Multidimensional Distances and Internal Migration in China: Spatial Patterns, Driving Factors and Regional Heterogeneity

At the global scale, cross-border migration as well as intra-country migration is common. As an individual-level adaptive strategy, migration has an important impact on economic development, socio-political and cultural process. However, scholars have mostly focused on spatial-temporal variations, predictions about migration using models and individuals' behavior at the micro-level, only limiting researches that analyze migration from a multidimensional perspective. Therefore, in this paper, we focus on China's floating population, empirically reveal the spatial distribution trend of migration and its influence mechanisms by constructing a multidimensional distances model. Results show that (1) The net migrating population shows a community structure, with low-value area's agglomeration, and a multi-polar distribution in high-value areas, and some provincial capitals experiencing an obvious 'population filling' phenomenon. The migration flows are mainly from prefecture-level cities to capitals of the same province, and from neighboring cities to megacities such as Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin, etc. (2) After controlling the characteristic factors of the out-migrating place and the destination city, economic distance significantly promotes migration flows, while geographic, administrative and cultural distance hinders migration. (3) In different regions, there are significant differences in the mechanisms by which multidimensional distances affect migration. The study has constructed a relatively complete and unified analytical framework for the impact of multidimensional distances on migration, which can help enrich the study of migration in geography and provide scientific references for relevant policy formulations.