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Urban development and migration policies in China have greatly limited permanent migration to cities especially to bigger ones. In recent years however largely as a result of economic reforms temporary migration has become a major mechanism of population exchange. Data from the 1986 Survey of Migration in 74 Cities and Towns of China sponsored by the Chinese Academy of Social Science provide a unique opportunity to evaluate the volume and direction of temporary movement the reasons for it and the sociodemographic differences between temporary and permanent migrants living in Chinas cities and towns....Overall the findings indicate that temporary migration has come to complement and in some cases to substitute for permanent migration in allowing the Chinese population to cope with its rural labor surplus and to satisfy its strong desire for urban amenities. (EXCERPT)
Poston et al. (Wed,) studied this question.