CERDI - Centre d'Etudes et de Recherches sur le Développement International

Auteur(s) : PONCET [S] , ZHU [N]

Abstract / Résumé : The main objective of this paper is to evaluate the impact of globalization on internal migrations using data on Chinese provinces. The opening-up policy launched by Chinese authorities at the end of the 1970s, has resulted in widening regional disparities in terms of income and job opportunities that motivated large movements of workers from depressed areas to those offering more prosperous prospects. Our results, based on migrations flows registered on the 1985-2000 period, emphasize that migration choices in China are driven by spatial job opportunity search: differentials of wage and job opportunities prompt redundant workers to engage into migration. Globalization reinforces the capacity of absorption of workers in a given province so that it reduces their incentives to engage into inter-provincial migration. In addition, once workers decide to move outside of their location of origin, they tend to be attracted to outward-oriented provinces. This phenomenon is however weakened by the degree of labor market fragmentation. Alternatively, diversification into a knowledge based economy reinforces the attractive impact of openness for urban migrants.

Keywords / Mots Clés : labor market , Internal migration , China , Globalization