Anthony So
Senior Research Fellow in Public Policy and Law;
Director, Program in Global Health and Technology Access
Sanford Institute for Public Policy, Duke University

Place: 1304 McGavran-Greenberg
Time: 12:00 PM
Date: Friday, March 11, 2005

For Additional Information, Contact:
Name: Emily Bobrow
Email: ebobrow@email.unc.edu
Web: http://www.unc.edu/sghc

Cindy Fan
University of California, Los Angeles

Friday, February 18, 2005
Sponsored by the Department of Geography
University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill

Place: Toy Lounge, 4th Floor, Dey Hall
Time: 3:15 PM
Date: Friday, Feb 18, 2005

Abstract:

The dramatic surge of migration in China over the past two decades has been both a driver and an outcome of structural changes in the economy.
Estimated to be greater than 100 million in volume, the "floating population" is made possible by the repositioning of the state and globalization of the Chinese economy but is at the same time shaped by the legacies of a central-planning system. Conventional migration theories, based primarily on capitalist economies, cannot fully explain the decision-making,processes, and experiences of migration in a transitional context. I argue that policy and household strategies are key to understanding rural-urban migration in China. Drawing from census-type data and interview material, I seek to show that despite reforms of the household registration (hukou) system, rural migrants are institutionally and socially marginalized in the city. Thus, the chance of their becoming full urban citizens is small, their migration is highly circular in nature, and many are likely to eventually return to the countryside. The contribution of return migrants is, meanwhile, hotly debated as they are rejected by the city and yet they may bring about social and economic changes in the countryside. In addition, I highlight the centrality of the family and of household considerations. I argue that rural households use innovative strategies to negotiate policy constraints and adjustments and that the social and power relations within the household are the key for understanding migration decision-making. Gender division of labor, whereby men pursue migrant work and women return to or stay in the village, reflects not only a response to policy but multiple layers of ideologies and power hierarchies.