Human capital agglomeration,institutional barriers,and internal migration in China

This paper investigates how human capital agglomeration interplays with institutional factors to affect migration destination choice in China. Over the last decades, China has experienced massive internal migration, substantial human capital investment, and the relaxation of its hukou system, thus providing us with a valuable opportunity to examine the role of human capital externality in migration choice. Based on rich data on province-to-province migration flows for different education and hukou groups, we find that migrants in China, especially highly educated and urban-to-urban migrants, have a strong preference to move to provinces with a high agglomeration of human capital. Further examination reveals that low-skilled migrants in China are less likely to benefit from human capital agglomeration because of their lower ability to overcome hukou restrictions. Our findings raise the concern that labor migration under the skill-biased hukou system would enlarge China's regional disparities in human capital and economic development.     

Unveiling various spatial patterns of determinants of hukou transfer intentions in China: A multi-scale geographically weighted regression approach

As the floating population has become a vital issue influencing China's economic and social development and aroused broad concern, many scholars have paid attention to the factors that influence settlement intentions of the floating population, while their spatial differences are usually neglected in extant studies. To rectify this situation, this study employs a multi-scale geographically weighted regression model to investigate the spatial pattern of determinants on hukou transfer intentions of the floating population, based on the data of the China Migrants Dynamic Survey in 2016. The results demonstrate that the effects of various determinants present different spatial patterns: part of significance pattern (the average residence time in destination cities, the ratio of rural hukou holders, the number of flows, the ratio of family income to family expenditure, the geographical location), the “East-West” pattern (the ratio of self-employed migrants, the average wage of employed workers), the “Southwest-Northeast” pattern (the ratio of migrants in the secondary industry, the ratio of sharing town employees' social insurance, the ratio of floating population accompanied by children in destination cities, and the population density of municipal districts). Cities of different conditions should formulate different policies that are sensitive to their contexts.     

How does tolerance affect urban innovative capacities in China?

This study investigated how urban cultural and economic tolerance affects urban innovative capacities based on China's prefecture‐level cities. Several tolerance indices, including ratios of migrants, rental housing, gay people, and private economies were introduced and the cities’ tolerance scores were measured using factor analysis. The results show that cities with higher cultural and economical tolerant scores were agglomerated in three metropolitan areas in China's southeastern coastal region. The spatial regression model demonstrates that urban cultural and economic tolerance increases urban innovation output and promotes innovation capacities. We also introduced the crime rate as an instrumental variable and found that the effect of tolerance on innovation remains robust. Our study suggests it is important for the Chinese government to establish an open and tolerant environment to attract migrants, creative artists, and entrepreneurs to foster urban vitality and improve urban innovative capacities.     

Practices of place‐making: Globalisation and locality in the Philippines

Abstract: Global flows of people and information in the Asia–Pacific region are creating new forms of place that stretch across national boundaries and rural–urban distinctions. These new mobile forms of place link long‐inhabited rural areas to cities, national centres, and to rural frontiers within the nation. Here, we describe new forms of place that are being produced by contemporary migration and economic change, using data from the Philippines and applying Appadurai's theorisation of translocality. Our analysis links these flows of overseas migrants to concomitant processes of economic change, migration and new rural livelihoods. We outline changing practices of place within the Philippines, exploring ways that transnational migration can articulate with apparently ‘local’ development and the flow‐on effects from migration on the spatial patterns of rural livelihoods.     

Internal Migration in Mexico: Consolidation of Urban–Urban Mobility, 2000–2015

Internal migration has been recognized as the major influence in terms of population redistribution across urban systems, but it is not a homogeneous phenomenon. Within the context of internal rural‐urban migration decline and the negative changes in migratory balances in the metropolitan area of Mexico City, the core of enquiry in this paper is the approach to growth and consolidation of an internal urban–urban migration system in the early twenty‐first century (2000–2015). This process has taken place through two main networks, among metropolitan areas not corresponding to the principal city and among intermediate cities. Internal migration is a complex process that involves both individual and spatial characteristics and which leads to spatially uneven development in the long term. Data from three censuses of the population of Mexico (2000, 2010, and 2015) show a transition to a more urban–urban migration pattern, with skilled migrants tending to have metropolitan and urban destinations, whereas less‐skilled migrants prefer rural and small urban destinations.     

The Shifting Destinations of Metropolitan Migrants in the U.S., 2005–2011

Recent estimates that central cities are growing faster than their suburbs in the U.S. have captured the attention of both academics and the popular media. Many commentators have used these numbers to claim that internal migration trends in the U.S. have reached a turning point, in which migrants increasingly prefer urban residences to suburban locales. However, these assertions often rely on problematic definitions of city and suburb, and pay too little attention to demographic variations among migrants. This paper examines whether recent internal migrants in the U.S. are choosing closer‐in destinations, drawing from microdata samples from the American Community Survey since 2005. During this period, there is an overall trend of migrants to the largest metropolitan areas in the U.S. choosing to migrate closer to the metropolitan core. However, this trend varies significantly among major demographic groups; whereas younger, single, educated, and white‐collar migrants show evidence of a return to the core, migrants who are blue‐collar, less‐educated, older, and with families remain more suburban. In turn, this analysis suggests that overall trends of “back to the city” migration are producing considerable divergence in the metropolitan destinations of different demographic groups.     

Divided communities and contested landscapes: Mobility,development and shifting identities in migrant destination sites in Papua New Guinea

Abstract: Internal conflicts at the local and national levels in several South Pacific countries have revealed the fragility of national unity and the difficulties nations face in governing and managing their own economic development. In Papua New Guinea, the focus of this paper, an uncertain economic future for many rural and urban communities, and rising inequalities in income opportunities and access to resources, have coincided with greater intolerance of migrants at sites of high in‐migration by customary landowners and provincial and local authorities. This paper draws on fieldwork undertaken in the major oil palm growing regions of Papua New Guinea where migrants from densely populated regions of the country have settled on state land alienated from customary landowners. We examine how struggles over land, resource control and development are polarising migrant and landowner identities resulting in increasing tensions and episodic communal violence. A settler identity is emerging based on a narrative of nation building and national development, while an ethno‐regional identity amongst customary landowners is undermining the citizen rights of migrants and challenging the role and authority of the state in land matters.     

Migration and circulation as a way of life for the Wosera Abelam of Papua New Guinea

Migration and circulation are now an integral part of the socio-economy of the Wosera Abelam of Papua New Guinea. Since the 1950s large numbers of Wosera Abelam have settled in West New Britain (WNB) towns and government sponsored resettlement schemes. These long-term migrants provide a base in WNB for temporary migrants from the Wosera seeking work or a break from village life. This paper explores the linkages between temporary and long-term migrants in WNB, and between migrants and their relatives remaining in the village. We argue that migration is now a ‘way of life’ for the Wosera Abelam, and is, to a large extent, underpinned by indigenous (precapitalist) social and economic relations.     

A quantitative analysis of Hukou reform in Chinese cities: 2000–2016

This paper documents the changes in China's Hukou reform before and after 2014 based on a unique data set of Hukou policy documents from Chinese cities between 2000 and 2016. We construct a Hukou registration index to measure the stringency of local Hukou qualification in Chinese cities. There are four main channels for migrants to get local urban Hukou: investment, home purchase, talent program, and employment. The requirements of the four channels have large variations across different tiers of cities between the two periods of 2000–2013 and 2014–2016. First‐tier and some second‐tier cities set high criteria for local Hukou registration that have become more stringent over time, while other cities have much lower requirements. The point account system for Hukou registration shows that cities have different preferences over workers eligible for local urban Hukou. The quantitative measures developed in this paper can be used to study a variety of topics on the social and economic consequences of labor mobility barriers.     

Miao migrants to Shanghai: Multilocality,invisibility and ethnicity

This paper reports on a recent research project into rural–urban labour migrants in Shanghai, China, who are members of ethnic minorities, inquiring into the role of ethnicity in national labour migration. It introduces some of the main features of the ethnic nationalities (minzu) in China and considers some of the literature on rural–urban migration in China which may be considered as relevant to ethnicity. The case of a Miao minority family in Shanghai is described in detail to argue that what remains important to them in the city is not their formal ethnic affiliation (minzu) so much as a sub‐ethnic identity of connectedness and intimacy, importantly related to kinship and place.     

The impact of equalisation of basic public health and medical services on the long-term urban settlement intentions of internal migrants in China

Using China Migrants Dynamic Survey Project data from 2012 to 2018, this paper evaluates the causal impact of equalisation of basic public health and medical services on the long-term urban settlement intentions of internal migrants by the difference-in-differences approach. The results reveal that the equalisation of basic public health and medical services has a negative impact on the long-term urban settlement intentions of internal migrants of 4%. Male, middle-aged, and unmarried internal migrants have a much stronger negative response, in terms of long-term urban settlement intentions, to changes in basic public health and medical services. Moreover, more recent internal migrants, those in first-tier cities and those in cities in eastern regions also have a much stronger negative response. Mechanism checks imply that the negative impact on the long-term urban settlement intentions of internal migrants is caused by social integration decline after implementation of equalisation of basic public health and medical services.     

Geographics of identity: the migrant experiences of Filipinas in Northeast Ohio

Major urban areas in the United States have undergone rapid shifts in their ethnic compositions. However, ethnic change is not limited to urban areas; rural areas, likewise, have witnessed substantial changes in recent decades. Scholarship, though, has paid minimal attention to the day–to–day lives of migrants in non–urban, and ethnically–homogenous, locations. And yet the ‘migrant experience’ is fundamentally different. Using Friedman’s concept of a ‘geographics of identity’, this paper provides insight into the day–to–day activities of two Filipinas as they adjust to living in rural northeast Ohio. Findings suggest that difficulties may accrue at a multitude of social scales, including tensions and contestations not only between Filipinas and non–Filipinas, but also among the Filipinas themselves. Moreover, the constant ‘becoming’ of identity is highlighted through their experiences.     

Urban growth in a post-2000 central Chinese urban agglomeration: Case study of the Changzhutan region

The rapid development of coastal urban agglomerations in China has gained global attention since the 1980s. Recently, several regions in the Central China have also experienced rapid economic development. The objectives of this paper are to explore whether the spatial pattern of urban growth in Central China's urban agglomerations is the same as those costal ones and whether it is driven by anything other than external forces. Using the Changzhutan region as an example, this study analyses the economic transformation and spatial restructuring of the populations in urban agglomerations in Central China and explores the driving factors of urban growth using regression models. We find that most of the population is concentrated in prefecture-level city districts and county seats, which is markedly different from the large-scale regional population agglomerations found in the coastal urban agglomerations. Domestic investment, instead of foreign investment, and human capital, has become important factors driving the population migration. This finding sharply contrasts with the pattern found in coastal urban agglomerations, where regional concentrations of the population and economic activities are primarily driven by labour-intensive and global economies. This case study may serve as a basis for future urban planning and management in Central China.     

Asia and the Pacific on the move: workers and refugees,a challenge to nation states

In the last 30 years international migration has been transformed from being of little or no significance in Asia to being of substantial economic, social, political and demographic importance. Two types of migration which have increased greatly in significance since the 1970s are international labour migration and refugee movements. Throughout most of the last two decades Asia has had more refugees than any other world region, although numbers have declined in the 1990s with the success of resettlement and repatriation programmes for Indochinese refugees. On the other hand, international labour migration has continued to increase in scale and importance, with the majority of workers moving between Asian countries in the 1990s, although the Middle East remains an important destination. It is argued that two elements, proliferating migrant social networks and the emergence of a vibrant immigration industry, have given a momentum to international migration which to some extent limits the power of nation states to control it. There is some concern among countries in the region that the increase in migration is creating excessive economic dependence upon the export of labour. Fears that migration threatens social cohesion depend upon the extent to which migrants settle permanently in destination areas.     

Negotiating China's rise: The dynamics of Chinese business associations and the Belt and Road Initiative in Brunei Darussalam

With an increasingly assertive China and the intensifying influence of the Sinocentre, Chinese overseas who have access to Chineseness can exercise their agentic power in using their cultural capital for economic gains. Beijing has recognised the potential for diasporic Chinese entrepreneurs to contribute to the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) given their influence in Southeast Asia's economy. Correspondingly, these entrepreneurs hail the BRI as a strategic opportunity for them to turn their cultural capital into fiscal capital. Considering the increased global connectivity and new Chinese migration geographies led by the BRI, this article examines the case of Chinese business associations in Brunei Darussalam. The heterogenous responses of these ethnic Chinese and their associations to China and the BRI attest to the multiplicity and contestations of Chineseness based on different migration histories and sentiments to their ancestral land. We focus on the dynamics between the old Chinese Bruneian business elites and the more recent Chinese business migrants from Malaysia and China. An investigation of the cultural and economic politics within the Chinese Bruneian business community will provide insights into the modality of Chineseness as an economic asset that can be tactically used by diasporic Chinese entrepreneurs to maintain their social position and to respond to China's economic rise.     

Labor Market Segmentation in Urumqi,Xinjiang: Exposing Labor Market Segments and Testing the Relationship between Migration and Segmentation

Labor market segmentation and migration are two phenomena that are dramatically reshaping the spatial, economic, and social relationships of many urban cities in both developed and developing countries. To this point, the bulk of Chinese literature falls within the context of area studies, without much effort to link Chinese migration and emerging labor market outcomes to larger global trends and discourse. This research attempts to link the body of internal Chinese migration and emerging labor markets to labor market segmentation theory, primarily developed by urban economists and sociologists. My findings provide evidence that applying labor market segmentation theory to examine emerging markets in China offers fruitful results that help to identify the new urban stratification that exists in China. I employ a set of quantitative methods using employee‐level field data that I collected in Urumqi in 2008 to identify distinct segments within Urumqi's labor market and argue that migration is a major driver of labor market segmentation. Cluster analysis shows Uyghur minorities and women are found to be overwhelmingly concentrated in the lower sector, composed mostly of “bad” jobs. Discriminant analysis reveals that migrant status and ethnicity are the most important variables that deepen the gap among the labor market segments. The social inequality created as a result of market segmentation can partially explain Uyghur discontent in the region and the July 2009 riots, one of the worst riots in Xinjiang's modern history.     

Spatial (Im)mobility and Accessibility in Ireland: Implications for Transport Policy

Recent social research that links people's position in society to their ability to access employment has shown the centrality of spatial mobility in the (re)production of patterns of inequality. This is particularly evident in regions where economic activity is unevenly distributed and concentrated in an urban centre and where daily travel patterns reflect a spatial segregation between places of work and residential areas. This paper presents a spatial analysis of accessibility to employment for Galway City and its environs, a predominantly rural region in the West of Ireland dominated by its urban centre. Travel‐to‐work data from the 2006 Census of Population of Ireland were used to present a comparison of district‐specific accessibility levels across three socio‐economic groups. Network analysis and Geographic Information System visualisation tools are used to map existing socio‐spatial topographies of (in)accessibility. This is done to test two contrasting sets of theoretical proposals in the social science literature regarding the relationship between spatial mobility and social status. Advocates of the first position conceptualise spatial mobility as a form of capital that helps to maintain many existing social hierarchies. This contrasts with the views of those who anticipate the dissolution of established social boundaries (“fluidification”) as a result of increased spatial mobility of people, goods, and ideas. It is argued that these contrasting positions are highly relevant to current transport policy debates, including discussions around the impacts of recession‐related cuts in transport infrastructure investment on patterns of accessibility. In addition, they encourage reflection on the impacts of sustainable transport initiatives on different social groups that are more or less mobility disadvantaged, a fact that has hitherto received little attention in policy research and practice.     

Whether polycentric spatial structure is conducive to regional coordinated development: A study on urban agglomerations in China

With the aggravation of congestion, pollution, and other negative externalities generated by continued urbanization, polycentric strategies have gradually become one of the main urban and regional spatial strategies. It remains unclear, however, whether the polycentric structure is conducive to regional coordinated development. This study examines these issues using China's urban agglomerations (UAs) as a sample. The Prolonged Artificial Nighttime-light Dataset of China (PANDA) was used to measure the polycentric structure. The results of the nonparametric identification of sub-centers show that almost all of China's UAs exhibit multiple (sub)centers, and the number of (sub)centers in most UAs has increased from 1992 to 2020. Empirical analysis shows that a polycentric structure is beneficial for narrowing regional disparities within the UA, and the narrowing effect of the polycentric structure on regional disparities increases as the distance between centers increases. Furthermore, a polycentric spatial structure is more conducive to the economic growth of small cities in UA, thereby promoting the coordinated development of regions within UA.     

The ‘street politics’ of migrant il/legality: Navigating Malaysia's urban borderscape

Immigration control constitutes a particular technique for regulating urban space and for controlling and disciplining migrant subjects within it. Unlike other manifestations of state power in exemplary urban settings, the architecture of urban immigration control is not recognisable through grand buildings or walls, but rather through its momentary presence and continuously shifting location: ad hoc identity controls in public spaces, roadblocks in neighbourhood streets or raids against workplaces. Building on fieldwork conducted in the Malaysian city of George Town, this article takes an interest in how migrants navigate this urban borderscape in order to avoid exploitation and encounters with the police. Read through Asef Bayat's notion of ‘street politics’, the article shows how migrants use the means (made) available to them in order to extend their room to manoeuvre. While such tactics are often driven by the force of necessity, they do nonetheless cumulatively encroach on the state's ability to produce migrants as (un)wanted or even (il)legal subjects in the city. Through this, migrants also challenge the very notion of what an exemplary urban space is as well as who is considered a legitimate part of it.