The Migration and Urbanization Dilemma in China

Migration in China
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Institution
Migration in China
Due to extreme rural-urban migration from the recent decades, rapid urbanization has taken place in China. The rates of migration have increased rapidly with long-term migration being the main trait. In China, migration characteristics are decided by personal decisions and joint decisions within households which agree sending their members that own comparative advantages in service and manufacturing, mainly young and male, to go to cities and work. Major destinations are big cities and coastal regions characterized by developed service and manufacturing activities. Migration in China is driven mainly by the aspiration to have higher incomes and acquire job opportunities that are better. Moreover, urban amenities and public services account partly in the flow of China’s population. However, there exist institutional barriers, such as hukou system and the segmentations in labor markets in urban areas, public services and social services which act as a hindrance inter-regional and rural-urban migration (Chan, 2012).
China’s population has witnessed urbanization rapidly in the recent 30 years of economic breakneck. During that period, the population in urban areas has increased from 26% to 56% and currently, it is estimated that more than 200 million migrants are working in China’s biggest cities. Many urban migrants move there with an aim of working for one to two decades and later return to their homes. This is motivated by the hukou system which s household registration system in China. The system links individual’s right to receive state welfare with the places that they were born. This means that, people can access state-subsidized government assistance such as healthcare and education only in the provinces that are their homes. In case they move to other places, they should either transfer the hukou or pay premiums in order to access the services. A majority of individuals are unable and unwilling to change their hukou and therefore end up being burdened with the urban residence status and costs of living which are inflated. Therefore, their plan is to save and eventually leave the city and go back to their birth land.
Since China is termed as developing nation, it is characterized by shortage of land for farming and farming practices have been labor intensive. From the year 2011, the share of workforce in agriculture decreased steadily, therefore a majority of labor force in China (36%) is employed in the service industry ( Statista, 2016). The construction sector also plays a major impact in changes in population in rural and urban areas in relation to people that are employed in the agriculture sector. Migration relating to labor is linked to disparities in incomes and wages in the country. The country sides of Chin are characterized by insufficient employments which are not gainful to people therefore, rural workers leave countryside. They move across different counties and provinces in order to make monetary gains from employment through being employed as casual workers or self-employment. A big percentage of people in the rural areas migrate to towns that are near them and a small percentage migrate to bigger cities that are on the c...