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4. Funded Research Projects

4.25 Migration destinations in the urban hierarchy: A study in
Jiangsu (on-going project)

Principal Investigator: Dr. Hao Pu

Research Assistant Professor, Mobility and
Urbanisation Working Group of LEWI
Source of Funding: Faculty Research Grant, HKBU

Amount Awarded: HKD149,760

Brief Introduction:

Over the past quarter century, the mobilisation of the human resources stored in
the countryside has propelled China’s economic boom and urban explosion.

Immoderate growth of large cities has become incontrollable, obstructing the
endeavours to divert rural population to medium-sized and small cities. Against

this backdrop, research on China’s rural–urban migration continues to focus on
the prominent flows to large cities and the resultant social stratification in these

cities. Little is known about the tens of millions of rural migrants who flock to towns
and cities in the middle and lower orders of the urban hierarchy. This research
aims to explain why rural migrants choose from the four tiers in the urban

hierarchy: large and extra-large cities, medium-sized cities, small cities, and
townships. Using regression analysis and in-depth interview, the destination

choice of rural migrants in China’s Jiangsu province will be explored with respect
to regional preferences, gender, educational attainment, occupation and rural

landholdings. It is hypothesised that the choices of migrants who take up jobs
(migrant workers) and business opportunities (migrant entrepreneurs) are

affected, most likely, by differential socioeconomic attributes and rural
landholdings.

51 HONG KONG BAPTIST UNIVERSITY | David C. Lam Institute for East-West Studies