CASE STUDIES Flashcards
What has China’s rapid industrialisation been accompanied by?
Rapid urbanisation, fuelled by rural-urban migration - particularly to large cities near the coast.
What are the two flows of migration in China?
- Rural migrants within the rural interior - usually to a small city.
- From smaller cities to the major east coast cities and industrial areas e.f the Peal River Delta: Guangzhou, Shanghai and Beijing
In 1980, how much of China’s population lived in rural areas? But by 2012 how much of the population was urban?
In 1980, over 80% of Chinese people lived in rural areas; by 2012 just over 680 million people, 51% of the country, was urban.
What do estimates suggest China’s national migration will be like by 2025?
That by 2025, a further 250 million people will have moved to China’s cities - taking the Chinese urban population beyond 1 billion.
What barriers are there to migration within China?
The hukou system
Context of the hukou system?
In the 1950s, after the Chinese communist revolution, the new communist government introduced restrictions on internal migration that were designed to keep people in rural areas.
What is the hukou system?
Chinese citizens are registered in their place of brith by the Hukou system: rural citizens don’t have an urban Hukou and cannot easily regularise the relocation to a city. It is very hard for migrant workers from rural areas to change their official to a new location. Those moving to cities from rural areas must be ‘registered’ and buy a permit which is very expensive. Some permits allow permanent migration but normally only to a highly educated workers or those who have family already legally resident in the city.
What happens if hukou workers don’t have a permit?
They earn less and their families are often denied access to housing, health care and education as a result. Two-thirds of urban migrants are therefore men and women and children often remain in rural areas.
What fraction of urban migrants are men and women who have to leave their children? (as a result of hukou system)
2/3
Is the hukou system a good or bad thing?
In a country with widespread negative stereotypes about the rural poor, the hukou system only exacerbates the rural-urban divide. Now that China depends so much on the manufacturing and servicing within its cities, the hukou system has become too restrictive. It acts as a barrier to urban integration.
In China, why is there a divide to where people migrate to?
China has a high population density in the East because:
* China introduced the open door policy in 1978
* SEZs here
* Job opportunities
The west has a harsher climate - deserts and Himalayan region, so there is a lack of investment in the west because of this.
According to the International Labour Organisation, since 1979 which country has experience the largest internal migration ever recorded?
China
How many rural migrant workers did China have in 2016? (workers with a rural household registration who are employed in an urban workplace)
229.8 million
What percentage of migrant workers are employed in China’s eastern areas?
70%. It is clear than the global shift in manufacturing to South-East Asia has created a demand for this labour.
What could be some of the pull/push factors associated with the rising migration in China’s east?
Pull factors - higher wages in secondary industries and the possibility of a better quality of life. Improved agricultural technologies made possible by China’s increasing openness to the wider world has reduced the need for rural labour, depressing incomes and quality of life in rural areas - acting as a push factor.
Example of a predominantly agricultural region transformed into the world’s largest continuous city
The Pearl River Delta, where the Pearl River flows in the South China Sea
By 2012, what percentage of Chinese people lived in urban areas?
51%
What is China’s largest city?
Shanghai - population of 26.3 million in 2019.
Another example of rural-urban migration? (not China)
Rural-urban migration in the Democratic Republic of Congo
Why is the Democratic Republic of Congo such a poor country? (ranked 176th out of 188 countries in human development by United Nations Development Programme)
The country was decimated by three decade of cilvi war and poor governance.
Why has the Democratic Republic of Congo seen so much rural-urban migration?
Not as a result of pull factors but rather because the quality of life in rural areas has become so bad. The capital city, Kinshasa, has doubled in size every five years since 1950 and now has an estimated population of between 11 and 14 million. The absence of a reliable population census illustrates the low level of development in the country.
What percentage of rural households are poor in DR Congo?
72%
Also nearly 40% of children under five suffer from chronic malnutrition.
Why are there so many push factors in the DR Congo?
The country received huge loans from the West during its early years of independence from Belgium, however kleptocracy of President Mobuto Sese Seko squandered much of this on grand projects and much of the revenue from the country’s considerable mining wealth disappeared into tax havens. The country could not repay its debt and was forced into drastic austerity by SAPs imposed by the IMF.
What are many migrants in the DR Congo fleeing from?
Poverty and conflict, moving to peri-urban areas.
Why is there no formal employment in the cities migrants are fleeing to in the DR Congo?
Due to the dysfunctional state and economy. The majority of migrants survive through informal employment such as stress hawking.
In what country have researchers coined the phrase “the wage puzzle” for?
The Democratic Republic of Congo - because it is unclear how these populations are able to maintain themselves.
What was Singapore like pre migration?
Was established as a trading colony of the British empire in 1819. Its road to self governance in the 1950s and 60s saw the passing of new laws to limit immigration, including strict citizenship laws and as a result, the city’s migrant population fell to just 3% of the total. However, this changed in the 1980s.
Since Singapore has industrialised in 1980s as a result of the global economic shift, what has migration been like?
Singapore became one of the four East Asian Tiger economies, drawing fresh waves of migration. Singapore’s population can therefore be divided into:
* citizens/permanent residents
* temporary immigrants e.g students who are considered “non-residents”
What percentage of Singapore do “non-residents” make up?
In 2010 census - 25.7%, up from 18.7% in the previous decade.
Most migrants are from Malaysia, China, Hong Kong, and other Asian countries.
What percentage of Singapore’s non-resident workforce is low-skilled migrants?
2/3 are low-skilled working in construction, domestic labour, services, manufacturing and marine industries. The remaining third are skilled.
Singapore: What does the termination of employment of a foreign born worker result in?
The immediate termination of their work permit, in which case, the immigrant must leave Singapore within seven days. Strict.
Example of Singapore having some strict rules
The termination of employment of a foreign born worker result in the immediate termination of their work permit, in which case, the immigrant must leave Singapore within seven days.
Work permit-holders are also subject to a regular medical examination that includes testing for HIV/AIDs. They may not marry Singaporeans or other permanent residents without the approval of the controller of work permits, and failure to get approval may result in repatriation.
What has Singapore rebranded itself to?
A culturally vibrant “Renaissance city”
Singapore: In 2015, what percentage of Singapore’s total non resident workforce was made up of skilled workers and professionals?
22%, due to 1990s policies of recruiting from “non-traditional” source countries of the United States, UK, France, Australia. These workers have less restrictive work permits and an apply for permanent residency after 2 years.
Roughly how many Singaporeans live overseas now?
192,300 - mostly in Australia, the UK, USA and China, bringing skills such as banking, information technology and medicine.
Describe Japan’s workforce
Ageing and shrinking workforce, which is likely to lead to a lower standard of living and reduced economies of scale.
What has been suggested about Japan’s economy?
It has been suggested that the country needs 200,000 immigrants a year as well as a fertility rate above replacement level.
What are the problems with Japan? in terms of migration
The Japanese culture is based on a homogeneous population and racial unification and government policies reflect this. Many politicians and citizens believe the restrictions on immigration have brought harmony and cooperation to their society and that an introduction of large numbers of foreigners would disrupt society and increase crime.
