ABSTRACT
This chapter provides an overview of historical, socio-political and economic contexts as stimulus for geographic labour mobility in China and Australia. In drawing together dialogue on the social, political and corporate responses towards the families of internal labour migrants and fly-in fly-out (FIFO) workers, it may be possible to think of new strategies to contribute to the sustainability of China's and Australia's interrelated economies and future development with a focus on family. While the vast majority of China's population was involved in labour-intensive, low-productivity agriculture, the introduction of market-oriented reforms prompted higher agricultural productivity and underemployment of rural labour. To manage these populations, China shifted people of rural hukou over the first two decades of economic reform to village industries and special economic zones that were in demand of unskilled labour. All literature suggests that when labourers and families live together they do better socially, psychologically and in terms of other health outcomes.
