ABSTRACT
In the past two decades, one of the important areas that Chinese researchers and policymakers have focused on is human migration, both permanent and temporary. While many studies have paid attention to migrant receiving places, mostly cities and towns (Yang 1993; Yang and Guo 1996; Solinger 1995 and 1999; Xiang 1998; Jeong 2000), only a few studies have focused on the influence of migration on migrant sending places. In 1987, the Rural Development Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences pioneered research in this field by conducting a survey of 26,993 laborers from rural areas—from 222 villages in eleven provinces. In 1994, the Ministry of Agriculture carried out a survey in seventy-five villages in eleven provinces. In 1995, the Institute of Agricultural Research of the Ministry of Agriculture extended its survey to 318 villages that covered all twenty-nine provinces/autonomous regions/municipalities. These studies not only allow the researchers to capture the pattern of out-migration but also enable an analysis of the influences of out-flowing labor on sending areas.
