EQ1: What are the impacts of globalisation on international migration?
Emigrant is a migrant leaving the country.
Immigrant is the migrant entering the country.
Rural- urban migration within China Emerging economy
- Open door policy promoted people to leave rural areas; factories open = jobs.
Contrasting to the communist lifestyle. Population is still given freedom to move
- Rural – urban migration; more jobs due to FDI investment in the cities. Also better
lifestyle, health, services, education.
- 1978 (open door policy) only 20% of population in urban cities, now = 55%+
- Predicted nearly 1 billion people by 2020 in cities.
- Economic core = coastline.
- More factories are opening in rural areas (periphery) = cheaper land.
- 2 main flows of rural migrants:
o rural migrants moving to small cities into China’s central region.
o migrants moving from smaller cities to major east coastlines and industrial
areas.
- There are barriers to migration within China, known as the Hukou (household
registration) system. everyone is registered at an official residence.
o 1950s Chinese communist revolution.
o The new communist government introduced restrictions on internal
migration that were designed to keep people in rural areas.
o Hard for migrant workers from rural areas to change their official residence
to a new location.
o Those moving to cities from rural areas must be ‘registered’ and buy a
permit, which is expensive.
o Some permits allow permanent migration, but normally only to highly
educated workers or those who have family already legally resident in the
city.
o Without a permit, hukou workers earn less and their families have no
entitlement to schooling or health care.
o 2/3 of urban migrants are therefore men, and women and children often
remain in rural areas.
o Now that China depends so much on manufacturing and service industries
are within cities, the hukou system has become too restrictive.
o Acts as a barrier to urban integration for man Chinese, and there’s pressure
on the transport system during holidays, where worker commute home.
Core- periphery system: uneven spatial distribution of national population and wealth
between 2(+) regions of a country, leading to flows of migrants, trade, and investment.
Backwash: flows of people, investment and resources directed from peripheral to core
regions. This is the reason for polarisation of regional prosperity between regions within the
country.