Abstract
The pattern of rural-to-urban migration in Taiwan is dominated by young people. However, it is older cohorts who direct out-migration. They provide the necessary education and training for their children's urban employment; collect information about the availability of jobs and housing; separate their children from farm work and subsidize the new migrants. The large numbers of these young people leaving rural areas has led to the depopulation of many villages. Older villagers are left to absorb the economic consequences of depopulation. The growing shortage of labor and rising wages for hired help have led to mechanization of tasks, increased the use of chemicals in farming and produced changes in land use and tenure. ka]Key words kb]Taiwan kb]migration kb]elderly kb]depopulation kb]rural life
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References cited
Buck, J. 1930 Chinese Farm Economy. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Department of Agriculture and Forestry, Provincial Government of Taiwan 1978. Report of Farm Record-Keeping Families in Taiwan, 1977. In Chinese.
Ho, S. P. S. 1978a Decentralized Industrialization and Rural Development: Evidence from Taiwan. Economic Development and Culture Change 28: 77–96.
Ho, S. P. S. 1978b Economic Development of Taiwan 1860–1970. New Haven: Yale University Press.
Hsieh, J. C. 1975 The Mobilization of Labor in a Rice and Sugarcane Double-Cropping Village in the Puli Basin. Bulletin of the Institute of Ethnology, Academia Sinica 40: 143–166. In Chinese.
Huang, S. M. 1977 Agricultural Degradation: Changing Community Systems in Rural Taiwan. Ph. D. dissertation. Michigan State University.
Kao, D. 1965 The Factor Contribution of Agriculature to Economic Development: A Study of Taiwan. Asian Survey 5: 558–565.
Puchala, D. and J. Staveley 1979 The Political Economy of Taiwanese Agriculture. In Food, Politics and Agricultural Development. Hopkins et al., eds. Boulder: Westview Press.
Sando, R. A. 1981 The Meaning of Development for Rural Areas: Depopulation in a Taiwanese Farming Community. Ph. D. dissertation. The University of Hawaii.
Sando, R. A. 1983 Agricultural Out-Migration and Rural Policy in Taiwan. Paper presented to the annual meeting of the Society for Applied Anthropology, San Diego, March 17–19.
Smith, R. 1978 Kurusu: The Price of Progress in a Japanese Village, 1951–1975. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
Watson, J. 1975 Emigration and the Chinese Lineage. Berkeley: The University of California Press.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Additional information
This article is based on dissertation research conducted in Taiwan in 1977 and 1978, sponsored by The Population Studies Center, National Taiwan University. Research support was provided by the Pacific Cultural Foundation, Taipei, and members of my family, Ruth M., Paul E., and Marilyn M. Sando. Earlier versions of this article were presented at the International Geographical Union, Commission on Rural Development International Symposium, Fresno, April 1981; Second Annual Women, Work and Public Policy Workshop, Harvard Institute for International Development, Cambridge, April 1982; and American Anthropological Association annual meeting, Chicago, November 1983.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Sando, R.A. Doing the work of two generations: The impact of out-migration on the elderly in rural Taiwan. J Cross-Cultural Gerontol 1, 163–175 (1986). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00116042
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00116042