How Migrant Labor is Changing Rural China

This book examines how labor migration is changing the countryside in post-Mao China.

Rachel Murphy (Author)

9780521809016, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 19 September 2002

306 pages, 28 b/w illus. 2 maps 8 tables
23.6 x 15.7 x 2.5 cm, 0.554 kg

'… this is a timely contribution to the limited body of literature on return migration to rural China. the book serves as an interesting example, both theoretically and methodologically, for advanced students and researchers studying migration in developing countries … Anecdotes, interviews and visual materials are used to such an extent that the reading is made a pleasure at the general level.' Regional Studies

One of the most dramatic and noticeable changes in China since the introduction of economic and social reforms in the early 1980s has been the mass migration of peasants from the countryside to urban areas across the country. Murphy's in-depth fieldwork in rural China offers a rich basis for her findings about the impact of migration on many aspects of rural life: inequality; the organization of agricultural production; land transfers; livelihood diversification; spending patterns; house-building; marriage; education; the position of women; social stability; and state-society relations. Her analysis focuses on the human experiences and strategies that precipitate shifts in national and local policies for economic development, and the responses of migrants, non-migrants, and officials to changing circumstances, obstacles and opportunities. This pioneering study is rich in original source materials and anecdotes, as well as useful, comparative examples from other developing countries.

Introduction
1. Values, goals and resources
2. China, Jiangxi and the fieldwork counties
3. Resource redistribution and inequality
4. Migration, remittances and goals
5. Recruiting returnees to build enterprises and towns
6. The enterprises and the entrepreneurs
7. Entrepreneurs, socio-economic change, and interactions with the state
8. Returning home with heavy hearts and empty pockets
Conclusion.

Subject Areas: Politics & government [JP], Sociology & anthropology [JH], Migration, immigration & emigration [JFFN], Regional studies [GTB]