Rural Migrant Labour in Large Chinese Cities - Survey Data

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In recent decades there has been a surge of migration from rural to urban areas in China after a long period of suppression under the household registration system. This has been driven not only by rapid economic growth in large urban areas but also by low fertility levels in those areas, leading to a decline in the native workforce growth. Without “replacement migration” urban growth would not be sustainable and this is not sufficiently appreciated. This pioneering project investigates the nature of this migration and its drivers by linking labour market segmentation to uneven demographic changes. Data collection in this project provides empirical evidence for the objective mentioned above. The Research Project was funded by an ARC Discovery Grant “Rural Migrant Labour in large Chinese cities”. 1600 people from 4 Chinese cities (Shanghai, Tianjin, Beijing and Guangzhou) were surveyed about migration experience. There were two groups: 1) People who had migrated to the cities from rural areas 2) Local residents of the cities The two groups were surveyed and their responses were compared. - What % of workforce are rural migrants? - Which industries and sectors? - What is their income level and occupation? The aim was to identify factors which determine an individual’s success in the labour market. There were also 400 enterprise questionnaires across multiple sectors, usually answered by HR Managers or Executives on behalf of the enterprise. The data is respondents’ answers to the questions in structured questionnaire. There was also checkpoint data from the 1990s. Process: Interviews were conducted by hired interviewers. The questionnaire was originally filled out on paper, then responses were entered into a database. The contents were then transferred to SPSS. The paper questionnaire forms and database were not retained.