Labor China Mobility
The impact of reforms on China's developing labor market
Definitions
Level of urbanization is measured by the share of urban population in the total population. Change in urban population = natural growth rate (birth rate minus death rate) + Migration
Outline
Hukou Rural vs. Urban Agricultural Vs. Non-Agricultural Geographical Migration
Hukou
In 1958 there were 20 million people moving to the cities during the Great Leap Forward. In the same year the govt. issues the "'Regulations of Houshold Registration in the People's Republic of China'" 1958. Establishes controls over the movement of people. Each family possessed a registration booklet listing all their family members Hukou Registered people as either "'agricultural'" or "'nonagricultural.'" The hukou also identified people by their location and they were only supposed to work or live in the place where they had their hukou Also, the Hukou status hierarchy varied from Big cities, to medium cities all the way down to villages. Harder to move up the hierarchy because govt. wanted to prevent urbanization, particularly the big cities like Beijing and Shanghai.
Hukou Reform
In 1985, the Ministry of Public Security issued a new regulation on temporary residence certificates for the urban areas. Migrant workers who obtained these were in future to be allowed to live in the urban areas but without enjoying the social benefits to which permanent were entitled." In 1988, allowed people moving to the cities to join their, parents, spouses and children in the cities to receive urban registration Also in 1988, the government relaxed controls on rural-urban migration by allowing farmers to work in cities provided they bring their own staples. The HRS and the growing food market made buying food in urban areas without urban hukou possible, by increasing the food supply dramatically to the point where food rationing was abandoned, which reduced the control of hukou over rural-urban migration even further.
Internal Migration Rural to Urban
Huge Wage gap between rural and urban. "The ratio of urban to rural per capita income was 2.57 in 1978, dropping to 1.86 in 1985, and then rising to 2.50 in 1994." Rapid Growth has been concentrated in certain areas, in general the Eastern provinces. These areas have attracted people from rural areas to urban industrial centers. Urban workers have the advantage of subsidized food. Also have extensive non-wage benefits. "Social Security and Medicare the in country side were locally financed" and the benefits were lower and more variable. Reform to hukou made migrating to urban areas easier.
Urban and Rural Population
100% 95% 90% 85% 80% Urban Population Rural Population
75%
70%
65%
60% 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999
100%
80%
60% Change due to migration Change due to Natural Grow th 40%
20%
0%
19 78 19 79 19 80 19 81 19 82 19 83 19 84 19 85 19 86 19 87 19 88 19 89 19 90 19 91 19 92 19 93 19 94 19 95 19 96 19 97 19 98 19 99
Rural-Urban Migration
Rural Urban Migrants 1998: Share of Nation FROM Total Interprovince Intraprovince Nation 100 100 100 Coastal Areas 18.8 11.12 33.79 Inland Areas 81.2 88.88 66.21 TO Total Interprovince Intraprovince Nation 100 100 100 Coastal Areas 68.93 75.54 60.22 Inland Areas 31.07 24.46 39.78
Migration or Reclassification
The question is, how much of this change is in reality attributed to real physical migration and how much is because of changes in definition or reclassification. "Some villages that were formally classified as rural have increased in population and are now judged to be urban." There was government policy to keep migrants away from big cities by "allowing medium cities of 200,000 to 500,000 to grow if they had the potential to do so, and by actively encouraging the development of small cities and towns with fewer than 200,000 inhabitants." On top of this, the definition of an urba...