ABSTRACT
The term ‘remittances’ refers to the money that migrant workers send back to their communities of origin. Remittances are an integral feature of the migration system in China. Remittances occur largely because migration forms part of a strategy for ‘rural livelihood diversification’. This means that rural households spread their earning activities over a range of on-farm and off-farm activities in order to minimise their risks and raise their returns to available labour. The world over, off-farm activities generate more income than agriculture and it is access to this cash rather than the size of land allocations that determines wealth inequalities within rural communities. In localities where the local economy is unable to provide off-farm employment, it becomes necessary for household members to find work in cities (Hare 1999).
