Return Migration, Social Remittances and Collective Action for
Water Supply and Road Building: Gender Dynamics in a Chinese
Village Presented to workshop on "Migration, Rural Livelihoods and
Natural Resource Management By Dr.Bernadette P. Resurreccion
Dr.Jinghua Ge Feb, 21, 2011
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1. Background Litao village, Xintun Township In Wangmo County,
Southwest Buyi and Miao Autonomous Prefecture in Guizhou Province
146 households, 688 population, 5 villager groups and 9 clans 124
out-migrants (81 male and 43 female), 49 migration returnees (30
males and 19 females) (2007 data)
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2. Village Livelihoods Main financial income includes Revenues
from agricultural production Migration Engagement in small business
Agriculture is still their main income source, consisting of
incomes from pig raising and vegetable growing Migration is another
major income source Karst landscape, mountainous areas Lack of
water for drinking and irrigation
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3. Natural Resource Management Participatory water tanks
building and water management, supported by NGO Collectively built
9 water tanks by villagers from 2003 to 2007 Formulated water use
system and water tanks management system Villagers self-organized
village road building Village road More than 7 km long From 1995 to
1997 Around 23000 labor input
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4. Village Migration Older Migrant GenerationYounger Migrant
Generation GenderMaleFemale and Male Starting Time After the land
reform (1982) Sporadic Road Building (1997) In large numbers Period
At most two months seasonally do farming production long time (at
lease half year) permanently (not seasonally) Not necessary
involvement in farming Personal or couple Personal for both married
and unmarried normally in couples. If married husband migrated
first and then followed by wife, normally their children were left
behind others as single Major Places adjacent province surrounding
villages Coastal cities DistancesShort wayLong way
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Continued Worksmajority in off- or on-farm activities growing
sugar cane Selling China fir seedlings Planting grapes breeding
nursery Logging timer Tree hewer Few in non-farm jobs As
painter/carpenter Houses constructor Road / reservoir digger
Majority in factories as non-farm workers as shoes/clothes making
workers Constructors in power plant As workers in assembly of
electrical outlets Few in on-and off-farm jobs As orchard manager
on relatives farmland Worker in pig feeding plant Few doing short
term jobs in surroundings As carpenter Where are they now majority
stay in village for farming few does the short term jobs in
surrounding places majority is still out-migrating Few moved to
county as permanent residents Few came back to village in farming
or as seasonal migrants Status in village politics (in 2003)
Constituting 2 of 3 village committee members 3 of 5 villager group
leaders 6 of 8 village administrative group members of NGO project
Constituting None of village committee members 1 of villager group
leaders 1 of village administrative group members of NGO project
(female)
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5. Economic and Institutional Dynamics Reform and Opening up to
the World in 1978(from collectivization to de-collectivization)
Land Reform and Household Contract Responsibility System(HCRS)
Special Economic Zones (SEZs)and the Town and Village
Enterprises(TVEs) More loosen Household Registry System (hukou
system) Easing up rural-urban migration Marked by circularity hukou
system: reasonbehind circular migration Gender under HCRS The women
in China are as mobile as men (Fan Cindy, 2007).
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6. Resource Rights and Public Goods Provisions User right is
normally household-based. Households user right By investing cash,
sharing materials and putting the labor forces Shifting public
goods provision paradigm Collectivization period: provided by the
states investment De-collectivization period: diversified with the
farmers occupying the leading place, the government and rural
collectives taking up the second place and the enterprises and
non-profit organizations playing a useful complement role. E.g.
villagers free labor input plus little financial support from the
government is a new model in enhancing the village
infrastructure.
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7. Research Objectives General Objective find out the impacts
of social remittances from circular migration on collective action
for water supply and road building from gender perspective Specific
Objectives To find out gender-specific patterns of circular
migration in the study site To find out new knowledge, skills and
values the return migrants have acquired from their travels and
migration experiences To explore the way the return migrants have
harnessed their social remittances for collective action to improve
livelihoods in their original village To find out the gender
dynamics of collective action and village leadership, as well as
their effects on villages social and gender hierarchies
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8.Conceptual Frameworks Four Concepts The migration process In
this study, the migration process refers to the social, economic
and political conditions that enabled rural people to decide to
out-migrate during specific instances in the history of China as a
whole, and of the village under study in particular. The migration
process also involves an investigation on the factors and
conditions of work in destination places as well as the process of
migrant return to their village of origin. Translocality: Linkages
between Origins and Destinations In this study, the concept of
translocality is used to investigate the multifaceted linkages
between the migration returnees and the outside world, and the
dynamic process by which the place of origin is produced and
reproduced by both local institutions and peoples mobility in
economic, ecological, social and political ways. More specifically,
it is analyzed as the connections that migrants maintain with their
places of origin, as well as the ways that they may transform these
places in dynamic ways.
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Social Remittances Social remittances in this research involves
the investigation of newly acquired construction and engineering
skills and financial knowledge, social capitals established with
government authorities and business partners, new ideas for
equitable labor division, advancing livelihoods, material progress
and village development, confidence to assume leadership positions,
and networks with other migrants. Collective Action In this study,
the focus on collective action is primarily as a site where social
remittances are channeled and brought to play especially in two
instances: road construction and water tanks construction. While
the study does not purport to examine collective action and all its
detailed ramifications, it problematizes collective action only to
the extent that it is a context where kinship and gender dynamics
are also played out, negotiated and reproduced.
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Conceptual Synthesis The migration process can bring about
translocal impacts both on sending and receiving communities
through social and financial remittances with different social,
economic and ecologic consequences. Social remittances are key
factors in understanding the dynamic processes through which
migration changes the sending communities; Social remittances can
influence collective action in sending communities in two ways: The
social remittances could enable collective action; Social
remittances in the context of collective action can re- inscribe,
reproduce and/or produce gender and kinship relations and
meanings.
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9. DATA AND METHODOLOGY Two cases Spontaneous village road
building Participatory water tanks construction Secondary Data
Micro Level Village documents Files and materials from township
offices Project field notes Action research report good governance
in water tank management Macro level Files from township and county
Yearly statistic book of Wangmo county Academic journals Books
Government documents newspapers Primary Data
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Type of dataDataMethodologiesInterviewees Primary Data Name
list of current returnees and out- migrants General village
information Wider context of people s collective action for NRM
Supplemented by exiting field notes: basic-line investigation
report in 2003, and SWOT analysis data key informant
interviewVillager group leaders, village leaders, village
statistician, gov. staffs migration history of the village
Validated by inscriptions on tombstones key informant
interviewelders of each clan NRMs through CA, process, possible
rights and its gender differences Supplemented by existing field
notes Validated by inscriptions on stone group discussion7 water
tank administrative group members and 15 villagers (9 females and
13 males) effect of migration on livelihood received social
remittances life story of migration ways returnees employed social
remittances in CA leaderships from migration and collective NRM and
how Semi-structured Individual Interview 38 interviewed returnees,
in which 16 females and 22 males; shifting population
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Type of DataDataMethodologiesInterviewees Primary Data Family
trees Intermarriage data Key Informants Interviewelders and
villagers from 5 biggest clans Tentative Test of household survey
and revision Household definition by local and gov.Key Informant
interviewVillagers (female and male) and government officials
household migration data household livelihoods natural resources
use and management (land, water and road) schedule of village land
reforms and its contents Reasons to be resource persons in
collective village road building Household Survey accompanying with
informal individual interviews; Afterward Informal Individual
interviews 71 households surveyed former village director, resource
persons in road building, village elites
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Sampling Strategies Semi-structured individual interview All
returnees 38 returnees, consisting of 16 females and 22 males
Distributed in 5 villager groups and 7 clans Household Survey The
households that were available Of total 146 households, 71
households surveyed (23 households with migration returnees)
Responders to the questionnaire (54 are male and 45 are
female)
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10. MAIN FINDINGS Circular migration in the study site In three
waves and marked by gender, distance and engagement Older
generation of migrant returnees and the younger generation of
migrant returnees Received social remittances in promoting village
collective action Stronger patronage ties with potential
benefactors such as government and county officials A more
democratic and efficiency-oriented consciousness for collective
action New ideas for material progress and entrepreneurship A
higher level of confidence to assume leadership positions in the
village Newly acquired construction and engineering skills and
financial knowledge
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Harnessing of social remittances and gender dynamics of
collective action Harnessing of social remittances: taken place
within the context of socially- embedded and resilient gender and
social hierarchies and in-placed practices Gender dynamics of
collective action and village leadership: still patriarchy oriented
and intricately woven with local kinship ties Effects of social
remittances on local social and gender hierarchies Judging from the
gendered power relationship among the villagers, the social
remittances, employed within the context of the re-emerging kinship
system, served to further entrench local social and gender
hierarchies
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11. CONCLUSIONS Migration and Gender There is a dearth of
studies focusing on return migration, especially the female return
migration for the sake of its mixed and contradictory process.
Female return migrants might be able to economically gain and
benefit from their status as out-migrants, but the role that they
play as well as their involvement in village political life had to
be mediated by relations of power in their households and their
natal communities.
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Gender and Natural Resource Management Gender issues in natural
resource management should be examined in a translocal setting and
embedded within the processes and practices at a wider
macro-economic level. The local social institutions also played a
significant role. It is also important to evaluate the impacts of a
temporarily successful natural resource management regime on
gendered power relations among resource users and their social
hierarchies, which will determine the long-term sustainability of a
project. An analysis of the effects of migration or peoples
movement on environmental governance should also focus on its
political dynamics, more specifically on the gender asymmetries of
power.
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Redefining Social Remittance as a Process in Gender and
Migration Studies Social remittance was not only a social concept
that was instrumentally employed to statically examine how the
social flow of migration was affecting the sending community.
Instead, social remittance is a process that was socially embedded
in social difference and power relations. Being a process, there is
room not only for holding the integrated evaluation of the dynamic
impacts of social remittance on sending communities but also for
modification and variation by the individual who serves as the
agent of social change and for institutionalized change. Gender,
being also viewed as a process, therefore obtains more drivers and
grounds in deploying the migration research.
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Capital, Politics, Society and Gender The nature of neo-liberal
economy has worked to intensify and underscore the gendered social
differentiation. Despite Chinas economic growth and the adoption of
a new political economy system, it could not be said that the
plight of women were adequately addressed since these policies and
agendas were development- oriented and were not designed primarily
to improve the status of women in society. In order to achieve a
more gender equal development form the migration, in formulating
migration and development policy, more gender egalitarian and
gender democratic development policies should necessarily be
considered and advocated by decision makers.