Internal mobility of the population and urbanization of China in the light of the problem of sustainable development of territories
Abstract. The system of population registration at the place of permanent residence adopted in China has for a longtime restrained the migration of rural population to cities, which are the drivers of sustainable economic growth. As a result, a pronounced imbalance in the level of economic development of Chinese regions and the phenomenon of "floating population" emerged. At present, there is a gradual process of reforming this system in the direction of removing restrictions on population mobility. Therefore, the research problem is to find a relationship between China`s internal population mobility and urbanization to identify the potential of sustainable development of territories. Based on the data of the seventh national census of China, a comparative assessment of population mobility in Chinese regions was carried out, and the factors of population migration and its socio-economic consequences were identified. The analysis was carried out for 31 provincial-level administrative units (without Hong Kong, Taiwan and Macao). The conclusions are drawn about the growth of population mobility, the presence of significant potential for urban growth and sustainable development of territories, and the importance of removing restrictions on population mobility and creating conditions for the growth of economic activity in the regions of outflow of labor migrants.
Keywords: mobile population, internal migration, Hukou system, "floating population", urbanization, sustainable development, regional inequality, socio-economic problems, China`s regions, China`s provincial-level administrative units.
Highlights:
- China has established and has been operating a population registration system for a longtime, which serves as an important tool for monitoring and regulating internal migration of the population, as well as restraining its mobility and thereby slowing down the processes of urbanization;
- urbanization increases with increasing mobility of the population and is an important condition for the sustainable development of territories;
- the modern population registration system in China leads to increased territorial inequality and inefficient allocation of resources; in this regard, it is concluded that it is possible and necessary to abolish the current system of population registration and at the same time create conditions for the development of territories that are donors of labor resources.
Alai Eerlan, Elena B. Bedrina - Ural Federal University named after the first President of Russia B.N. Yeltsin, Yekaterinburg, Russia