This article discusses the family characteristics of internal migrants to urban areas in China and the influence of family considerations as direct and indirect causes of movement. A particular concern is the association between migration and life-cycle events which mark the transition points in individual and family experience. The article is based on a survey of migration in China, conducted by the Chinese Academy of the Social Sciences (CASS) in 1986. The survey covered 0.2 per cent of households in 74 cities and towns in China and collected information on 100,267 persons. The data refer to the volume of movement to cities and towns, characteristics of movers, reasons for movement and its consequences (Ma Xia, forthcoming); the survey did not collect information on intra-urban migration of movement to rural destinations, and the definition of "temporary migration" excluded persons who had been in an urban area without official registration for more than a year.
URL : http://www.unescapsdd.org/files/documents/PUB_APPJ-Vol-7-No-1.pdf