Who Moved? - A Socio-economic and Policy Analysis of the Voluntary Migration for Poverty Alleviation Project

Author: Lin Zhibin
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-03-01
Features: The subject of this book is the issue of immigration, but its research approach and the developmental sociology concepts applied should be of broad reference value to those engaged in poverty alleviation and development research. The main focus of this study is whether China's voluntary immigration poverty alleviation projects have effectively achieved the primary goal of poverty alleviation set by the government. The core argument of this study is that government-organized immigration poverty alleviation projects mobilize a significant amount of resources, and in some resettlement areas, these resource investments have brought prospects for prosperity and development to the immigrants and resettlement areas. However, these immigration poverty alleviation projects have not fully benefited the target group defined by the government, i.e., the impoverished population in impoverished areas. In fact, many beneficiaries, although located within the macro-defined impoverished regions, are not impoverished individuals but rather relatively affluent individuals in relatively affluent communities within the impoverished regions. This study conducts its analysis from three aspects: (1) socio-economic dimension; (2) policy dimension; (3) developmental sociology dimension. This three-dimensional analytical framework is innovative compared to other immigration and poverty alleviation studies in China.