Børge Bakken
1998

Economic reform in China has led to an internal migration of people within the world’s most populous nation on a scale never seen before. Since China’s new industrial revolution began in the late 1970s, there has been a flow of tens of millions (perhaps even hundreds of millions) of surplus labour and their families moving from rural to urban areas. This phenomenon has been described in terms of both a blessing for China’s economic growth and a threat against its social order.
Contributors to this edited volume look at the different aspects of internal Chinese migration. The volume also briefly introduces current research and gives pointers to methodological traps and misunderstandings that can occur in the field.