Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Migration in China

  • Chapter
International Handbook of Migration and Population Distribution

Part of the book series: International Handbooks of Population ((IHOP,volume 6))

Abstract

Since the early 1980 China has witnessed a significant increase in migration of all forms. In this chapter, we aim to review major developments in internal migration, emigration from China, and to some extent international migration to China. Our review focuses on data sources of studying these types of migrations, major patterns and debates, and causes and consequences of migration waves. For the most part, we will focus on the period after 1949, the founding of the People’s Republic. Given there is a large increase in both internal and international migration after 1978, we pay particular attention to the post-1978 period. We discuss in the order of internal migration in China, emigration from China, and recent international migration to China. Our conclusion section highlights key points of our chapter and identify major research priorities for the future, including the study of migrant children, migration and return migration of highly educated and wealthy individuals, and an agenda of comparative studies of migration.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 259.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 329.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 329.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Notes

  1. 1.

    Bail and Shen (2008) narrowed this term to cover only skilled migrants who left China after 1978.

  2. 2.

    Data for this are kindly provided by China National Bureau of Statistics (March 2013).

  3. 3.

    Based on similar definition of emigration in these censuses, these numbers show the extent to which emigration had increased over the past three decades. World Bank (2011) provides an estimate of 8.3 million for the stocks of emigrants from China , which should be closer to the volume of emigrants from China over an extended period.

  4. 4.

    The ancestral hometowns of overseas Chinese since the nineteenth century. These communities are typically more developed, given the abundant resources coming in form of remittances .

  5. 5.

    Some (i.e. Roberts 1997) sees similarities between China ’s floating population and undocumented immigrants in the United States . Although we too see some similarities between the two groups (i.e. lower salary than local population), but in our view the two groups are also qualitatively different. First, there is fundamentally major legal distinction, undocumented immigrants face the danger of deportation any time, but China’s floating population clearly have the freedom to go anywhere they want. Second, there is not so much language barriers for the floating population as in the case for undocumented Mexican immigrants in the US. This means China’s floating population has the potential to be integrated into much broader occupation areas. Third, undocumented migrants in the U.S. are entirely dominated by low skilled workers, but China’s floating population shows quite big variation in educational profile.

References

  • Bai, N., & Song, H. (2002). Return home or go to the city? A study of return migration in rural China. Beijing: China Finance Economics Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bail, H. L., & Shen, W. (2008). The return of the “brains” to China: What are the social, political and economic impacts? Asie Visions, 11, 1–30.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bernstein, T. (1977). Up to the mountains and down to the villages: The transfer of youth from urban to rural China. New York: Columbia University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Center for China and Globalization. (2012). Blue book of global talent. Retrieved from http://www.ccg.org.cn/ccg/2012/1225/1558.html

  • Chan, K. (1988). Rural-urban migration in China, 1950–1982: Estimates and analysis. Urban Geography, 9(1), 53–84.

    Article  Google Scholar 

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

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chin, K. (1999). Smuggled Chinese: Clandestine migration to the United States. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • China Merchants Bank and Bain & Company. (2011). China wealth management report. Retrieved from http://www.bain.com/Images/2011_China_wealth_management_report.pdf

  • Chinese Constitution. (1954). Retrieved from http://china.findlaw.cn/info/guojiafa/xffl/95747.html

  • Chunyu, M., Liang Z., & Wu Y. (2013). Interprovincial return migration in China: Individual and contextual-level determinants. Environment and Planning A.

    Google Scholar 

  • CNN. (2012). Retrieved from http://www.cnn.com/2012/11/21/world/asia/china-boys-dead-dumpster

  • Comments on encouraging high educational level overseas Chinese to return (关于鼓励海外高层次留学人才回国工作的意见). (2000). Retrieved from http://www.21cnhr.gov.cn/xinxi/file.jsp?f_ID=2559

  • Comments on encouraging overseas Chinese students to return and serve the country (关于鼓励海外留学人员以多种形式为国服务的若干意见). (2001). Retrieved from http://www.gov.cn/gongbao/content/2002/content_61391.htm

  • Comments on building green channel for high educational level overseas Chinese to return (关于建立海外高层次留学人才回国工作绿色通道的意见). (2007). Retrieved from http://www.sino-education.org/policy/greenpass.html

  • De Brauw, A., & Mu, R. (2011). Migration and the overweight and underweight status of children in rural China. Food Policy, 36(1), 88–100.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Department of Homeland Security, Office of Immigration Statistics. (2012). Retrieved from http://www.dhs.gov/yearbook-immigration-statistics-2012-legal-permanent-residents

  • Duan, C., & Wang, Y. (2006). The housing problem of floating population. Journal of Beijing Administrative College, 6, 4–7.

    Google Scholar 

  • Duan, C., Lu, L., Guo, J., & Wang, Z. (2013). The current situation of left behind children in rural China (Working paper). Renmin University of China.

    Google Scholar 

  • Duan, C, Lu, L, Wang, Z., & Guo, J. (2013). Survival and development of China’s migrant children: Problems and strategies. Nanfang Renkou (Southern Population Journal), Changchun.

    Google Scholar 

  • Durand, J., William, K., Parrado, E., & Massey, D. (1996). International migration and development in Mexican communities. Demography, 33(2), 249–264.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fan, C. (2008). China on the move: Migration, the state, and the household. New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Finn, M. (2012). Stay rates of foreign doctorate recipients from U.S. universities. Prepared for the Division of Science Resources Statistics of the National Science Foundation by ORISE.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fu, Y. (2009). Gaige kaifang yilai oumeng guojiazhong de zhongguo dalu xinyimin [The new immigrants in EU from China since the economic reform]. Shijie Minzu [World Ethnicity], 1, 60–67.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ge, J. (1997). Migration history in China. Fuzhou: Fujian People’s Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Guo, L. (2012). Migration and the well-being of left behind children in China. Doctoral dissertation, Department of Sociology, University at Albany.

    Google Scholar 

  • Han, J. (Ed.). (2009). Strategic research on China’s migrant workers. Shanghai: Shanghai Far East Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hu, P. (1988). Wandering around the world scale (世界大串联). Hunan: Hunan Wenyi.

    Google Scholar 

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

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Johnson, I. (2012, October 31). Wary of future, professionals leave China in record numbers. New York Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/01/world/asia/wary-of-future-many-professionals-leave-china.html?pagewanted=all

  • Kang, J., & Ding, W. (2005). Study on the character of floating population in metropolitan development zone—As a case of Pudong New District in Shanghai. Urban Studies, 6, 009.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kwong, P. (1997). Forbidden workers: Illegal Chinese immigrants and American labor. New York: The New Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lee, J. (1978). Migration and expansion in Chinese history. In W. H. McNeill & R. S. Adams (Eds.), Human migration: Patterns and policies (pp. 20–47). Bloomington: Indiana University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lei, L., & Liang, Z. (2012). Schooling, work and idleness among migrant children in China. Paper presented at annual meetings of the American Sociological Association meeting, Boulder.

    Google Scholar 

  • Li, M. (1999). Xiangdui shiluo yu liansuo xiaoying:guanyu dangdai wenzhou diqu chuguo yiminchao de fenxi yu sikao [‘Relative deprivation’ and ‘chain effect’ analysis on contemporary emigration wave in Wenzhou area]. Shehuixue Yanjiu [Sociological Studies], 5, 1–15.

    Google Scholar 

  • Li, M. (2001). Oumeng guojia xinzhengce yu zhongguo xinyimin [New policies in EU countries and new immigrants from China]. Journal of Xiamen University [Arts and Social Sciences], 148(4), 105–112.

    Google Scholar 

  • Li, M. (2002). Ouzhou huaqiao huaren Shi [History of overseas Chinese in Europe]. Beijing: Huaqiao Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Li, P. (Ed.). (2003). Migrant workers: The socioeconomic analysis of migrant workers in China. Beijing: Social Science Publishing House.

    Google Scholar 

  • Li, M. (2005). Understanding Qiaoxiang social capital: A study of contemporary migration wave in Fujian Province. Overseas Chinese History Studies, 2, 38–49.

    Google Scholar 

  • Li, M., Jiang, H., & Yu, Y. (2003). Yige lvou xinqiaoxiang de xingcheng, yingxiang, wenti yuduice –Fujian sheng sanmingshi mingxixian xinqiaoxiang diaoyanbaogao [The formation of a new Qiaoxiang to Europe and its influences, problems and solvents – A report on Mingxi, Fujian]. Overseas Chinese History Studies, 4, 8–15.

    Google Scholar 

  • Liang, Z. (2001a). The age of migration in China. Population and Development Review, 27(3), 499–524.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Liang, Z. (2001b). The rules of the game and game of the rules: The politics of recent Chinese immigration to New York City. In H. R. Cordero-Guzmán, R. C. Smith, & R. Grosfoguel (Eds.), Migration, transnationalization and race in a changing New York (pp. 131–145). Philadelphia: Temple University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Liang, Z. (2004). Patterns of migration and occupational attainment in contemporary China: 1985–1990. Development and Society, 33(2), 251–274.

    Google Scholar 

  • Liang, Z. (2011). Migration and development in rural China. Modern China Studies, 17, 48–74.

    Google Scholar 

  • Liang, Z. (2012). Internal migration in China: Socio-demographic characteristics and its development implications. Presentation at United Nations Population Division, Dec 3. New York: United Nations.

    Google Scholar 

  • Liang, Z., & Chen, Y. P. (2007). The educational consequences of migration for children in China. Social Science Research, 36(1), 28–47.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Liang, Z., & Chunyu, M. (2013). Domestic and international migration from Fujian, China: Migration networks, selectivity, and rural political economy. Population Studies: A Journal of Demography. doi:10.1080/00324728.2012.756116.

    Google Scholar 

  • Liang, Z., & Li, J. (2012). From Chinatown to every town: New patterns of employment and settlement for recent Chinese immigrants in the United States. Presented at annual meetings of Population of Association of America, San Francisco

    Google Scholar 

  • Liang, Z., & Ma, Z. (2004). China’s floating population: New evidence from the 2000 Census. Population and Development Review, 30(3), 467–488.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Liang, Z., & Morooka, H. (2004). Recent trends of emigration from China: 1982–2000. International Migration, 42(3), 145–164.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Liang, Z., & Morooka, H. (2008). International migration and development: The case of China. In J. DeWind & J. Holdaway (Eds.), Migration and development within and across borders: Research and policy perspectives on internal and international Migration (pp. 273–302). New York: The Social Science Research Council.

    Google Scholar 

  • Liang, Z., & White, M. J. (1996). Internal migration in China, 1950–1988. Demography, 33(3), 375–384.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Liang, Z., Chunyu, M., Zhuang, G., & Ye, W. (2008a). Cumulative causation, market transition, and emigration from China. American Journal of Sociology, 114, 706–737.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Liang, Z., Guo, L., & Duan, C. (2008b). Migration and the well-being of children in China. The Yale-China Health Journal, 5, 25–46.

    Google Scholar 

  • Liu, H. (1998). Old linkages, new networks: The globalization of overseas Chinese voluntary associations and its implications. The China Quarterly, 255, 582–609.

    Google Scholar 

  • Liu, H. (2005). New migrants and the revival of overseas Chinese nationalism. Journal of Contemporary China, 14(43), 291–316.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Liu-Farrer, G. (2008). The burden of social capital: Visa overstaying among Fujian Chinese students in Japan. Social Science Japan Journal, 11(2), 241–257.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Liu-Farrer, G. (2009). Educationally channeled international labor mobility: Contemporary student migration from China to Japan. International Migration Review, 43(1), 178–204.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Logan, J. R., Fang, Y., & Zhang, Z. (2010). The winners in China’s urban housing reform. Housing Studies, 25, 101–117.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lu, Y. (2012). Education of children left behind in rural China. Journal of Marriage and Family, 74(2), 328–341.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lu, Y., Liang, Z., & Chunyu, M. (2013). Emigration from China in comparative perspective. Social Forces. Advance online publication. doi:10.1093/sf/sot083

    Google Scholar 

  • Ma, Z. (2001). Urban labour-force experience as a determinant of rural occupation change: Evidence from recent urban-rural return migration in China. Environment and Planning A, 33(2), 237–256.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ma, Z. (2002). Social-capital mobilization and income returns to entrepreneurship: The case of return migration in rural China. Environment and Planning A, 34(10), 1763–1784.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ma, Y. (2004, February 5–6). People’s Republic of China. Country paper presented at the Workshop on International Migration and Labour Market in Asia, Tokyo, Japan Institute for Labor Policy and Training and Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mackerras, C. (1994). China’s minorities: Integration and modernization in the twentieth century. Hong Kong: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Management and Service Bureau of China National Population and Planning Commission. (2011). Report on China’s migrant population development. Beijing: China Population Publishing House.

    Google Scholar 

  • Massey, D. S., Goldring, L., & Durand, J. (1994). Continuities in transnational migration: An analysis of nineteen Mexican communities. American Journal of Sociology, 99, 1492–1533.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ministry of Education, China. (2012). Retrieved from http://www.moe.gov.cn/publicfiles/business/htmlfiles/moe/s5987/201210/143828.html

  • Naughton, B. J. (2004). The western development program. In B. J. Naughton & D. L. Yang (Eds.), Holding China together: Diversity and national integration in the post-Deng era (pp. 1–25). New York: Cambridge University Press.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Orleans, L. A. (1988). Chinese students in America: Policies, issues, and numbers. Washington, DC: National Academies Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pieke, F. N., Nyiri, P., Thuno, M., & Ceccagno, A. (2004). Transnational Chinese: Fujianese migrants in Europe. Stanford: Stanford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Podmore, D. (1971). The population of Hong Kong. In K. Hopkins (Ed.), Hong Kong: The industrial colony. A political social and economic survey (pp. 21–54). London: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Portes, & Rumbaut, R. G. (2006). Immigrant America: A portrait (3rd ed.). Berkeley: University of California Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Poston, D. L. Jr., & Luo, H. (2007). Chinese student and labor migration to the United States: Trends and policies since the 1980s. Paper presented at Conference on Global Competition for International Students, Georgetown University, Washington, DC.

    Google Scholar 

  • Poston, D. L., Jr., & Shu, J. (1987). The demographic composition of China’s ethnic minorities. Population and Development Review, 13(4), 703–722.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Qiu, J. (2011) Report on overseas Chinese. Retrieved from http://www.edu.cn/zong_he_news_465/20110817/t20110817_667735.shtml

  • Report on students studying abroad. (2011). Retrieved from http://liuxue.eol.cn/html/lxrep/

  • Roberts, K. (1997). China’s “tidal wave” of migrant labor: What can we learn from Mexican undocumented migration to the United States? International Migration Review, 31(2), 249–293.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sassen, S. (1990). The mobility of labor and capital: A study in international investment and labor flow. New York: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Shen, J., & Chiang, N. N. (2011). Chinese migration and circular mobility: An introduction. The China Review, 11(2), 1.

    Google Scholar 

  • Skeldon, R. (1986). Hong Kong and its hinterland: A case of international rural-to-urban migration? Asian Geographer, 5(1), 1–24.

    Google Scholar 

  • Skeldon, R. (1995). Labor migration to Hong Kong. ASEAN Economic Bulletin, 12(2), 201–218.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Skeldon, R. (2009). Of skilled migration, brain drains and policy responses. International Migration, 47(4), 3–29.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Solinger, D. (1999). Contesting citizenship in urban China: Peasant migrants, the state, and the logic of the market. Berkeley: University of California Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • US Census Bureau. (2010). American community survey.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wang, G. (1993). Greater China and the Chinese overseas. The China Quarterly, 136, 926–948.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wang, C. (2000). Liudong zhong de shehui wangluo: wenzhouren zai bali he beijing de xingdong fangshi [Networks in motion: Patterns of behaviors of Wenzhou people in Paris and Beijing]. Shehuixue Yanjiu [Sociological Studies], 3, 109–123.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wang, F. (2005). Organizing through division and exclusion: China’s Hukou system. Stanford: Stanford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wang, W., & Fan, C. (2006). Success or failure: Selectivity and reasons of return migration in Sichuan and Anhui, China. Environment and Planning A, 38, 939–958.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wang, F., Zuo, X., & Ruan, D. (2002). Rural migrants in Shanghai: Living under the shadows of socialism. International Migration Review, 36(2), 520–545.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wen, M., & Lin, D. (2012). Child development in rural China: Children left behind by their migrant parents and children of nonmigrant families. Child Development, 83(1), 120–136.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Williamson, J. (1988). Migrant selectivity, urbanization, and industrial revolutions. Population and Development Review, 14(2), 287–314.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • World Bank. (2011). Estimates of migrant stocks: 2010. Retrieved from http://econ.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/EXTDEC/EXTDECPROSPECTS/0,,contentMDK:22759429~pagePK:64165401~piPK:64165026~theSitePK:476883,00.html#Migration

  • Wu, X., & Treiman, D. J. (2004). Household registration and social stratification in China. Demography, 41, 363–384.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wu, X., & Treiman, D. J. (2007). Inequality and equality under Chinese socialism: The Hukou system and intergenerational occupational mobility. American Journal of Sociology, 113(2), 415–445.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wu, W., & Wang, H. (2002). As immigrant in metropolis: The analysis on housing condition of the floating population in Beijing and Shanghai. Sociological Research, 009.

    Google Scholar 

  • Xia, Q., & Sun, W. (2006). A research into the dwelling state of disadvantaged groups in floating population in Tianjin. Journal of Qingdao Technological University, 27(3), 59–63.

    Google Scholar 

  • Xiang, B. (2003). Emigration from China: A sending country perspective. International Migration, 41(3), 21–48.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Xiang, B. (2005). Promoting knowledge exchange through diaspora networks (The case of People’s Republic of China) ESRC Center on Migration, Policy and Society (COMPAS). Oxford: University of Oxford: A report written for the Asian Development Bank, China.

    Google Scholar 

  • Xiang, B. (2007). The making of mobile subjects: How migration and institutional reform intersect in northeast China. Development, 50(4), 69–74.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Xu, P. (2002). From government behavior to individual action: The case study of labor export in Zugao Town. In P. Li (Ed.), Economic and social analysis of peasant workers in China (pp. 237–251). Beijing: China Social Science Publishing House.

    Google Scholar 

  • Xu, X., & Zhou, S. (2003). The review and new progress in China’s urban geography since 1980. Economic Geography, 4, 001.

    Google Scholar 

  • Yang, Q., & Guo, F. (1996). Occupational attainments of rural to urban temporary economic migration in China, 1985–1990. International Migration Review, 30(3), 771–787.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ye, J., & Murray, J. (2005). Left-behind children in rural China. Beijing: Social Sciences Academic Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Yidi Gaokao. (2012). Retrieved from http://baike.baidu.com/view/4377096.htm#1

  • Zhao, Y. (2002). Causes and consequences of return migration: Recent evidence from China. Journal of Comparative Economics, 30(2), 376–394.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zhu, M. (2001). Analysis of Fujian Provincial new-migration issues and first inquiry into relative policy. Population Research, 5(5), 1–11.

    Google Scholar 

  • Zhu, Y., & Chen, W. (2010). The settlement intention of China’s floating population in the cities: Recent changes and multifaceted individual‐level determinants. Population, Space and Place, 16(4), 253–267.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zhuang, G. (1997). Dui jin 20 nianlai huaren yimin huodong de jidian sikao [A few thoughts on Chinese emigration for the past 20 years]. Huaqiao Huaren Lishi Yanjiu [Overseas Chinese History Studies], 2, 1–6.

    Google Scholar 

  • Zhuang, G. (2000). 1978 nian yilai zhongguo zhengfu dui huaqiaohuaren taidu he zhengce de bianhua [Chinese government’s changing attitude and policy toward overseas Chinese since 1978]. Nanyang Wenti Yanjiu [Nanyang Issue Research], 103, 1–13.

    Google Scholar 

  • Zweig, D., Chen, C., & Rosen, S. (2004). Globalization and transnational human capital: Overseas and returnee scholars to China. China Quarterly, 179, 735–757.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Sociology, University at Albany, Suny, NY, USA

    Zai Liang & Qian Song

Authors
  1. Zai Liang
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Qian Song
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Zai Liang .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Brown University Dept. Sociology, Providence, Rhode Island, USA

    Michael J. White

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2016 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Liang, Z., Song, Q. (2016). Migration in China. In: White, M. (eds) International Handbook of Migration and Population Distribution. International Handbooks of Population, vol 6. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-7282-2_14

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-7282-2_14

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht

  • Print ISBN: 978-94-017-7281-5

  • Online ISBN: 978-94-017-7282-2

  • eBook Packages: Social SciencesSocial Sciences (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation