The Migration-Ageing Nexus: provincial-level case studies from China and Japan

My proposed project, drawing upon my undergraduate and Masters training, will examine the relationship between provincial-level internal migration and population ageing in China and Japan. The focus will be on a select number of provinces in both of these contexts; provinces that are, where possible, representative of the typical 'urban' and 'rural' experience. Population ageing is occurring in both countries, although given a greater proportion of Japan's population is deemed to be elderly, comparison between the two could therefore offer foresight into China's circumstances. Adopting such an approach will afford the project with great policy relevance.

Through quantitative methodologies, the project will explore the indirect relationship of acceleration or deceleration of population ageing through migration of younger individuals to other provinces within China and Japan. Various indicators of both migration and ageing will be used to offer maximum validation of results. There will be a similar emphasis on longitudinal data, made possible by the life history modules of the relevant datasets (e.g. CHARLS in China and JSTAR in Japan). This will grant me access to rich information with regard to life events and behaviours during early-life, as well as health outcomes and sources of care provision in later-life. Intentions are to also conduct complementary face-to-face interviews with a small number of older individuals in the two countries who have been affected by the migration of adult children, with the assistance of a translator, for validation and methodological purposes.