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

Author: Lin Zhibin
Publisher:
Publishing Date: Not available
Features: The subject of this book is immigration issues, but its research approach and the developmental sociology concepts applied should have broad reference value for those engaged in poverty alleviation and development research. The main issue this study focuses on is whether China's voluntary immigration poverty alleviation projects have effectively achieved the government's primary goal of poverty alleviation. The core argument of this study is that government-organized immigration poverty alleviation projects mobilize a significant amount of resources, which, in some resettlement areas, have brought prospects for prosperity and development to both the migrants and the 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 macroscopically located within poverty-stricken regions, are not impoverished individuals but rather relatively affluent individuals in relatively affluent communities within relatively affluent areas of impoverished regions. This study conducts its analysis from three dimensions: (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.