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would do well to examine how various economic activities related tointernal migration complement the contributions <strong>of</strong> remittances.2.2 Impacts on Receiving LocationsTwo articles in <strong>this</strong> volume examine the impact that migrants have on theeconomies <strong>of</strong> the urban centers where they settle. Cai Fang and Wang Dewenfocus on internal rural–urban migration in contemporary China while SusanCarter and Richard Sutch focus on the entry <strong>of</strong> international migrants intoindustrial labor markets <strong>of</strong> the United States in the early twentieth century.Both essays deal with urban labor markets during periods <strong>of</strong> urbanizationand industrialization. While both argue that labor migration contributes toeconomic growth, <strong>this</strong> process is taking place in China during a shift froma command to a market economy, while in the United States the existingmarket economy was facilitating the growth <strong>of</strong> large-scale industries, many<strong>of</strong> which sought to establish market monopolies.Cai Fang and Wang Dewen have calculated that internal migrationand urbanization are the source <strong>of</strong> as much as 20.2 percent <strong>of</strong> China’sindustrialization and rapid economic expansion since 1978, and they arguethat the transfer <strong>of</strong> rural workers to urban areas should continue in orderto assure future economic development. Migration provides the necessarylabor force and urbanization facilitates the aggregation <strong>of</strong> resources andeconomies <strong>of</strong> scale that enable industrial enterprises to increase productivityand per capita GDP. Although 41.8 percent <strong>of</strong> the nation’s population hasalready become urban, Cai and Wang conclude from the experiences <strong>of</strong>other middle-income countries that a 67 percent level <strong>of</strong> urbanization maybe necessary for China to reach its production goal <strong>of</strong> $3,000 per capitaGDP by 2020.Major obstacles to China’s economic growth, they contend, are restrictionson internal migration and on migrant workers’ access to jobs in stateownedenterprises, both aspects <strong>of</strong> China’s earlier planned developmentpolicy <strong>of</strong> promoting industrialization on the basis <strong>of</strong> agricultural surpluses.The hukou system controlled where workers could reside and obtain accessto food rations and public services. Although in switching to a marketeconomy national reforms have eliminated some hukou restrictions,particularly in small cities, they tend to remain in force in larger citieswhere state enterprises remain important employers <strong>of</strong> local residents. Asa result, although rural workers can now migrate to all cities, many face asegregated labor market in which they have severely limited access to wellpaidor secure employment. Instead they compete for low-paying jobs in353

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