China's Permanent and Temporary Migrants: Differentials and Changes, 1990–2000*

Abstract

A unique feature of migration in China is its two-track system, one consisting of permanent migration and temporary migration. This article examines whether and how hukou reforms and the maturation of migration streams since the 1980s have changed the two-track system. Using data on interprovincial migration from the 1990 and 2000 censuses, our empirical analysis focuses on the differentials between permanent migrants and temporary migrants and their changes over time. We document the size, migration reasons, and selectivity of migrants, and we evaluate the determinants of the dichotomy between permanent migrants and temporary migrants via logistic regression models. Our findings show that between 1990 and 2000 the gaps between interprovincial permanent migrants and temporary migrants did not narrow but in most aspects had widened. There is little evidence that hukou reforms have lowered the barriers to urban citizenship. At the same time, a larger spectrum of the rural population has joined the temporary migration streams. The net result is a persistence of the two-track migration system, where permanent migrants increasingly assume the position of social and economic elites and temporary migrants are the disadvantaged and disenfranchised.