Characteristics of population migration in contemporary China

There are three stages of population migration between different parts of China.

The first stage is 1954 ~ 1962. During the period, the annual population migration rate was above 30‰, and in 1960, it also set an annual migration rate of 33 million people, with a migration rate of 50‰. Although it is doubtful whether these data can be completely compared with the following years, it is an indisputable fact that population migration is active during this period. On the one hand, with the rapid development of the national economy in the 1950s, the total number of employees in China surged from18.56 million in 1953 to 59.69 million in 1960, most of them from rural areas. During this period, the state organized a series of large-scale population migration. For example, in the winter of 1955, the "Immigration Bureau" was established in Qinghai Province, and about 70,000 people moved in from Henan, Shandong, Anhui and other provinces the following year. On the other hand, in 1950s, the state did not strictly control the size of urban population, and the household registration management was relatively loose, so the scale of spontaneous population migration was not small. In 1960s, influenced by many factors, China's economic situation took a sharp turn for the worse. The huge labor force and urban population are in great contrast with the continuous sharp decline in grain output. The government had to lay off staff on a large scale and disperse the urban population. In addition, the extreme lack of food in many areas has led to a large number of abnormal deaths, which have led to the great ebb of population migration.

The second stage is 1963 ~ 1970. During this period, the population migration rate suddenly dropped from more than 30‰ in the previous stage to a little more than 20‰, indicating that the scale of population migration in China has been significantly reduced. At this stage, there are mainly two national population migration events. First, the construction of "big third line" and "small third line" has been launched one after another. Under the unified deployment of the country, a large number of factories, scientific research institutions and institutions of higher learning moved from the coast to the mainland, which led to a large-scale population migration. During this period, only 654.38 million employees and their families moved to Qinghai Province, 80,000 employees moved to Guizhou Province and 400,000 employees moved to Sichuan Province. Second, after the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution began, waves of political storms of population migration appeared in the whole country, such as repatriating "five kinds of elements", decentralizing urban population, decentralizing cadres, and establishing "May 7th Cadre School", among which the largest "educated youth movement to the countryside" threw middle school students aged about170,000 to rural areas all over the country, which became the history of population migration in the world. During this period, the rural economy was depressed (1969, the national per capita agricultural income ratio was low 1957 12%), and farmers' lives were difficult. Although the household registration management has become stricter, spontaneous migration to border areas is still quite active, with the population flowing into Heilongjiang Province alone reaching as many as 200,000 every year.

The third stage is 197 1 year later. In a few years except 1979, the migration rate is below 20‰, and the population migration scale is lower than that in the 1960s. In the early 1970s, all kinds of population migration organized by the state in the previous stage, such as repatriation, decentralization, going to the countryside and third-line construction, gradually came to an end. By 1973 and 1974, the national migration rate has dropped to a very low level. After the "Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution", people who were "repatriated", "decentralized" or "going to the countryside" in the previous stage returned one after another, forming an overwhelming ebb tide, which fully shows that these population movements, which consumed a lot of financial and human resources in the "Cultural Revolution", were largely involuntary. At the same time, the problems existing in some "third-line construction" are becoming more and more superficial, and the country has to readjust. As a result, many factories, scientific research institutions and institutions of higher learning moved back to their original places or other areas with better production layout conditions. In Sichuan Province alone, many institutions of higher learning have moved in and out, such as Beijing Agricultural Machinery Institute, Beijing Mining Institute, Shanghai Institute of Chemical Technology and Tsinghua University Sichuan Branch. Due to the above situation, the direction of population migration at this stage is just the opposite to that at the previous stage. During this period, the rural economy gradually prospered, and the spontaneous migration of fleeing for food in the past was greatly reduced. However, with the promulgation of a series of reform and opening-up policies by the Chinese production party and some loosening of household registration management (such as allowing farmers to bring their own rations to settle in cities, taking measures to control permanent residence in some newly developed areas, properly solving temporary residence, and not requiring household registration for short-term workers), the migration of migrant workers and businessmen has made great progress. Comparing with 1990 census and 1987 1% sampling survey, we can see that the scale of population migration in China has increased greatly in recent years, but this phenomenon is not clearly reflected in the statistics of household registration organs.

Compared with foreign countries, the domestic population migration in the 40 years since the founding of New China has several remarkable characteristics:

(1) Population migration is deeply restricted by the national socio-economic development plan and related policies, and the organized and planned migration of the country accounts for most of the total migration.

China is a socialist country with a planned economy. Population migration, like population reproduction, naturally becomes an organic part of the national socio-economic development plan. For the needs of social development and economic construction, government departments at all levels have organized a series of various types of population migration for decades, especially in the 1950s and 1960s. In addition, the recruitment and retirement of workers, the recruitment and retirement of soldiers, the enrollment and distribution of colleges and universities, and the deployment of cadres are all arranged under the state plan, which basically limits the domestic population migration. Although marriage, visiting relatives and taking refuge are private activities, they are still restricted by the state plan to some extent because they involve employment, schooling, food supply and other issues.

In order to adapt population migration to social and economic conditions, government departments have formulated a series of relevant policies in different periods. For example, since the mid-1950s, the state has strictly controlled the population size of cities, especially big cities, and the rural population cannot freely move into cities and towns, and the population of small and medium-sized cities cannot freely move into big cities. In the 1970s, it was further clarified: "Strictly control the movement from rural areas to cities and towns and from other cities to Beijing, Shanghai and Tianjin. Migration from towns to cities, from small cities to big cities, and from ordinary rural areas to suburban and suburban rural areas should be properly controlled "(see the State Council's approval of the Ministry of Public Security's Regulations on Migration in registered permanent residence). Since the 1980s, according to the new social and economic development situation, the population migration policy has changed, such as allowing farmers to take care of their own rations and settle in cities, which has achieved obvious positive results.

According to the national conditions of China, it is undoubtedly necessary to put population migration under the constraints of national plans and related policies. This greatly reduces the spontaneity and blindness in population migration and avoids the impact on social economy caused by its scale and flow out of control. Otherwise, under the condition that China's economy is underdeveloped, letting the population migrate at will will have serious social consequences, which is not in line with the fundamental and long-term interests of all the people. In addition, organized and planned migration has also played an indispensable role in economic development and resource development, especially in the construction of inland and border areas.

On the other hand, we should also see that there are many mistakes in the population migration organized by government departments since the founding of the People's Republic of China, some of which are related to the political environment at that time, some of which are subjective and objective, and their development conditions, economic benefits and ecological consequences have not been fully demonstrated during the migration, such as large-scale migration in some areas that violate the laws of nature and some "third-line construction", the consequences are not only counterproductive, but also costly. Therefore, although organized population migration does play a positive role in many aspects, it is also a fact that compared with spontaneous migration, it is costly, has many problems and has a low solidification rate. Judging from the situation abroad, the organized migration in the former Soviet Union has been greatly reduced compared with the past, and it has not exceeded 5% of the total since the 1970s, that is, the role of administrative organization measures has been relatively weakened, and the role of economic leverage has been gradually enhanced. In Brazil, the settlement effect of spontaneous immigrants is also better than that of government-organized immigrants. After all, truth is still a question of voluntariness and efficiency. Therefore, in the future, unless necessary, the government should generally not organize large-scale immigration. The role of the government should mainly focus on guidance, planning, rule of law, infrastructure construction and the improvement of social comprehensive mechanism, that is, it only plays an indirect role in population migration, and the specific affairs should be borne by enterprises or immigrants themselves.

Corresponding to the organized migration of the government is the spontaneous migration of the people. It should be admitted that for a long time in the past, the state did not encourage or even strictly restrict such immigrants, but in spite of this, their number is still very large. It is estimated that in the more than 30 years up to the early 1980s, the total number of spontaneous inter-provincial migrants was more than 6.5438+million, including 5 million in Heilongjiang Province, about 2 million in Inner Mongolia and 6.5438+million in Xinjiang who moved to Qinghai.

Although the household registration management in New China is very strict, there is always spontaneous population migration, sometimes exceeding the planned migration organized by the government. At a deeper level, this phenomenon is normal. First of all, there is an objective economic demand to promote population migration in China, that is, the obvious imbalance between population, natural resources and productivity development and the obvious imbalance of residents' living standards will inevitably lead to the "thrust" and "pull" of population migration; Secondly, there are many people in China and the situation is complicated. No matter how careful the planned economy is, it is impossible to do everything. Thirdly, the planned economy in China also needs to be further improved, and the policies on population migration and its organization and management also need to be continuously improved. In this case, it is normal to have a certain scale of spontaneous population migration; This is especially true under the new situation of reform and opening up and the development of market economy.

It is no accident that a large number of people spontaneously flowed to Heilongjiang Province from 1950s to 1970s. There are many wasteland, forests and coal mines in this province, and the labor force is relatively scarce objectively, and the road to making a living is very wide. As long as you are willing to endure hardships and work, it will be easier to earn money, which is obviously very attractive to mainland farmers with high population pressure and low economic income. At that time, there was a ballad among "self-refugees": "When you leave Shanhaiguan, you can count Shuangyashan. You can't come back when you come to Shuangyashan. " It can explain this problem very well. Local mines and enterprises are also willing to hire these hardworking farmers. As for the "drifters" who are logging and transporting timber, reclaiming land sporadically, collecting mountain products and hunting wild animals in forest areas, it is even more common.

As far as the "self-flowing people" are concerned, their motives for leaving their homes and moving to distant places to make a living are various, but they are basically economic factors, that is, earning more income or improving other living conditions. In addition, there are many other motives, such as poor geographical conditions in some areas, and it is difficult to solve water sources or firewood; Some are high-incidence epidemic areas; Others want more children and often try to move to areas with broader birth policies. For example, rural girls in northern Hebei are willing to marry in Inner Mongolia.

In short, spontaneous population migration has both its objective needs and its extensive sources, and it is undoubtedly normal to appear in large numbers. Moreover, this migration also has obvious positive significance. It can flexibly adjust the relationship between population, resources and labor demand without state input. Of course, spontaneous population migration is bound to have certain blindness and anarchy, which will have an impact on the planned economy, but as long as it is actively guided and properly controlled, the problem is not difficult to solve.