How Migrant Labor is Changing Rural China (Cambridge Modern China Series) - Softcover

Murphy, Rachel

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0521005302 ISBN 13: 9780521005302

Publisher: Cambridge University Press, 2002

Synopsis

This study examines the changing effects of labor migration on the countryside of post-Mao China. Most of the changes are occurring because the migrants send money home and return to their villages for visits or to resettle. The return flows of money, people and information affects rural inequalities, rural spending patterns, agriculture, family relationships, the position of women, and the interactions between villagers and officials. Importantly, some returned migrants even create businesses at home. The book is based on in-depth fieldwork in the Chinese countryside, and it draws comparisons with migration and rural development in other countries.

About this title

Book Description

This book examines how labor migration is changing the countryside in post-Mao China. Much of the change is because the migrants send home money and return to their villages for visits or to resettle. The return flows of money, people and information affects rural inequalities, rural spending patterns, agriculture, family relationships, the position of women, and the interactions between villagers and officials. Importantly, some returned migrants create businesses at home. The book is based on in-depth fieldwork in the Chinese countryside, and it draws comparisons with migration and rural development in other countries.

Review

"Murphy's approach to these and other issues is nuanced, drawing out the contradictions...All of this ethnographic detail provides rich ground for scholars seeking insights into social processes in rural China, and it is this audience that will find the book most appealing." Journal of Asian Business

"Perhaps most critically, [Murphy] demonstrates, in almost Schumpeterian fashion, the various ways in which market reforms have made it possible for returning migrants, having acquired new skills or enhanced old skills, to act as entrepeneurial catalysts for the economic and cultural transformation of rural China. Recommended." Choice

Edition details

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Publication date: 2002
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0521005302
• ISBN 13: 9780521005302
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 306