Migration for Better Jobs or Better Living: Shifts in China

Abstract

Traditionally, studies of mobility follow two main strands: migration driven by better jobs and by better living. However, the interactions and shifts between them are rarely addressed. In the largest-scale domestic migration, millions of Chinese movers have experienced changes in migration motivations in the past ten years. Starting with migration patterns, we attempt to explore the interaction and changes in migration motivations in a dynamic way and relate them to the evolution of socio-economic contexts. Based on the latest two population censuses (2010 and 2020) in mainland China, we built an empirical model attributing migration motivations to job and living conditions, and then estimated the model by ordinary least squares (OLS) and quadratic assignment procedure (QAP) methods. The results reveal that employment is the primary and fundamental factor, though its impact is weakening. Good living is becoming significantly influential in migration willingness, and there is an interactive effect between the factors of job and living. Furthermore, we offer an explanation of the motivation evolution as being migrants’ response to socio-economic status to maximize their utility. This study contributes to the migration literature from a longitudinal lens, and appeals to a continuous focus on migration evolution in the scientific research on population geography.

Keeping in Motion or Staying Put: Internal Migration in the United States and China

“…A study on the impact of the household registration system reform indicates that between 2000 and 2014, cities in the eastern regions gained roughly 135% more migrants than those in the middle of the country and roughly 245% more than cities in the western regions. The study also revealed that smaller cities, with populations between one and two million people, experienced the greatest growth during that period [43]. The Bureau of Statistics data from the seventh national census (2020) shows that the provinces/regions with the largest proportion of floating populations were the Yangtze River Delta (15.9%), Guangdong (13.9%), Zhejiang (6.8%), Jiangsu (6.3%), and Henan (5.6%) (see Figure 5).…”

“…Historically, scholars have considered employment as one of the most prominent factors driving internal migration [1,6,42,43]. Some people move if there is a better job or better pay elsewhere [37,38].…”