Editing Rural flight (section)

===China===
[[File:Migrant Worker Style (12085578295).jpg|thumb|A Chinese migrant worker leaving the worksite after a shift in a city.]]
{{Main|Migration in China}}

[[China]], like many other currently industrializing countries, has had a relatively late start to rural flight. Until 1983, the Chinese government, through the [[hukou system]], greatly restricted the ability of their citizens to internally migrate. Since 1983, the Chinese government has progressively lifted the restrictions on internal migration. This has led to a great increase in the number of people migrating to urban areas.<ref name="Hukou">{{cite journal|last=Liang|first=Zai|author2=Zhongdong Ma |title=China's floating population: new evidence from the 2000 census|journal=Population and Development Review|year=2004|volume=30|issue=3|pages=467–488|doi=10.1111/j.1728-4457.2004.00024.x}}</ref> However, even today, the hukou system limits the ability of rural migrants to receive full access to urban social services at the urban subsidized costs.<ref name="Economist" /> As with most examples of rural flight, several factors have led towards China's massive urbanization. Income disparity, family pressure, surplus labor in rural areas due to higher average fertility rates, and improved living conditions all play a role in contributing to the flows of migrants from rural to urban areas.<ref>{{cite web|title=Labour Migration|url=http://www.ilo.org/beijing/areas-of-work/labour-migration/lang--en/index.htm|publisher=International labour organization|access-date=18 April 2014}}</ref> In 2014, approximately 250 million rural migrants lived in cities with 54% of the total Chinese population living in urban areas.<ref name="Economist">{{Cite news|title=China's cities: The Great Transition|newspaper=The Economist|url=https://www.economist.com/news/leaders/21599360-government-right-reform-hukou-system-it-needs-be-braver-great|access-date=18 April 2014|date=2014-03-21}}</ref>