The document discusses internal migration trends in China. It notes that 44% of China's population lived in cities in 2008, and projections estimate that urbanites will be the majority by 2015. Each year, the urban population swells by 15-20 million people through migration from rural areas seeking better jobs, which may constitute the largest peacetime migration in history. However, China's hukou system of household registration ties people to their place of birth, restricting migration and creating a "floating population" of 132 million migrant workers in 2006. While some local governments are relaxing the hukou system, it has historically maintained a large temporary migrant workforce rather than allowing permanent urbanization.

1. Internal
Migration
China

2. Wall Street Journal: On the Move, April 12, 2008

3. Wall Street Journal: On the Move, April 12, 2008
In 2008 44% of China's population lives in cities.

4. Wall Street Journal: On the Move, April 12, 2008
In 2008 44% of China's population lives in cities.
Projections say urbanites will be the majority by 2015 or earlier.

5. Wall Street Journal: On the Move, April 12, 2008
In 2008 44% of China's population lives in cities.
Projections say urbanites will be the majority by 2015 or earlier.
The urban population is swelling by roughly 15 million to 20 million each
year, perhaps the largest peacetime migration in history.

6. Wall Street Journal: On the Move, April 12, 2008
In 2008 44% of China's population lives in cities.
Projections say urbanites will be the majority by 2015 or earlier.
The urban population is swelling by roughly 15 million to 20 million each
year, perhaps the largest peacetime migration in history.
Migrants move for a chance to exchange a life of subsistence agriculture
for better-paid jobs in the cities, such as construction or factory work.

7. Wall Street Journal: On the Move, April 12, 2008

8. Wall Street Journal: On the Move, April 12, 2008
For decades, China's government has restricted migration through the
household-registration system, called hukou or huji.

9. Wall Street Journal: On the Move, April 12, 2008
For decades, China's government has restricted migration through the
household-registration system, called hukou or huji.
The system ties Chinese to their place of birth; residents can receive
official education, health care and other services only where they are
registered.

10. Wall Street Journal: On the Move, April 12, 2008
For decades, China's government has restricted migration through the
household-registration system, called hukou or huji.
The system ties Chinese to their place of birth; residents can receive
official education, health care and other services only where they are
registered.
The system is one reason China has lagged behind many other
developing countries in making the transition to an urban society. For
instance, Latin America and South America were already majority urban
by the mid-1960s.

11. Wall Street Journal: On the Move, April 12, 2008

12. Wall Street Journal: On the Move, April 12, 2008
Many migrants remain trapped in a halfway existence, where it is
administratively difficult for them to settle down in the city where they
work but economically impossible to remain in their rural village.

13. Wall Street Journal: On the Move, April 12, 2008
Many migrants remain trapped in a halfway existence, where it is
administratively difficult for them to settle down in the city where they
work but economically impossible to remain in their rural village.
China's "floating population" - rural people working outside their home
village - totaled 132 million in 2006, according to a survey by the
country's National Bureau of Statistics.

14. Wall Street Journal: On the Move, April 12, 2008
Many migrants remain trapped in a halfway existence, where it is
administratively difficult for them to settle down in the city where they
work but economically impossible to remain in their rural village.
China's "floating population" - rural people working outside their home
village - totaled 132 million in 2006, according to a survey by the
country's National Bureau of Statistics.
The government's judgment has been, in effect, that maintaining a huge
temporary migrant population is better than overwhelming cities with a
permanent influx of people.

15. Wall Street Journal: On the Move, April 12, 2008

16. Wall Street Journal: On the Move, April 12, 2008
Small cities have relaxed their hukou rules, making it comparatively easy
for newcomers to register and settle down.

17. Wall Street Journal: On the Move, April 12, 2008
Small cities have relaxed their hukou rules, making it comparatively easy
for newcomers to register and settle down.
Other local governments are experimenting with a hukou system that
does away with the distinction between rural and urban residents of the
same district - so farmers can easily and officially move to a city in their
home district.

18. Wall Street Journal: On the Move, April 12, 2008
Small cities have relaxed their hukou rules, making it comparatively easy
for newcomers to register and settle down.
Other local governments are experimenting with a hukou system that
does away with the distinction between rural and urban residents of the
same district - so farmers can easily and officially move to a city in their
home district.
Changing the place of one's hukou has also become a somewhat easier
and less exceptional procedure.

19. WSJ: China Fears Restive Migrants As Jobs Disappear in
Cities, December 2, 2008

20. WSJ: China Fears Restive Migrants As Jobs Disappear in
Cities, December 2, 2008
China's roaring industrial economy has been abruptly quieted by the
effects of the global financial crisis.
Rural provinces that supplied much of China's factory manpower are
watching the beginnings of a wave of reverse migration.
Fast-rising unemployment has led to an unusual series of strikes and
protests.

21. WSJ: China Fears Restive Migrants As Jobs Disappear in
Cities, December 2, 2008

22. WSJ: China Fears Restive Migrants As Jobs Disappear in
Cities, December 2, 2008
The Government tries to calm tensions in the cities, it also fears that
newly unemployed migrants returning home could upend the already-
strained social system in the countryside.

23. WSJ: China Fears Restive Migrants As Jobs Disappear in
Cities, December 2, 2008
The Government tries to calm tensions in the cities, it also fears that
newly unemployed migrants returning home could upend the already-
strained social system in the countryside.
Officials are keeping 24-hour tabs on arrivals to monitor how many of the
migrants will return industrial centers.

24. WSJ: China Fears Restive Migrants As Jobs Disappear in
Cities, December 2, 2008
The Government tries to calm tensions in the cities, it also fears that
newly unemployed migrants returning home could upend the already-
strained social system in the countryside.
Officials are keeping 24-hour tabs on arrivals to monitor how many of the
migrants will return industrial centers.
Despite Beijing's efforts to persuade workers to stay in cities and train for
potential new jobs.