Migration and Transformation of Rural China

在过去的二十年里，中国从农村向城市移民的巨大规模和历史性的流动吸引了学术界的关注。 到目前为止，大多数研究工作主要致力于研究移徙流动的模式以及移徙者在目的地的情况。 虽然这种方法在研究中国移民流动的初始阶段是合理的，但现在是时候研究农村-城市移民如何促进中国农村的社会和经济转型了。 这个问题非常重要，因为近年来的移民回流趋势和巨额汇款的流入有可能促进中国农村的发展，并在中国农村建立新的社会分层秩序。本研究将从几个方面探讨移民/移民回流对中国农村的影响。 该方案将研究移民回流的模式和决定因素;审查汇款的决定因素和后果（移民寄回或移民回流带来的汇款）;并确定竞争非农业就业和创业活动的赢家和输家。 调查人员不仅要考虑个人层面的特征（即人力资本、政治资本、移徙经历和家庭组成），还要考虑移徙者输出社区的特征。该研究主要依靠两个数据来源：2000年中国人口普查和2002年中国农村住户调查。对于个体水平模型，PI将使用OLS（普通最小二乘）回归和逻辑回归技术。 为了评估社区层面的因素对返乡移民，汇款，非农就业和创业活动的影响，我们使用多层次建模技术。 除了定量数据分析之外，还将在一个移徙者输出社区与选定的回返移徙者企业家进行访谈。 该项目承诺在几个方面为学术文献做出贡献。 首先，该项目将填补目前学术文献中的一个主要空白，提供最系统的经验知识，对回流/移民及其对中国农村的影响。 第二，理论创新之处在于将人口流动作为中国农村社会分层的重要因素。 第三，该项目首次尝试在多层次建模框架内模拟移徙对发展的影响，使用的可能是最重要的移徙国进行实证应用。第四，该项目还对决策产生影响，因为汇款在贫困地区减缓贫穷方面具有潜在作用。 最后，通过让研究生有机会参与这个项目，在中国进行数据分析和实地考察，该项目有助于培养下一代国际人口学和比较社会学学者。

SES-0718083Zai LiangSUNY AlbanyChina's massive and history-making flow of rural to urban migration has captivated scholarly attention for the last two decades. So far most research efforts have been devoted mainly to the study of patterns of migration flows and how migrants fare in the places of destination. Although this approach is justifiable in the initial stage of studying China's migration flows, it is time to examine how rural-urban migration has contributed to social and economic transformations of rural China. The question is critically important because recent trend of return migration and flow of enormous amount of remittances have the potential to contribute to rural development and create a new order of social stratification in rural China.The research will examine the impact of migration/return migration on rural China in several aspects. The PI will study patterns and determinants of return migration; examine determinants and consequences of remittances (either sent back by migrants or brought back by return migrants; and determine winners and losers in the race to compete for non-farm employment and entrepreneurial activities. The investigator will consider not only individual level characteristics (i.e. human capital, political capital, migration experiences, and household composition) but also the characteristics of migrants-sending communities. The study relies primarily on two sources of data: the 2000 Chinese Population Census and the 2002 China Rural Household Survey. For individual level models, the PI will use OLS (ordinary least squares) regression and logistic regression techniques. To assess the impact of community level factors on return migration, remittances, non-farm employment, and entrepreneurial activities, we use multi-level modeling techniques. The quantitative data analysis will be complemented by interviews with selected return migrant entrepreneurs in one migrant-sending community. The project promises to contribute to the scholarly literature in several aspects. First, the project will fill a major gap in the current scholarly literature by providing the most systematic empirical knowledge on return migration/migration and its impact on rural China. Second, a theoretical innovation lies in the fact that the research considers migration as an important factor in social stratification in rural China. Third, the project is the first attempt to model the impact of migration on development in a multilevel modeling framework using perhaps the most important country of migration for empirical application. Fourth, the project also has implications for policy-making because of the potential role of remittances in poverty alleviation in the poor areas. Finally, by giving graduate students the opportunity to participate in this project, both for data analysis and fieldwork in China, the project helps train the next generation of scholars on international demography and comparative sociology.