China is undergoing the largest movement of people from rural to urban areas of any country in the world. From the 1990s, policies supporting market economy and trade have contributed to rapid urbanisation and economic growth in metropolitan coastal regions. Large numbers of people are moving to areas where economic growth is concentrated.

A working paper from the International Institute for Environment and Development, UK, outlines the challenges faced by China, and presents a number of policy options that could bring economic benefits, environmental benefits, and greater equity between urban and rural areas.

The differences between rural and urban incomes are wide and could damage China’s continued growth and social stability. On average, the incomes of people in rural regions are less than a third of those of their urban neighbours. The gap is even wider if you factor in the differences in urban health care and education provision. The Five Year Plan for 2006-10 will increase spending on rural infrastructure, rural education, and improving medical co-operatives and social security systems that will include landless farmers and migrants.

While rural poverty has been decreasing since the 1980s, urban poverty is steadily increasing. The rise is largely made up of three groups: temporary rural migrants, people made redundant from state-owned enterprises following economic reform, and residents of peri-urban areas who have lost their land to urban expansion.

Key questions for policy makers include:

• How can rural-urban migrants be assimilated in an equitable and environmentally sustainable way?
• What are the consequences of export-orientated economic strategies for worker mobility and on quality of life in low-income neighbourhoods?
• What roles can migrants play in developing their home areas through remittances, transferring skills and access to wider networks?
• How can inequalities between migrants and non-migrants be reduced?
• What can be done to minimise the effect of continued migration and urban sprawl on already serious environmental problems in the coastal areas?

Rural-urban migration can help mitigate some of the effects of uneven economic growth. Remittances are a significant source of rural income and migrants often bring their urban skills to enterprises located near their home areas. If these positive impacts can be enhanced, and some of the negative impacts minimised, migration can have far more equitable outcomes.

To maximise such impacts:

• It is essential to promote more compact settlement in less environmentally fragile areas.
• An effective and integrated coastal management system is needed, which can influence urban planning and development processes through land use planning tools.
• The benefits available to migrants must be brought into line with those available to longstanding urban residents.
• It is important to enter into constructive negotiation with urban poor groups and those groups need to organise and articulate their demands.
• Rural poverty cannot be addressed through urban planning, but urban planning does influence rural development, and migration effects rural poverty.

Source(s):
‘Rural-urban migration in China: policy options for economic growth, environmental sustainability and equity’, Working Paper Series on Rural-Urban Interactions and Livelihood Strategies, Working Paper 12, IIED: London, by Gordon McGranahan and Cecilia Tacoli, May 2006. Full document.

Funded by: Canadian International Development Agency, Swedish International Development Agency, Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation and the Government of China.

id21 Research Highlight: 09 November 2006

Further Information:
International Institute for Environment and Development
3 Endsleigh Street
London WC1H 0DD

Tel: +44 207 388 2117
Fax: +44 207 388 2826
Contact the contributor: urban@iied.org ; gordon.mcgranahan@iied.org ; cecilia.tacoli@iied.org

International Institute for Environment and Development, UK

Other related links:
'As poverty urbanises, can cities become sustainable, equitable and productive?'

'Overcoming the rural-urban divide in China and India'

'Pro-poor growth in the city: are City Development Strategies the answer?'

'What brings rural migrants to coastal areas of China?'

Urbanisation, Sustainable Growth and Poverty Reduction in Asia

China urban poverty study