The importance of China's second opening up

The most important thing to happen in China in recent decades but receive little attention is the country's "internal opening up". The rural-urban migration - swarming of cities by manual laborers, minggongs, from the countryside - is the most that one hears about the internal movement of people. But this is just one part of the story.

People in one city, too, are moving to another for education, employment and business. They are moving from smaller, provincial towns and cities to other towns and cities. They are moving both within and outside their provinces. This movement of students, white-collar workers and businesspeople tends to be less evident but could be greater in magnitude. It therefore has a far greater implication than the migration into large cities, which draws almost all the attention in migration studies.

Given the huge size and population of China's provinces, and their diversity and heterogeneity, the number of people who move within or to neighboring provinces is huge. Cross-migration from provinces such as Heilongjiang to Guangdong or Hainan is becoming less uncommon, though.