Migration From Rural to Urban Areas in China

During the regime of Mao Zedong the migration of rural population to urban areas was forbidden. In 1982 the people's communes were dissolved creating surplus labor. In 1984 permission was given to peasants to move to towns of 100,000 inhabitants or less. In 1986 the state allocation of jobs and lifetime employment practices were abolished leading to the migration of peasants. Urban population has increased 30-50 million annually since 1985. In 1988-89 urban population consisted of urban registry holders numbering 200 million protected by the government, 100 million new residents unqualified for food rations who had moved into towns of 100,000 population, and the so-called floating population getting no government services numbering about 60-80 million in February 1990. Rural towns grew as a result of promotion of smaller sized cities. In 1983 there were 62,310,000 people in such cities, and by 1984 there were over 134 million mainly in the 15-29 age group. The increasing inflow of population into major cities also occurred in 1984-5 owing to the dissolution of communes. 23 cities with populations over 1 million received 10 million migrants/year, and 50 million migrate to towns and cities every year. In 1988 Shanghai had a mostly male floating population of 2.08 million/year, and Beijing had 1,310,000. This phenomenon led to the emergence of surplus agricultural labor. Village and township enterprises absorbed this surplus: in 1988 there were 18,888,600 such entities employing 95,454,600 people or 23.8% of the labor force. Surplus labor totals 220 million out of 400 million agricultural labor force. The gap between the hinterland and the rich coastal areas with special economic zones is widening, reminiscent of the north-south problem. This phenomenon is the harbinger of the transformation of China into a freer society with higher population mobility.