Exploring the rich-club characteristic in internal migration: Evidence from Chinese Chunyun migration

Abstract

Regional development differences are universal economic development process problems of countries around the world. Unbalanced development theories have been used to interpret population migration; conversely, population migration patterns can also reflect unbalanced regional development. Inspired by the growth pole and pole-axis theories, we infer that a rich-club phenomenon in internal migration caused by unbalanced regional development exists. We propose a progressive methodological framework combining complex network science and geographic information science applied to Chinese Chunyun migration to empirically research this potential rich-club phenomenon in an intercity population migration network and investigate the functions of prominent cities in intra/interregional migration. We use the global rich-club coefficient to examine whether the rich-club phenomenon exists in the population migration network. Then, the community detection method and assortativity coefficient are applied to further understand the connections between cities. Finally, the influence and functions of prominent cities are explored from multiple perspectives and scales. The results indicate that the rich-club phenomenon existed in intercity migration during the Chinese Chunyun period and presents the positive role of rich-club cities in intra/interregional migration. An imbalance in urban and regional development is also found. This paper can be used to guide urban planning, transportation planning, and population research.