Article contents
Migration and Inter-household Inequality: Observations from Wanzai County, Jiangxi*
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 12 February 2009
Extract
This article examines the impact of migration on inter-household inequality in Wanzai county, north-west Jiangxi. A full investigation into the causal relationships between migration and inequality requires testing through longitudinal data. Although this study is based on data gathered at a fixed time, it is robust in examining the inter-relationships between migration and three other agents of stratification: household composition, local off-farm employment and land.
- Type
- Research Notes
- Information
- Copyright
- Copyright © The China Quarterly 2000
References
1. Apart from the 138 households a few households were randomly omitted, on the grounds of being unable to find people and the weariness of my long-suffering guides.
2. Source: personal interviews, December 1996-September 1997.
3. Source: December 1996 census sheets.
4. See Maude, A., “Population mobility and rural households in North Kelantan, Malaysia,” in Jones, G. W. and Richter, H. V. (eds.) Population Mobility and Development (Canberra: The Australian National University, 1981), pp. 93–115.Google Scholar
5. Comer, Lorraine, “Linkages, reciprocity and remittances: the impact of rural outmigration on Malaysian rice villages,”Google Scholar in Jones, and Richter, , Population Mobility and Development, pp. 117–136 at p. 121Google Scholar; Simmons, A. B., “Migration and rural development: conceptual approaches, research findings and policy issues,” in Population Distribution, Migration and Development (New York: United Nations, 1984) pp. 156–183.Google Scholar
6. King, Russel, Return Migration and Regional Economic Problems (London: Croom Helm, 1985), introduction.Google Scholar
7. Kols, Adrienne, Migration, Population Growth and Development (Baltimore: John Hopkins University, 1983) p. 263.Google Scholar
8. Jazairy, Idriss, Alamgir, Mohiuddin and Panuccio, Theresa, The State of World Rural Poverty (London: International Fund for Agricultural Development, 1992) pp. 66–68.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
9. Economic strata according to livestock ownership, see Croll, Elisabeth, From Heaven to Earth: Images and Experiences of Development in China (London: Routledge, 1994) pp. 83–84.Google Scholar
10. Rahman, Atiur, Peasants and Classes (London: Zed Books, 1986) p. 37.Google Scholar
11. Unger, Jonathan, “Rich man, poor man: the making of new classes in the countryside,” in Goodman, David S.G. and Hooper, Beverly (eds.), China's Quiet Revolution (New York: Longman Cheshire, 1994), pp. 44–45.Google Scholar
12. Chan, Anita and Unger, Jonathan, Chen Village Under Mao and Deng (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1992), pp. 219–220.Google Scholar
13. Nolan, Peter, The Political Economy of Collective Farms: An Analysis of China's Post-Mao Rural Reforms (Cambridge: Polity, 1988).Google Scholar
14. Collins, Jane L., “Migration and the life cycle of households in Southern Peru,” Urban Anthropology, No. 14 (1985), pp. 279–299.Google Scholar
15. Mallee, Hein, “Rural household dynamics and spatial mobility in China,” in Scharping, Thomas (ed.). Floating Population and Migration in China: The Impact of Economic Reforms (Hamburg: Des Instituts Für Asienkunde, 1997), pp. 278–296.Google Scholar
16. Fieldnotes, March 1997.
17. Also observed in Cohen, Myron, House United, House Divided (New York: Columbia University Press, 1976), p. 196.Google Scholar
18. Fieldnotes, 8 August 1997.
19. Ellis, Frank, “Household strategies and rural livelihood diversification,” The Journal of Development Studies, No. 35 (1998), pp. 1–38CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Putterman, Louis, Continuity and Change in China's Rural Development: Collective and Reform Eras in Perspective (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1993), pp. 322, 348.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
20. Interview, Wanzai County Labour Bureau, 19 11 1996.Google Scholar
21. Central Government Policy Research Office, Ministry of Agriculture, “An analysis of the changing composition of the income of rural households,” Zhongguo nongcun cancha (Survey of the Chinese Countryside), 1997, pp. 1–7 at p. 6.Google Scholar
22. Other migration studies similarly notice that the propensity to migrate increases with the size of the nuclear household. Lipton, Michael, “Migration from rural areas of poor countries: the impact on rural productivity and income distribution,” World Development, No. 8 (1980), pp. 1–24Google Scholar; Findlay, Sally, Rural Development and Migration: A Study of Family Choices in the Philippines (Boulder: Westview Press, 1987), pp. 56–58.Google Scholar
23. Chan, and Unger, , Chen Village, p. 278.Google Scholar
24. Rozelle, Scott et al. , p. 389.Google Scholar
25. Fen is a unit for the measure of land. 1 mu is divided into 10 fen.
26. Rihui, Xu and Yingjian, Kuang, “Realising a transformation in the method of land usage,” Jiangxi zhengbao (Jiangxi Administration), No. 23 (1997), p. 39.Google Scholar
27. Village Committee figures calculated from 1996 census sheets.
28. Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations, “Migration and rural development,” in Population Distribution, pp. 193–208 at p. 200.Google Scholar
29. Fieldnotes, February 1997.
30. McKinley, , The Distribution of Wealth in Rural China (London: M.E. Sharpe, 1996), p. 30.Google Scholar
31. Feng, Liu and Renrong, Wan, “Nongye qiyehua: nongye di er ci gaige yu fazhan de youyi tansuo” (“Commercialization of agriculture: beneficial exploration of the second reform in agriculture”), Jiangxi shehui kexue, No 8 (1996), p. 5.Google Scholar
32. Kequn, Yi, “Nongcun tudi zhidu shenhua gaige moshi yanjiu” (“Research on deepening the reform of the rural land system”), Gaige yu lilun (Reform and Theory), No. 11, (1996), pp. 33–36 at p. 34.Google Scholar
33. Yudu County Almanac, 1986–1992, pp. 285–86.Google Scholar
34. Tequ wenzhai (Special Economic Zone Digest), 11 08 1997, p. 1.Google Scholar
35. Jiangxi qingnian bao (Jiangxi Youth News), 3 04 1997, p. 2Google Scholar. Hui, Qin, Gaige (Reform No. 2, 1997, p. 61Google Scholar. Feng, Liu and Renrong, Wan, Nongye qiyehua: Nongye de erci gaige yu fazhan de youyi tansuo (Agricultural Commercialization: Beneficial Exploration of the Second Reform and Development of Agriculture), Jiangxi shehui kexue (Jiangxi Social Science), No. 8 (1996) pp. 4–12, at p. 5Google Scholar; Yichun ribao (Yichun Daily) 21 01 1997, p. 2Google Scholar. Funü zhisheng, 6 03 1996, p. 8.Google Scholar
36. Fieldnotes, Qifeng, , 9 01 1997.Google Scholar
37. Hui, Qin, “Nongmin fudan wenti de fazhan qushi” (“The direction of development of the problem of the ‘farmers' burden’”), Gaige, No. 2 (1997), p. 87.Google Scholar
38. Breakdown of households by economic strata: poor 4, lower middle 5, middle 14, upper middle 6, rich 2.
- 11
- Cited by