URBANIZATION IN CHINA, 1982-87 - EFFECTS OF MIGRATION AND RECLASSIFICATION

Despite strictures on urban growth and on migration to cities, statistics for China show a sharp increase in the level of urbanization in the late 1980s, a massive increase in the number of cities and towns and the size of the population living in them, and large flows of migrants from rural to urban localities. Several developments help explain these striking deviations from what Chinese policy would lead one to expect: while China has tried to control city growth, planners have also recognized the role that large cities can play in overall development. The administrative/statistical criteria for qualifying as a city or town have changed; in consequence, many localities have been added to the roster of cities and towns, essentially by administrative fiat. Under China's registration system the rural-to-urban flow of temporary migrants, often referred to as the "floating population,' allows urban places to meet their special labor force and service needs, helps reduce the rural labor surplus, and avoids burdening cities with the responsibility for absorbing vast numbers of migrants into their permanent population. -Author