Impact of Urban-rural Return Migration on Rural Economic Development in China----With Implications for Vietnam

作为一项多样化战略，移徙是最不发达国家家庭生计的一个基本要素。然而，最贫穷的原籍家庭被排除在外，未能从中受益，因为移徙仍然是一个有选择的过程。尽管中国在过去30年里取得了经济成就，但贫困仍然存在，特别是在中国偏远的农村地区。通过移民经历积累了人力、财力和社会资本的城乡回乡移民，能够成为缩小城乡差距、促进农村经济发展和帮助农村贫困人口摆脱贫困的变革推动者。本研究将探讨城乡回迁对中国农村经济发展的影响，以及结果如何可转移到中国的邻国越南。它将调查回返者对当地农村经济作出贡献的方式、他们的决策过程以及影响他们创业活动的关键机构和政策。小组之间的差异，跨越时间和地点也将使用回顾性纵向多层次的方法进行检查。拟议的研究解决了前两个首要的研究问题。它旨在评价回返者在减少城乡差距和帮助农村贫困人口（主要是非移民家庭）摆脱贫困方面的代理作用的方式和有效性。将从经济发展水平不同的8个省的120个村、40个县抽样调查1800个海归家庭，以确保确定有助于海归经济成功的关键当地条件，包括制度和政策。这将有助于我们了解促进这种条件的行为者，并调查在其他地方创造这种条件的可能性和规模。它将分五个阶段进行。首先，将进行深入的文献和档案研究。其次，对2000年和2010年中国人口普查的微观数据进行分析，考察回迁人口的变化规律及其与地方特征的关系。三是对1800户归国人员和600户非归国人员进行调查。第四，将对80名成功的海归企业家进行深度访谈，进一步探讨有助于其经济成功的关键制度、政策和当地条件。最后，将分析收集到的数据，并将调查结果分发给国际上的学术和非学术听众。实证研究结果将丰富我们对刺激农村发展和帮助农村贫困人口摆脱贫困的条件和制度背景的理解。这对中国的政策制定者如何有效地将返乡移民和促进返乡创业活动纳入农村发展和缩小城乡差距的战略指导具有重要意义。在全球范围内，研究结果将对越南等其他发展中国家具有更广泛的意义。越南正在成功复制中国的发展模式，但也面临着农村贫困和城乡差距扩大等类似问题。提出了各种参与和活动，以确保将项目成果转移到越南。将采用定量和定性相结合的方法来增强研究结果的稳健性和完整性。通过复杂和创新的研究设计技术和抽样方法，将创建适合多层次建模的主要数据集。这些数据集将被完整记录并存放在英国数据档案馆，以供进一步探索。所提出的研究具有国际和多学科的范围。来自英国、中国香港和越南的六位移民专家组成了一支实力雄厚、资质齐全的团队，他们拥有丰富的研究经验，分别来自不同学科。

Migration is an essential element in the livelihoods of households in Least Developed Countries as a diversification strategy. However, the poorest families at origins are left out and failed to benefit from it as migration remains a selected process. Despite China's economic achievement over the past 30 years, poverty still persists, especially in remote rural China. Urban-rural return migrants who are equipped with accumulated human, financial, and social capital through their migration experiences are capable of acting as agents of change to reduce rural-urban disparities, facilitate rural economic development and help rural poor to exit poverty.This research will investigate impact of urban-rural return migration on rural economic development in China and how results are transferable to China's neighbouring country Vietnam. It will investigate ways that returnees contribute to local rural economy, their decision-making process, and key institutions and policies affecting their entrepreneurial activities. Variations between groups, across time and places will also be examined using a retrospective longitudinal multi-level approach. The proposed research addresses the first two overarching research questions. It aims to evaluate ways and effectiveness of returnees' agency role in reducing rural-urban disparity and helping rural poor, mainly the non-migrant households, exit poverty. Eighteen hundred returnee households are to be sampled from 120 villages, 40 counties in 8 provinces with different levels of economic development to ensure that key local conditions, including institutions and policies, conductive to returnees' economic success will be identified. This will help us understand actors that promote such conditions and investigate the possibility and the scales to create such conditions elsewhere. It will be carried out in five phases. First, thorough documentary and archival research will be conducted. Second, microdata of Chinese 2000 and 2010 census will be analysed to examine the changing patterns of return migration and its relationship with place characteristics. Third, a survey of 1800 returnee and 600 non-migrant households will be conducted. Fourth, in-depth interviews of 80 successful returnee entrepreneurs will be carried out to investigate further key institutions, policies and local conditions conductive to their economics success. Finally, collected data will be analysed and findings will be disseminated to both academic and non-academic audiences internationally. The empirical findings will enrich our understanding on conditions and institutional context that stimulate rural development and help the rural poor exit poverty. It provides great implications for policy makers in China on how to effectively incorporate return migration and foster returnees' entrepreneurial activities in its strategic guidance for rural development and reducing rural-urban disparities. In a global context, the results will have wider relevance for other developing nations such as Vietnam, which is replicating China's development model successfully and also facing similar issues in rural deprivation and rising rural-urban disparities. Various engagements and activities are proposed to ensure the transfer of the project results to Vietnam.Both quantitative and qualitative methods will be used to enhance the robustness and completeness of the research results. A primary data set will be created suitable for multilevel modelling through complex and innovative research design techniques and sampling methods. The datasets will be fully documented and deposited at the UK Data Archive for further exploration.The proposed research has both an international and a multidisciplinary scope. Six migration experts with extensive research experiences from different disciplines from UK, Hong Kong China and Vietnam form a strong and fully qualified team to successfully carry out this project.