V. GELBRAS Doctor of Historical Sciences In China, at the beginning of the XXI century, migration movements developed, the likes of which the modern history of the world has not yet known. Their full extent and consequences are still difficult to assess. The relatively small-scale migration of peasants in the 1980s and 1990s reached an unprecedented level in 2001-2004. The process has actually just got off to a peculiar start. The country has not yet conducted adequate research for this process1 . The employed population in rural areas in 2003 was almost 488 million people, or 65.6% of the total employed population of the country2 . According to estimates of the Ministry of Agriculture of the People's Republic of China, the actual labor needs of the industry do not exceed 170 million people. Approximately 135 million people found work in rural "enterprises of volosts and settlements" (see Table 1). It turns out that at least 150 million peasants are considered surplus rural labor in China, or more than 30% of the total number of workers. The figures are impressive: the population of China that is unnecessary for agricultural production exceeds the entire population of today's Russia... Meanwhile, every year 6 million surplus workers are added to the villages .3 In China, it is estimated that by 2020, the number of workers not required for agriculture will reach 250 million people!4 Every year, the country is experiencing an increasing migration of peasants seeking to use their forces outside their native villages. In 1990, the number of peasants who found work outside their parish was 15 million, and in 2003 it was already 98 million, that is, more than 6 times more than 5 . During the 1990s, more than 80 million peasants were employed in urban areas .6 In 2003 alone, another 90 to 110 million farmers were looking for work. At the same time, the population of 660 cities increased by more than 27% in the 1990s7 . In addition, between 60 and 110 million farmers do not ... Читать далее