Migration, Remittances and Social and Spatial Organisation of Rural Households in China

Just 40 years ago, China’s urbanisation was only 20 per cent. Today it has surpassed the 50 per cent mark. Such rapid urbanisation is a result of not only skyrocketing economic growth but also massive rural–urban migration. The remittances that migrants sent home have for the past 30 years been crucial for the livelihood of the rural Chinese. “Going out” or dagong, meaning leaving home to work somewhere else, is widely considered to be the only means for rural households to overcome poverty and improve their standard of living. In the Chinese countryside, arable land is extremely limited. Massive poverty and starvation are still fresh in the memory of the rural Chinese – 30 million people died in a famine just half a century ago. It is therefore not surprising that millions have left farms to look for urban work since the economic reforms that began in the late 1970s have made such mobility possible.