Jianfa SHEN

1
A Study on the Migration of Agricultural
Population in China

• Jianfa SHEN
• Department of Geography and Resource Management
• The Chinese University of Hong Kong

2
Contents

• Previous studies
• Conceptual framework of hukou system and
  migration
• Research methodology
• The impact of hukou category on migration
• Explaining the impact of hukou category on
  migration
• Conclusion

3
Previous studies

• In capitalist societies, segmented labour markets
  rely heavily on
• stereotyping related to age, gender, ethnic
  origin, marital status, formal qualification
  (Gordon 1995)
• Marginalized population groups such as migrants,
  women and ethnic minorities
• are often subject to above institutional
  constraints (Wright and Ellis 2000 Gordon 1995)

4
Previous studies

• Studies on migration in China have examined
• The role of hukou system in migration process
• Comparing urban natives, permanent migrants and
  temporary migrants
• Temporary migrants are at the bottom of the
  hierarchy
• Permanent migrants are the most competitive and
  privileged groups

5
Conceptual framework of hukou system and
migration four types of migrants
6
Conceptual framework of hukou system and
migration

• Previous studies focus on migration of temporary
  population
• The migration of agricultural population is
  largely ignored
• Research questions
• What is the effect of hukou category on
  migration?
• Is there any difference in the migration of
  agricultural and non-agricultural populations?
• What cause hukou effects on migration?

7
Research methodology

• A large micro data set from 2000 census.
• sampling ratio of 0.095.
• Consists of 123,267 migrants
• 32,625 were inter-provincial migrants
• 36,706 were intra-provincial inter-county/district
  migrants
• 53,936 were intra county/district migrants
• This paper focuses on inter-provincial migrants

8
Table 2 Basic data on inter-provincial migrants
in China 1995-2000
9
Research methodology

• Index of dissimilarity Sij in education level
• Mik is of migrants with k level of education in
  migrant group i
• Mjk is of migrants with k level of education in
  migrant group j
• 0-25 no dissimilarity
• 25-50 slight dissimilarity
• 50-75 serious dissimilarity
• 75-100 very serious dissimilarity

10
Research methodology

• Migration attributes considered
• Gender
• Male and female
• Age
• 20 five-year age groups, 0-4 years . 95
• Education level
• illiterate/semi illiterate, primary school, lower
  secondary school, higher secondary/technical
  school, university
• Occupation
• Managers and administrators
• Professionals
• Clerks
• Sales and services workers
• Peasants
• Plant and machine operators
• Others

11
Research methodology

• Economic sector
• agriculture
• mining
• manufacturing
• utilities (including Power, gas and water supply
  Geological surveying and water management)
• building industry
• general services (including Transport,
  communication and storage Wholesale, retail and
  food services Social and personal services)
• finance and real estate (including Finance and
  insurance Real estate)
• professional services (including Health, sports
  and welfare Education, arts and media Research
  and technical services)
• public services (including Government and social
  organization)
• others

12
The impact of hukou category on migration
13
The impact of hukou category on migration
14
The impact of hukou category on migration

• Difference in education level of migrants
• Serious dissimilarity between agricultural and
  non-agricultural populations
• over 54 of agricultural population only have
  lower secondary education
• over 60 of non-agricultural population have
  higher secondary/technical school education
• Similar gap among temporary migrants
• The gap is the largest among permanent migrants
• As permanent migrants have lower educational
  level than temporary migrants among agricultural
  population
• Permanent migrants have higher educational level
  than temporary migrants among non-agricultural
  population

15
The impact of hukou category on migration
16
The impact of hukou category on migration

• The impact on occupation
• slight dissimilarity between migrants of
  agricultural and non-agricultural populations
• agricultural population
• 66.19 are plant and machine operators
• 18.96 are sales and services workers
• non-agricultural population
• 32.49 are plant and machine operators
• 20.44 are professionals
• 4.91 are managers and administrators

17
The impact of hukou category on migration

• The impact on occupation
• slight dissimilarity between temporary migrants
  of agricultural and non-agricultural populations
• Agricultural population has a high proportion of
• plant and machine operators
• Non-agricultural population has a high proportion
  of
• professionals
• managers and administrators

18
The impact of hukou category on migration

• The impact on occupation
• serious dissimilarity between permanent migrants
  of agricultural and non-agricultural populations
• 76.20 of agricultural population are peasants
• 37.73 of non-agricultural population are
  professionals

19
The impact of hukou category on migration
20
The impact of hukou category on migration
21
The impact of hukou category on migration

• The impact on economic sectors
• slight dissimilarity between migrants of
  agricultural and non-agricultural populations
• 56.54 of agricultural population engage in
  manufacturing sector
• Only 34.16 of non-agricultural population engage
  in manufacturing sector
• but 35.03 engage in general services
• 9.34 in professional services
• 3.96 in public services

22
The impact of hukou category on migration

• The impact on economic sectors
• slight dissimilarity between temporary migrants
  of agricultural and non-agricultural populations
• Both of them mainly engage in manufacturing and
  general services
• agricultural population has a higher proportion
  in manufacturing (59.78)
• non-agricultural population has a higher
  proportion in general services (37.92)

23
The impact of hukou category on migration

• The impact on economic sectors
• severe dissimilarity between permanent migrants
  of agricultural and non-agricultural populations
• agricultural population mainly engage in
  agriculture (76.27)
• non-agricultural population has higher
  proportions in professional services (20.39) and
  public services (10.47) than any other migrant
  groups

24
Explaining the impact of hukou category on
migration

• The difference in migration lies in different
  migration context
• stipulated by hukou category and hukou status
• Permanent migration is possible for migrants
  moving
• between rural areas (involving hukou category of
  agricultural population)
• between urban areas (involving hukou category of
  non-agricultural population)
• But permanent migration is still restricted
• from rural to urban areas
• from small cities to some large cities
• Temporary migration is possible

25
The impact of hukou category on migration
26
Explaining the impact of hukou category on
migration

• Four different migration flows
• temporary migrants mainly move to serve as manual
  labour or do business
• permanent migrants
• agricultural population mainly moves for marriage
• non-agricultural population mainly moves for
  education or training
• non-agricultural population also moves for job
  transfer

27
Explaining the impact of hukou category on
migration

• The different migration outcome of agricultural
  and non-agricultural populations is
• partly caused by the difference in their
  education level
• There is serious dissimilarity in education level
  between agricultural and non-agricultural
  populations
• Such gap exists among temporary migrants
• The gap is the largest among permanent migrants

28
The impact of hukou category on migration

• Implicit impact of hukou category on migrants
  occupation if the education level is controlled
• At education level below university
• No dissimilarity between agricultural and
  non-agricultural populations
• This is true for temporary migrants
• But severe dissimilarity between permanent
  migrants of agricultural and non-agricultural
  populations
• main occupation of agricultural population is
  peasants (71.25)
• main occupations of non-agricultural population
  are plant and machine operators (42.68), and
  sales and services workers (26.75)

29
The impact of hukou category on migration
30
The impact of hukou category on migration

• For migrants with university education and above
• There is slight dissimilarity in occupation
  between agricultural and non-agricultural
  populations
• True for both permanent and temporary migrants
• main occupations for agricultural population are
• plant and machine operators (39.81)
• professionals (22.22)
• a much higher proportion of non-agricultural
  population work as
• professionals (48.17)
• clerks (18.11)
• managers and administrators (9.37)

31
The impact of hukou category on migration
32
Conclusions

• Migrants of agricultural and non-agricultural
  populations are similar in age and gender
• There is difference in age among permanent
  migrants
• There is difference in education, occupation and
  economic sector between agricultural and
  non-agricultural populations
• Agricultural population has low education level
• Mainly engage in manufacturing as plant and
  machine operators (temporary) and in agriculture
  as peasants (permanent)
• Non-agricultural population
• More engage in general services, professional
  services and public services
• As professionals, managers and administrators

33
Conclusions

• The difference between the migration of
  agricultural and non-agricultural populations is
  caused by
• Difference in education level
• Migration context (different migration reasons)
• Implicit hukou effect especially those with
  university education and above

34
The 4th International Conference on Population
Geographies 10-13 July 2007 The Chinese
University of Hong Kong

• Conference website
• http//www.grm.cuhk.edu.hk/en/4ipgc.htm

35

• Thank You!