal of Housing Economics, Elsevier, vol. 33(C), pages 101-114.
    12. John Whalley & Chunbing Xing, 2010. "The Regional Distribution of Skill Premia in Urban China," NBER Working Papers 16575, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    13. Luo, Dongdong & Xing, Chunbing, 2015. "Who Is More Mobile in Response to Local Demand Shifts in China?," IZA Discussion Papers 9063, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    14. Wei Ha & Junjian Yi & Junsen Zhang, 2009. "Inequality and Internal Migration in China: Evidence from Village Panel Data," Human Development Research Papers (2009 to present) HDRP-2009-27, Human Development Report Office (HDRO), United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), revised Jul 2009.

    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. Zhang, Yumei & Diao, Xinshen, 2020. "The changing role of agriculture with economic structural change – The case of China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 62(C).
    2. Djeunankan, Ronald & Njangang, Henri & Tadadjeu, Sosson & Kamguia, Brice, 2023. "Remittances and energy poverty: Fresh evidence from developing countries," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 81(C).
    3. Ibrahim, M.K. & Srinivasan, C.S., 2014. "Does Off-farm Income Alleviate Poverty and Income Inequality? Evidence from Rural Nigeria," 88th Annual Conference, April 9-11, 2014, AgroParisTech, Paris, France 170509, Agricultural Economics Society.
    4. Kym Anderson & Rod Tyers, 1988. "Agricultural Protection Growth in Advanced and Newly Industrialized Countries," School of Economics and Public Policy Working Papers 1988-08, University of Adelaide, School of Economics and Public Policy.
    5. Rouanet, Louis, 2023. "Foutu maximum: The political economy of price controls and national defense in revolutionary France," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 88(C).
    6. Herve Guyomard & Louis Pascal Mahe & Terry L. Roe, 1994. "L'agriculture au GATT et la nouvelle PAC : la fin d'une exception ?," Post-Print hal-01593896, HAL.
    7. Chang, Hongqin & Dong, Xiao-yuan & MacPhail, Fiona, 2011. "Labor Migration and Time Use Patterns of the Left-behind Children and Elderly in Rural China," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 39(12), pages 2199-2210.
    8. Anh Thu Quang Pham & Pundarik Mukhopadhaya, 2018. "Measurement of Poverty in Multiple Dimensions: The Case of Vietnam," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 138(3), pages 953-990, August.
    9. Souleymane Soumahoro, 2014. "Export Taxes and Consumption: A �Natural Experiment� from C�te d'Ivoire," HiCN Working Papers 182, Households in Conflict Network.
    10. Loxha Arbëresha, 2019. "Do Remittances reduce poverty in Kosovo? - A counterfactual analysis," South East European Journal of Economics and Business, Sciendo, vol. 14(2), pages 117-132, December.
    11. Louis-Pascal Mahé & Cathie Laroche-Dupraz, 2000. "La politique agricole dans les négociations internationales," Économie rurale, Programme National Persée, vol. 255(1), pages 135-153.
    12. Witada Anukoonwattaka & Adam Heal, 2013. "Regional Integration and Labour Mobility," Studies in Trade and Investment 81, United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP).
    13. 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.
    14. Yu Zhu & Zhongmin Wu & Meiyan Wang & Yang Du & Fang Cai, 2011. "Do Migrants Really Save More? Understanding the Impact of Remittances on Savings in Rural China," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 48(5), pages 654-672, June.
    15. Yunli Bai & Weidong Wang & Linxiu Zhang, 2018. "How Long Do Return Migrants Stay in Their Home Counties? Trends and Causes," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(11), pages 1-21, November.
    16. Md. Iqbal Bhuyan & Keun-Yeob Oh, 2021. "Exports and Inequality: Evidence from the Highly Concentrated Textile and Garment Sector of Bangladesh," Journal of South Asian Development, , vol. 16(2), pages 293-309, August.
    17. Ha, Wei & Yi, Junjian & Zhang, Junsen, 2009. "Internal Migration and Income Inequality in China: Evidence from Village Panel Data," MPRA Paper 16896, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    18. de Gorter, Harry & Tsur, Yacov, 1989. "Explaining Price Policy Bias In Agriculture: A Politician-Voter Interaction Approach," Staff Papers 13388, University of Minnesota, Department of Applied Economics.
    19. Bang, James T. & Mitra, Aniruddha & Wunnava, Phanindra V., 2016. "Do remittances improve income inequality? An instrumental variable quantile analysis of the Kenyan case," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 58(C), pages 394-402.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Migration in China; Labor mobility; Impact of crisis;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • O15 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Economic Development: Human Resources; Human Development; Income Distribution; Migration
    • J0 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - General

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:pra:mprapa:19187. 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: Joachim Winter (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/vfmunde.html .

    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.