The motivation for this project can be traced back to a decade ago when Dr Wu, PI of this project, undertook an extensive fieldtrip in north Shaanxi, an ecologically fragile area due to its population expansion, over-cultivation, deforestation, soil erosion, and rural poverty. The rural residents in this area, however, were heterogeneous in terms of resource endowments, household behaviours and access to the government funding sources. Whilst the large number of households in resource-rich villages engaged in non-farm employment and rural-urban migration, the vast majority of rural labourers in marginal villages remained in traditional farming activities, that not only did not improve their livelihoods but also increased soil erosion, a major problem for farmers.
Since the late 1990s, however, two important policies have since been introduced by the Chinese government to this region: the encouragement of population resettlement and rural-urban migration on the one hand, and the conversion of over-cultivated farmland to forest and grass land on the other. While several scholars have addressed the impact of migration on rural poverty alleviation in China, little is known about how rural-urban migration has improved the ecology and the sustainability of livelihoods. But it is thought to be a fundamental way of preventing poverty and ecological damage in this region.
This project is significant for several reasons, particularly in light of the fact that the voices of rural people and rural poor in the remote areas are rarely heard by the outsiders. For instance, to what extent have the rural poor changed their attitudes, perceptions and behaviour patterns toward non-farm employment and migration during this ten-year period? How have governmental interventions (including administrative, financial and educational strategies) helped them to overcome barriers restraining their migration? What is the impact of migration on ecological improvement and rural sustainability in this region?
By combining ethnological fieldwork in North Shaanxi with national agricultural census, this project aims to develop our understanding of the relationship between labour mobility/migration, household livelihoods and ecological sustainability in ecologically fragile areas of China. In particular, it attempts to achieve the following objectives:
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to identify the pressures for, the dynamics of and the constraints on labour mobility/migration in marginal areas;
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to reveal the variety of motivations, perceptions and strategies of the rural poor towards non-farm jobs and migration;
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to analyse the impact of government interventions on population resettlement and migration in this region;
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to develop several patterns/hypotheses on the relations between migration and ecological environment given the complexity and variety of resource endowments, government interventions and household behaviours.
Principal Investigator: Dr. Bin Wu
Research Project supported by the British Academy Sino-British Fellowship Trust Awards