Migration For and Against Agriculture in Eight Chinese Villages

Abstract

of the Ministry of Agriculture for help with field investigations, data analysis and translation. They also gratefully acknowledge the support of the Food and Agricultural Organisation for commissioning this study. 1. The three macro-studies were conducted by the Research Team on Rural Population Mobility of the China Population Information and Research Centre and Chen Jiyuan, Hu Biliang and Yu Dechang of the Rural Development Institute of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. On the basis of numerous nationwide surveys and studies these papers concluded that the number of rural migrants has reached some 120 million or so persons, which suggests that more than 15% of the total rural labour force in China have left their villages of origin for either short or long-term relocation and that the numbers of migrants are increasing and staying for longer periods away from their villages. Migration largely involves the relocation of village populations from rural to urban locations although a small proportion (10-20% or so) are estimated to move from rural to rural locations. Some 90% of movement has been from agricultural to non-agricultural occupations with the non-agricultural population reported to have increased by 108.38 million between 1979 to 1993. Some 80-90% of the movement has been from rural to urban destinations, roughly divided between large cities (30%), medium sized and small cities (40%) and townships (20%). A high proportion of the movement has been from the underdeveloped northwest , southwest and central provinces to the more economically developed south and eastern coastal regions. The surveys suggest that most of

Does Male International Migration Effects the Families Left behind Evidence from Gujrat Pakistan

“…In its wider scope a researcher may find more work done on migrating women than those left behind. Of the works which do pertain to the topic at hand, we find two themes running through this literature; women's greater workload associated with male emigration and women's participation in traditionally male social and economic spheres may increase over and above their tasks in the domestic sphere [24] [25]. Associated with the greater involvement in traditionally male tasks, women may gain more control.…”

“…Some scholars like Jolly and Reeves remark that this shift in women's role is directly linked to the practice of greater economic independence, which in turn ensue greater confidence and relatively more freedom in action [24]. There are others who treat this increased "power to decide" is but a step towards yet to be realized "women's greater empowerment".…”

China's New Urban-Rural Divide and Pitfalls for the Chinese Economy

“…Unlike the migrant workers in China's past, the majority of the new mobile population is not looking for land. They are seeking better lives in the cities (Rozelle et al 1999;Ma and Biao 1998;Zhou 1997;Solinger 1999;Croll and Huang 1997).…”

Social welfare in rural China

“…Regional conditions are extremely diverse, not only between regions such as the Pearl River delta [Johnson, 1993], Sichuan [Pennarz, 1998] and north China [Selden, 1993], normally labelled as more or less developed, but also between villages located within short distances of each other. Welfare production at the household level stems from a mix of agricultural and industrial activities and is supplemented by rural outmigration [Croll and Huang, 1997]. 5 Both physical conditions (for example quality and quantity of arable land, infrastructure, market distance, rural industry) and institutional conditions (collective organization, property rights, local elite, kinsmen outside the village, lineage dominance in the village) are decisive for the rural setting and household strategies.…”