China is the world’s most populous nation and also has the largest rural
population, numbering 757 million in 2004 (NBS 2005, p. 93). During the
last quarter of the twentieth century, China has experienced perhaps the
most rapid urbanization in the history of the world: The urban population
increased from 9 percent of the total in 1978 to 41.7 percent in 2004 (NBS
2005, 93), and rural–urban labor migrants (both seasonal and non-seasonal)
numbered over 100 million. The enormous impact of this demographic
transformation on China’s socio-economic development has yet to be fully
appreciated.
The authors concur with many other scholars that the remittances sent by
rural migrant workers play a significant role in rural development in China
(Li Qiang 2001), but we go further in raising two additional questions.
First, have remittances been put to effective and rational use in promoting
rural development? Second, how are we to understand, and respond to, the
seemingly contradictory situation whereby migrant workers make a huge
contribution to rural communities through remittances while themselves
living in relative poverty in cities?
A number of government policies, especially those on education, health
care, taxation, financing, and so forth, have played a vital role in labor
migration and rural development (Huang and Zhan 2005). In considering
the questions above, the authors will examine the effects of these policies
and consider how they shape the impact of remittances on rural development
in China. In doing so, we draw both on our own recent research and on the
relevant work of other scholars.