Volume 41 - Article 34 | Pages 1007–1020  

Investigating China's inter-prefecture migration from a place attractivity perspective, its spatial patterns, and demographic characteristics

By Yaojun Zhang, Danlin Yu, Qiao Cen

Abstract

Background: Urbanization has been regarded as a strategic process to alleviate rural poverty, support local economic growth, and facilitate national sustainable development in China. Scholars have long realized that urbanization is a comprehensive process that can be understood through studies of population migration among places where population flows occur.

Objective: Place attractivity is a concept derived from the place interaction model, which measures the ability for urban areas to attract migrants, hence the “ability” of urbanization. By studying the spatial patterns of China’s place attractivity, the study attempts to depict the current migration and urbanization dynamics in China and support sustainable urbanization strategies in China.

Methods: The Relative Intrinsic Attractivity (RIA) index provides an excellent quantification strategy to measure place attractivity. With data obtained at the prefecture level from China’s 2005 1% census sampling survey (the most recent of such data), the study calculated RIA for each prefecture units and various population groups.

Results: The results suggest that cities in central China have the lowest place attractivity. There is a diverging trend of China’s place attractivity with a rather unbalanced urban system development. Cities of different sizes have a different place attractivity, with large cities having the highest attractivity. A city’s attractivity also varies between population groups.

Contribution: The study suggests from a place attractivity perspective that urbanization in China requires careful coordination and planning. The top priority for China’s urbanization is to devise relevant policies and support rational and sustainable industrial development in small cities and towns to increase their attractivity.

Author's Affiliation

• Yaojun Zhang - Renmin University of China, China EMAIL
• Danlin Yu - Montclair State University, United States of America EMAIL
• Qiao Cen - Shanghai Bureau of Civil Servants, China EMAIL

Most recent similar articles in Demographic Research

Between money and intimacy: Brideprice, marriage, and women’s position in contemporary China
Volume 50 - Article 46    | Keywords: brideprice, China, divorce, family, family law, gender inequalities, marriage

Moving towards gender equality in China: The influence of migration experiences on rural migrants’ gender role attitudes
Volume 49 - Article 14    | Keywords: China, culture, gender attitudes, gender roles, rural-urban migration

Metropolitan racial residential segregation in the United States: A microlevel and cross-context analysis of Black, Latino, and Asian segregation
Volume 46 - Article 8    | Keywords: assimilation, locational attainments, place, segmented assimilation, segregation, spatial assimilation, stratification

The role of premarital cohabitation in the timing of first birth in China
Volume 45 - Article 8    | Keywords: childbearing, childlessness, China, cohabitation, demographic transition, fertility, timing

A potential new pattern of pathway to adulthood is emerging in China
Volume 44 - Article 42    | Keywords: China, life course, sequence analysis, state policies, transition to adulthood