Doctoral Dissertation Research: The Impacts of Rural-to-Urban Labor Migration on the Rural Environment in Chongqing, China

人口与环境的关系在研究人类社会与生态系统的联系中占有重要地位。最近关于人口与环境的研究已将研究重点转向人口过程中更具活力的因素--迁移。然而，关于移民，特别是流动人口所在农村社区的循环劳动力流动对环境的影响的研究很少。上世纪80年代初以来，中国不断向城市转移劳动力，S形成了世界历史上最大规模的人口流动。这一博士论文研究项目的主要目的是更好地了解这种大规模的循环劳动力迁移如何通过其对农村家庭生计和社区互动过程的影响来影响农村环境。分析将主要基于从重庆市收集的经验数据，目前重庆市农村向城市的劳动力迁移率最高的是中国(2006年为51.7%)。本项目将采用混合方法，将定量方法和定性方法结合起来。具体地说，将采用三种不同的数据收集和分析方法：二级数据、家庭调查和关键线人访谈。调查结果将显示务工和非务工家庭在农业实践、日常消费和自然资源利用等农村生计过程中的差异，并将探讨随后在农田肥力、土壤侵蚀和环境保护方面的环境后果。这项研究还将展示社区在改变劳动力外流对原籍地当地生态条件的影响方面的作用。这一博士论文研究项目解决了在一个研究不足的地区移民与环境之间的关系中一个未被充分研究的问题。这个项目对现存文献的潜在贡献是双重的。理论上，本研究将在综合文献的基础上，将社区作为重要中介因素的概念整合到移民与环境的框架中。实证上，本研究将评估这一概念框架在重庆西南农村中国的背景下的有效性。该项目将首次深入研究农村劳动力向城市转移对中国农村环境的影响。本研究的研究结果有可能为中国和其他发展中国家提高越来越多地参与劳动力迁移和城市化发展的农村地区的生态和社会经济可持续性提供政策建议。该项目与中国大学和研究人员的合作关系也可能对移民环境研究领域的国际学术产生富有成效和长期的影响。

The relationship between population and the environment holds an important role in research on the linkage between human society and ecological systems. Recent studies on population and the environment have turned research focus toward the more dynamic factor of population processes -- migration. However, few studies have been conducted on the environmental impacts of migration particularly circular labor migration in the rural communities from which migrants originate. The increasing rural-to-urban labor migration in China since the early 1980's has formed the largest population flow in world history. The primary objective of this doctoral dissertation research project is to obtain a better understanding of how this large-scale circular labor migration movement impacts the rural environment through its influence on rural household livelihoods and community interaction processes. The analysis will mainly be based on empirical data collected from Chongqing Municipality, where the rural-to-urban labor migration rate is currently the highest in China (51.7 percent in 2006). This project will use a mixed-methods approach to combine both quantitative and qualitative methods. Specifically, three different methods of data collection and analysis will be employed: secondary data, household surveys, and key informant interviews. The findings will show the differences between labor-migrant and non-labor-migrant households with respect to rural livelihood processes including agricultural practices, daily consumption and natural resource use, and will explore the subsequent environmental outcomes in terms of farmland fertility, soil erosion, and environmental conservation. The study will also demonstrate the role of community in modifying the influence of labor out-migration on the local ecological conditions in areas of origin. This doctoral dissertation research project addresses an understudied question in the relationship between migration and environment in an under-examined region. The potential contribution of this project to the extant literature is twofold. Theoretically, this study will integrate the concept of community as an important mediating factor into the migration and environment framework based on a synthesis of literature. Empirically, this study will assess the efficacy of this conceptual framework in the setting of rural Chongqing in Southwest China. This project will be the first in-depth research on the impacts of rural-to-urban labor migration on the rural environment in China. The research findings of this study have the potential to provide policy implications for China and other developing countries to enhance the ecological and socioeconomic sustainability of the rural areas that are increasingly involved in labor migration and urbanization development. The collaborative relations with Chinese universities and researchers cultivated in this project may also lead to productive and long-term impacts on international scholarship in the migration-environment research area.