Abstract Large-scale population migration entails changes in productive and consumptive activities, which has enormous implications on the spatial relocation of carbon emissions. This study uses multiple methods to empirically assess the impact of interprovincial population migration of China on its trade-induced carbon transfers from a spatial view over 2002–2012. We constructed two networks of migration and carbon transfers, and based on the analysis of their topological structure, we inferred that carbon flows and migration are complements–larger migration flows typically correlate with larger trade-related carbon flows. Furthermore, we analyzed how migration affects interprovincial carbon transfers; in addition, we explored the geographical factor by dividing Chinese provinces into five subregions. The results illustrated that trade-induced carbon emissions situation in China was shaped partly by interprovincial migration at the national level. While the contribution of migration varies markedly across subregions owing to the unbalanced regional economic development and carbon intensity, migration-focused emission control strategy should be enhanced discriminatively to better understand China's inter-provincial joint energy conservation and emission reduction policy.