The Impact of Urbanization on the Socio-Economic Status of Rural Migrants in China - A Comparison and Analysis for the Pearl River Delta and Yangtze River Delta Regions

Abstract

The Pearl River Delta and Yangtze River Delta regions in China are two key areas of rapid economic development, and research has found that a large number of migrants from rural areas have been formed as a result of the rapid development of the urban agglomerations in the region, however, there is still a certain research gap on the comparison of the rural labour force populations of the two regions due to the different attractiveness of the rural transfer population in the two regions as well as the differences in the various local policies. Therefore, this paper reads the literature to compare the impact of the progress of urbanization in the Pearl River Delta and Yangtze River Delta on the economic status of rural migrants in China. The study finds that the Yangtze River Delta mainly attracts high-end technical talents while the Pearl River Delta attracts more migrant workers. Therefore, the governments of the two regions need to implement practical policies to provide migrants with corresponding protection.