Rural To Urban Labor Migration In Developing Countries: Study On China, Compared With Arabian Countries

For the first time in history, more people now live in cities than in the countryside. Virtually all world population growth for at least the next fifty years will be in cities, and the cities of the developing world will absorb most of this increase.The distribution of the population has undergone major changes in the past fifty years, and will continue to experience significant transformations during the coming decades. While the developed world became mostly urban around 1950, developing regions, including Africa and Asia, which are still mostly rural today, will have more people living in urban areas than in rural areas by 2030.Chinese society has witnessed a continuing trend of nationwide rural to urban migration since the 1970s. Before that age, under restricted hukou systems, peasants were kept still and fixed in the farm land. The year 1978 and later years saw the control of migration in China was relaxed gradually, freeing peasants to start their own businesses and reach out to work also in urban areas, which drives industrialization, urbanization, and economic growth. The migration also encourages labor market development through labor mobility and labor reallocation. Migration in China is dominated by labor migration, which was caused by the rural reform that released surplus labor from agriculture. With economic development the size of migration keeps growing.Since then the "floating population" (migrants without local hukou) took great momentum and drew great attention from both the media and academia. The scale of such internal migration is enormous-the floating population has reached to a number of 79 million in 2000, and as of 2010, the number of migrant workers from rural China amounts to over 221million.and according to the annual survey results; the total migrant workers in china in 2012 amounted to 262.61 million, which refers to an increase of 9.83 million compared with the previous year with increase percentage by 3.9%.(National Bureau of Statistics 2012).and jump to about 245million by 2013.while in Algeria the total rural population continued to decline from 12 million in 2010 to about 11.95million in 2013.The Egyptian rural population jump from 44.48 million in 2010 into more than 46.75 million in 2013.(World Bank 2014)Before we-My tutor and I- start working on this topic, I tried to make enough review about many papers and projects discussed the problem of rural to urban migration, at that time I was thinking to select and discuss a topic which has some creation, I was looking for a topic that I help me to summarize a seven years experience of living in China without forgetting the place that I came from- Algeria-, I found that in China even this topic was discussed before from Chinese and foreign researchers but most of them focused on China’s big cities most were about Beijing, shanghai and Guangzhou including Shenzhen and I can say that was because the high urbanization growth on these provinces, I couldn’t find a study (specially English one) about Jiangxi province and Nanchang city.In Algeria and Egypt, the discussion scholar papers and research about this phenomenon are not enough yet; this study covered the second largest province in terms of population growth and also the creation of job opportunities in Algeria-Djelfa- and the capital of Egypt -Cairo- which received a huge number of rural migrants daily.Many previous studies had discussed the issue of rural to urban migration in China and others in Arab countries, but this study came with new way of researching by introducing the both regions -China & Arab countries- within same research paper. In addition, this dissertation aims to analyze in depth one strategy of action that is taken by many young men in rural poor areas and villages to deal with the difficult life and limited jobs opportunities that they face in their villages, under what we called rural to urban migration phenomenon, this research comes also with a newly focused topic, especially in collecting the experiences of Chinese and Arab countries in the same research field.From the human and social perspectives; this study intends to discuss the internal labor mobility and its impact on the labor market generally and the main factors related to the migration’decision and the governments’reactions.Another main task of this dissertation is to make a detailed explanation and analysis of Chinese rural to urban labor migration challenges an example of Jiangxi Province (China), the Algerian rural migrants an example of Djelfa Province, and the Egyptian Rural to urban labor migration issue and example of Cairo Province. The common problem faced by the three countries lead us to make the comparative study of this phenomenon in aim to get some lessons to learn from each other, and discuss the experiences of each country in solving the problems resulted by the rural to urban migration.This dissertation discussed the main common and different characteristics of China, Algeria and Egypt; which have significant impacts on the rural to rural migration in each country. Some common side such as; all are developing countries, the concern was about the rural migrants who moved into the cities to get better working and living conditions, all they live in poor rural villages which lack to the important public services, all are engaged on construction, industrial and other jobs with long working hours, low wages and dangerous environments due to their low education levels and lack of competitive skills and experiences, all are facing some social problems...etc.Other different sides between the three countries such as; the cultural backgrounds, the religion, history, the geographical characteristics of each country, the economy based sectors- the example of Algerian economy which based on hydrocarbon sector-, the population statistics’differences and population policies in each country are different,, the nature of internal migration -out provincial and inter provincial migration- which refers to differences the resident places of the migrants; stay living in the villages or rent/buy new house in the city, the differences in the government laws related to the ownership of land, the left behind children and wives in the villages, differences in the life styles and life priorities in each country, the rural gender workers differences...etc.The research is based on the data which has gotten from the questionnaire and in depth interviews which has adopted and conducted on November 2013 among 501 rural migrants in Nanchang city (China) industrial zones and construction projects areas,201 peasant workers from different sites in Cairo (Egypt) and 160 respondents in Djelfa city in Algeria, in addition to in depth interviews; 22 interviews with Chinese migrants and about 15 interviews made with Arab rural migrants.This dissertation will be divided into 8 Chapters; The First Chapter as introduction to the main topic, which will introduce the selection of topic, both of theoretical & practical significance of the research, the topic’related concepts the methodology adopted during the work, the general framework of the research and data collection process.Chapter 2 provides a brief description of the internal migration; about the world urban growth, population and regional differentials, the global trends of urbanization, the Challenges and negative externalities in urbanization. And then the research goes more deeply and focused on the phenomenon on developing countries and the issue of the impact of climate change on distribution of population and migration and the Mobility and circular migration in developing countries.Chapter 3, introduced the related literature review to the internal migration -from rural to urban areas- in both of China; starting with Marxist literature on labor transfer, studies of labor migration before and after the reform and Open policy. And Arabian countries -Algeria & Egypt-; focusing on those related to the topic of this dissertation and literatures about the integration of rural migrants in the urban societies. The different theories of rural to urban migration are also discussed in this chapter, in addition to the different factors affect and motivate the internal migration.Chapter 4; provides a closer Figure -Image- to the rural to urban migration in China and. It will include a general analysis of the internal migration phenomenon in China, the different phases of the rural to urban migration before open policy and recently, and the most recent estimates of internal migration streams, in addition to the trends and directions of rural to urban labor migration in china.Chapter 5 will include two parts the first one;about methodology by presenting and make a discussion of the research questions and the objectives of the study, the field questionnaire and the qualitative and the quantitative methods employed in the study, and the techniques of data manipulation and analysis in addition to the in depth interviews. While the second part of this Chapter will be the star of our case study; make brief introduction to the three countries (China, Algeria and Egypt), a general introduction and characteristics of the migrants, summary of in depth interviews we have made during our research in Jiangxi, Djelfa and Cairo, and the reason of their migration decision also will be discussed on this Chapter.Chapters 6 introduce the basic characteristics of migrant workers, by discussing the work status and experiences of migrants including occupation, type of work (contract, daily basis, or task-based), number of working days per week, number of working hours per day, and other related work aspects such as; the living conditions of the migrants in their origin-villages-and destination. And finally this Chapter will discuss the situation of migrant workers’rights and interests by investigate the family dynamics social rights and child labor in addition to the migrants’future plans. The comparative method also are made in this Chapter and the next one, in terms of the situation of working and living conditions for the Chinese and Arab rural migrants, the social rights and interests, compare how can different cultural and social backgrounds affect the migration decision.Chapter 7 will include three main sub titles about the family and population policies, starting by the spatial distribution of the population, internal migration and development in china and the Arab countries. And also another important type of rural to urban migration in Algeria & Egypt, which we called; Forced migration as result of other external reasons which forced the rural residents to leave their villages and move to the city. This Chapter introduces the different policies adopted by the three countries-China, Algeria and Egypt-, and the experience of each country in this field in aim to control or to guide the rural to urban labor migration, and also to compare and see who much do these policies successes to guide the migration to the right way. The various factors affecting the rural to urban labor migration in China and Arab Countries also discussed in this Chapter.Finally, the conclusions and policy implications of the research will be presented in Chapter 8, which will also summarize the main common & different sides among the three countries (China, Algeria and Egypt), the main findings of the research. The chapter also provides phenomenon impacts on both of receiving and sending regions, on the migrants themselves and their families, the challenge of child labor and second migrants generation, as well as suggested mechanisms to the three countries and what lessons we can learn from the experiences of each other. In addition to some important points suggested for future research, and make a critical evaluation of the research strategy employed in the thesis. This thesis discussed the challenge of rural to urban growth in China, Algeria and Egypt by studying the basic socio-demographic characteristics of the migrants, their working and living conditions, educational backgrounds, experiences and their future plans, identifying the rural to urban migration’motive, push and pull factors for migrating in aim to find work and income opportunities. And finally tried to make a simple comparison of the three countries migrants’living and working conditions in the city and in places of origin (the socio-educational backgrounds, rights and interests, different governments’policies...etc)This dissertation analyzes 1.the details & the nature of the work before and after the migration decision; how did the workers migrate and how did they find the jobs in the city? 2. How is the living and working conditions in the city and how it was in the village? 3. How much is their consumption and saving -remittances- from the income in the city? 3. Do the migrants get all their rights and interests in the city? 4. What are the future plans of the migrants? 5. The three -China, Algeria and Egypt- governments’ policies in aim to control/guide the huge inflows of rural population into the cities and 6. How do these mechanisms and policies successes in some cases and fails in others.This paper examines patterns of internal migration as a response of emigrations in the context of high emigration communities. Therefore, solving the problem of migrant workers in cities does not fundamentally solve the problem of all farmers.As conclusion from this study we made some suggestions and points of views in aim to help solving -at least- some of the negative externalities of the rural to urban migration; the rural Migrants are less educated than the urban areas citizens, they are the poorest, working and living in bad conditions, and most of them lack to the experiences needed in city’ works, and it is precisely this poverty, often linked to landless and large families, which motivated them to migrate. Also, they do not live a complete social life in the city.After the completion of this study and after three years working on this research we come out with three important conclusions;1. The Unbalance between the urban and rural regions in terms of job opportunities, social insurances and rights, the public services, the working and living conditions..etc. all of that lead the rural migrant to leave their hometowns and move to the city for better life.2. Taking other countries experiences on consideration maybe can’t provide a quick, ready and easy solutions to implement but in many cases others experiences can create a new solutions appropriate to our country’ characteristics and unique situation, if not; at least it can let us to avoid others mistakes and faults.3. All the societies’members take the responsibility of this phenomenon; the urban residents, the governments’authorities, the rural residents-migrants’ families-, and the migrants themselves.For that we summarize some suggestions-which are discussed in Chapter 8- to all the members;1. That emigration of individuals initially deterred both interprovincial and intra-provincial migration of other family members, and yet, overtime they had an increasing propensity to migrate internally at both scales.2. Make balance between urban and rural areas in terms of living standards, public services, job opportunities...etc.3. Attention to the governments’ laws in use and ownership rights of lands and land contractual management,4. Allow the rural migrants to get benefits from income distribution’ rights.5. Create job opportunities near to the villages to avoid leaving houses in the villages from the migrants,6.build some industrial factories that can’t be done in cities,7.give more attention to the touristic places located near to rural villages-especially in Egypt- and support the investments there, 8. Support the agriculture investments and projects proposed by rural residents and provide all the facilities they need — Loans and taxes...etc.