Reverse in Migration - Is China its own Mexico?

I find the population dynamics of China extremely fascinating. The population of China makes up about a quarter of the world's population. Unlike other developing countries, China made several advances in industrial development and technology, thus providing jobs to a growing population. The growth in jobs has led to a large migration from rural areas to urban areas. A trend not uncommon when looking at population dynamics of more developed countries like the United States.

However, the recent financial crisis has reversed the flow of migration - people are now leaving large cities and going back to the rural country side. A recent article from the Wall Street Journal describes the situation. A large part of the reverse migration is among a group known as the "floating population". This is a population moves back and forth between rural and urban areas to find work. Many of them gave up farming because they were able to find enough work in the cities. However, such jobs are drying up and now they don't even have farm work to go back to. If this trend continues, it will again put further strain on social services in rural areas, another reason why people migrated to urban areas. It will be interesting to see how the government of China deals with this new population dynamic.

I was talking about this trend with a friend (thanks Keith!) and he said it sounds like China is its own Mexico. In the United States, the largest group of immigrants comes from Mexico. The number of immigrants from the Mexico entering the U.S. has declined recently. Part of this decline is because of tougher immigration laws as well as increased boarder patrols. However, the economic downturn in the U.S. is sending Mexican workers back to Mexico and some are not even coming to the U.S. at all. See Mexico Braces for Economic Blow; Immigration Adds to Complexity of the Issue