| Emigration from China can be studied as a two-step process for rural residents. Initially, rural Chinese migrate from villages to cities. Then, they emigrate from these cities, which are typically large port cities, to other countries. When China relaxed constraints that had prevented rural Chinese from moving to the cities in the early 1980s, there was a large increase in both migration and emigration. In analyzing rural-to-urban migration, and subsequent emigration, patterns in China in 1990–1995, this paper argues that they are intertwined and that their correlation must be studied to explain the wave and continuity of the movement, together with the relationship of the ‘core’ and ‘periphery’, as these concepts are derived from the ‘world system theory’.; First, this paper demonstrates the importance of the distance between the rural origin-village and the destination-city, as well as the means of transportation between them, to the incidence of rural-to-urban migration. The lack of information and the complexity of the data have prevented other scholars from analyzing empirically the importance of either. Second, this paper demonstrates the importance of the social network in perpetuating migration and directing its flow over time from the destination-city to host-countries. Scholars have long recognized the importance of a social network, but this paper focuses on the impact of one particular type—the ‘village of oversea Chinese’ (Qiao Xiang). The paper demonstrates how social networks sustain emigration from generation to generation, particularly for less educated emigrants, by connecting current origins with previous emigrants.; Third, this paper deviates from the norm by analyzing the data from the perspective of the immigrant-sending country (China), rather than the host country. Specifically, it studies the determinants of migration and how population distribution is affected by an individual's demographic and household characteristics, socio-economic change, rural and urban reforms and government policies.; Finally, we suggest additional study in Chinese migration. Our data reveals a new, and substantial, rural-to-urban migration trend in the northwest provinces. Scholars have always focused their attention on coastal areas because of their location, historical socio-economic importance and the array of development incentives the Chinese government provided in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Our data demonstrates, however, substantial migration to central and northern areas in China, which was recently reinforced when Jiang Zheming, the Chinese president, indicated that those areas would be receiving increased investment and development.; We obtained the data we analyzed for this study from (i) 1% 1995 Chinese Population Survey; (ii) 1995 Chinese Urban Survey; (iii) China Time and Space; and (iv) 10% Sample of Chinese 1990 Population Census. Without these data sets, our research would have been impossible. |
