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Economic opportunities are considered a primary determinant of human migration, but their explanatory power in Communist China has been limited because of strong government intervention in controlling migration and in planned population transfers. Since the late 1970s, however, economic reform has brought about changes in China's regional economies and generated new push and pull forces for migration, and the relaxation of migration restrictions has created greater opportunities for nongovernment-induced migration. Using data primarily from the 1990 census, I review the spatial patterns of migration and the characteristics of the new migrants. A case study of Guangdong Province reveals that its attractiveness to migrants from other provinces and its intra-provincial migration patterns are attributable to differentials in per capita output and foreign investment. The findings support the argument that China has entered a new era of migration in which present and expected economic opportunities are important explanations for the volume and directions of population movement.
Notes
*This research was partially supported by research grants from the UCLA Academic Senate and the UCLA International Studies and Overseas Program. I would like to thank John Lam and Yehua Wei for research assistance, Chase Langford and Ken Schwarz for producing some maps and graphs, and three anonymous referees for their comments, which helped to improve earlier versions of the paper.
