Internal Migration in China and the Effects on Sending Regions

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Migration and informal employment are among the most pressing policy issues currently debated in China. An estimated 120 to 150 million people that have migrated into the cities are the backbone of a booming economy, providing cheap labour to a dynamic and productive informal sector. Whereas the often deplorable situation of the migrants themselves is getting increasing attention, the effects for the sending regions have not yet been analyzed in depth.

Colleagues of the DRC during their visit in Paris

The China Development Research Center (DRC) and the OECD Development Centre are joining forces to analyse the effect of internal migration for those left behind — i.e. children and elderly people, ethnic groups and minorities. The project will provide policy advice on how to better integrate various policy domains such as migration, employment and social protection to assure greater policy coherence.

Colleagues of the DRC visited the Development Centre in Autumn of 2007 and hosted a research seminar in Bejing at the end of the same year. Johannes Jütting and Theodora Xenogiani of the Development Centre presented the joint project proposal and discussed details of the collaboration between the two institutions.

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