The dream and the realityrural-urban migration to Shanghai (1927–1937) /

Resum

As a result of massive rural-urban migration, Shanghai transformed from a small coastal city into the largest metropolis in China. Using the official statistics published by the Nanjing Government, and historical archives and surveys, this research is one of the first attempts to quantify the population of Shanghai and internal migration in Republican China, and to analyse the characteristics of Shanghai’s immigrants. The research findings show that around four million migrants flocked to Shanghai between 1850 and 1949 to make up almost 80 percent of its population. The scale and duration of the migration make Shanghai’s case an exceptional one. Most of the immigrants were young men from nearby rural areas — Subei and Jiangnan. This massive migration to Shanghai was caused by ‘push factors’ in the countryside and ‘pull factors’ in the city. In rural areas, agricultural productivity had stagnated, land holdings were unevenly distributed, and both agricultural and non-agricultural production were tied in with international markets after China’s opening up to foreign trade following The Opium War. When ‘push factors’, such as natural disasters or economic crises arose, hordes of labourers were forced to leave their villages to seek opportunities elsewhere. ‘Pull factors’ were Shanghai’s rapid development of commerce, industries and business with the growth of foreign trade and investment. This created huge numbers of jobs — especially in manufacturing — as Shanghai began industrialising in the 1930s. Labour force segmentation occurred among immigrants, largely based on their places of origin and as a result of their different personal connections and networks. Using the industrial wage statistics (1930-1936), this research uses regression analysis of income to verify this segmentation and compare it with other, traditional segmentation patterns such as those based on gender, occupations and type of workers. The Great Depression had differing impacts on China’s economy. With its silver-based currency and a sufficient money supply, China did not suffer a banking crisis. Thus, unlike in Western countries, Chinese industry received enough investment and liquidity to continue growing. Although the crisis caused evident unemployment in some sectors, overall demand for workers kept rising and real wages grew slowly. This was the key reason why net migration to Shanghai rose throughout the crisis.