本文在对西方国家人口流动研究进行综述的基础上，通过北京、天津、南京、廊坊、唐山和昆山等大中城市流动人口问卷调查，首次对大中城市流动人口迁移和流动特征、从业结构、迁移原因与途径进行了系统的研究。中国现在正在经历大规模的农村流动人口向城市迁移的过程。这种迁移的动力主要是经济因素。家庭迁移现已较单身迁移更为普遍。从经济学的角度看，低附加值、非熟练工作岗位是流动人口第一次就业的主要职业，然后向服务业和手工制造业工作岗位转移；链式迁移是流动人口迁移的主要形式。

This paper reveals the mechanism of population migration along the coastal urban regions in China. This is the first large scale survey on floating population ever conducted in large and medium cities including Beijing, Tianjin, Tangshan, Langfang, Nanjing and Kunshan. The paper first reviews the intellectual foundation of demographic studies on migration. With the survey data and further analysis, it examines the characteristics of population migration in Chinese cities. China is now undergoing a large scale of rural migration into the urban domain with mechanistic increases in the number of floating population. The motive for migration is predominately economic. Family type migration is getting more popular than individual migration. From an economic perspective, low value added, semi skilled jobs are taken up by the first time migrants, and there is also the corresponding shift to service and managerial type of work for the local residents. Chain type migration with upward movement on the job ladder is observed for the second time migrants. From a social viewpoint, jobs for migrants are mostly untenured and without welfare provision as compared with those available for the urban dwellers. Migrations in cities coalesced together to form cliques and syndicates. This has resulted in a more segregated urban morphology.