Seminar: ‘Qinghai’s “emigration state”: does state-sponsored out-migration through noodle-making work as a development strategy for poor rural counties in China’
Published: 8 March 2023
International migration scholars disagree over state migration brokerage as a development strategy: some suggest it brings a “triple win” while others highlight unsustainable dependence. This paper draws on these debates to examine a much less-scrutinised case of internal migration.
Dr Charlotte Goodburn, King's College London
Wednesday 8 March 2023 at 4–5.30pm
Location: in person, Room 139, 25 Bute Gardens, University of Glasgow and online with registration at
https://uofglasgow.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZUscOmsrjkiHt3s6A_UctE2pmrOQY7xzmGO
Abstract
International migration scholars disagree over state migration brokerage as a development strategy: some suggest it brings a “triple win” while others highlight unsustainable dependence. This paper draws on these debates to examine a much less-scrutinised case of internal migration. Local states in Qinghai, in north-west China, provide training, funding and employment contacts to impoverished, rural, ethnic minority households – particularly those who have lost land through the “Returning Farmland to Forest” programme – to set up noodle shops in eastern China. Through remittance-sending and eventually returning to Qinghai, migrants are supposed to enhance their home counties’ development as well as exiting poverty themselves. Based on qualitative fieldwork at both ends of the migration trajectory – Shanghai and Qinghai – this paper suggests that impacts are complex, with short-term poverty relief offset by non-economic consequences in education and ethnic inequality, while long-term development challenges remain.
Biography
Dr Charlotte Goodburn is Acting Director of the Lau China Institute at King’s College London. Her current research has two main strands: The first explores the politics and institutions of migration in China in comparative perspective, most notably with India and with international migration, with a particular focus on documents and registration. The second focuses on China’s influence abroad, in the form of policy mobilities and the “China model”, especially as these impact urbanisation, rural livelihoods and migration.
The Scottish Centre for China Research Seminar Programme gratefully acknowledges the financial support of the MacFie Bequest.
For more details on the SCCR Seminar Series: https://www.gla.ac.uk/schools/socialpolitical/research/sccr/events/
First published: 8 March 2023
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