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Abstract
The astonishing scale of internal migration in China since 1980s can be compared to only a few cases in world history. The migration gave birth to a vast number of peasant workers with their family members left behind in rural communities. Dominant studies on migration address mainly the following questions: why people migrate, what impacts migration has brought about, and how to cope with such positive or negative influences. This review paper builds on this rich body of literature and engages with critical agrarian studies. A better understanding of rural-urban migration in China from a critical agrarian studies perspective can be better achieved in the context of the historical emergence of a new (semi-) proletariat class and the biopolitics of their migration. Based on this and the aforementioned discussion, we will point to potential future studies as a conclusion.
We would like to thank Ding Baoyin, Tu Jing, Xu Siyuan, Ning Xia and Chen Jinghuan for their efforts in the collection of references. We thank Prof. Tony Fuller for helping improve the English language of the paper.
Notes
1There are in total 26 researchers on the team. The team's research on left-behind populations is of leading significance within the Chinese academic community. There has been in-depth media coverage of the team's research on left-behind populations. The team's research on left-behind populations won the highest prize for social sciences research in China in 2013.
2We thank one of our anonymous reviewers for pointing this out.
3Our research team conducted another study on left-behind populations at the request of the World Bank in 2013. This quoted description was repeatedly heard during the research.
4As Bronfenbrenner's theory of social ecological system points out, micro and macro gaps could somehow be bridged in five systems, namely, the microsystem (the direct environment we live in), the mesosystem (relationships between the microsystems), the exosystem (links between settings with active and inactive participations), the macrosystem (the actual culture) and the chronosystem (transitions and shifts in lifespans) (Bronfenbrenner Citation1979).
5The government camp system empowered the urban government to capture ‘tramps’ and keep them in custody without legal trials. These people had no idea how long they would be confined or what treatment they would get. This system has long been challenged and criticized, especially when a graduate student, Sun Zhigang, was accidently locked up as a homeless and jobless person and died in the cell after 48 hours. The system was finally terminated in 2003. The government camp is an extreme form of biopolitics in China. See Agamben (Citation1998).
6A good example of rejection feeling is the famous doctor Zhong Nanshan who made a great contribution in the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) period. He angrily called for the recovery of the government camp system after being robbed in the street of Guangdong City in broad daylight.
7We thank Professor James Scott for the idea that the right to move also includes the right not to move.
Additional information
Jingzhong Ye is a professor of development studies and deputy dean at the College of Humanities and Development Studies (COHD), China Agricultural University. His research interests include development intervention and rural transformation, rural ‘left behind’ populations, rural education, land politics and sociology of agriculture.
Chunyu Wang is an associate professor at the College of Humanities and Development Studies (COHD), China Agricultural University. Her research interests include rural transformation, county governance and planning, rural politics and land grabbing. Email: [email protected].
Huifang Wu is an associate professor at the College of Humanities and Development Studies (COHD), China Agricultural University. Her research mainly covers gender studies, agrarian sociology and rural left-behind populations. Email: [email protected].
Congzhi He is a senior lecturer at the College of Humanities and Development Studies (COHD), China Agricultural University. Her research mainly covers rural social security issues, rural left-behind elderly, rural development policy and civil society. Email: [email protected].
Juan Liu is a researcher at the College of Humanities and Development Studies (COHD), China Agricultural University. Her research interests include rural politics, land politics and land grabbing. Email: [email protected].