Tootling back to the village

IT IS often described as the world’s biggest recurring movement of people: a 40-day period spanning the lunar new year (which fell on February 19th this year), during which astonishing numbers of people travel to join distant family members to celebrate the “spring festival”. Officials call this period chunyun, or spring transportation. The term evokes horror in the minds of many: trains so jammed that the only place to sit is on lavatory floors. This year the projected number of journeys on public transport during chunyun, which will end on March 15th, is nearly 2.9 billion, a 10% increase over the comparable period a year ago. Yet there are reasons to be a little less gloomy about what this entails.

The numbers suggest that despite rapid urbanisation, the pull of the countryside remains strong. Many of the journeys involve mingong, or peasant workers, as the nearly 300m migrants from the countryside who work in urban areas are often snootily called. Their families are often divided. Children and parents stay in the villages, because a fragmented social-security system makes it difficult for migrants to enjoy subsidised education and health care in the cities. Many migrants think it a good idea that some relatives remain: the stay-behinds can help retain land-use rights which might come in handy for the migrants if urban work dries up. The authorities themselves are keen for migrants to keep this backstop.