The relationship between population and the environment holds an important role in research on the linkage between human society and ecological systems. Recent studies on population and the environment have turned research focus toward the more dynamic factor of population processes -- migration. However, few studies have been conducted on the environmental impacts of migration particularly circular labor migration in the rural communities from which migrants originate. The increasing rural-to-urban labor migration in China since the early 1980's has formed the largest population flow in world history. The primary objective of this doctoral dissertation research project is to obtain a better understanding of how this large-scale circular labor migration movement impacts the rural environment through its influence on rural household livelihoods and community interaction processes. The analysis will mainly be based on empirical data collected from Chongqing Municipality, where the rural-to-urban labor migration rate is currently the highest in China (51.7 percent in 2006). This project will use a mixed-methods approach to combine both quantitative and qualitative methods. Specifically, three different methods of data collection and analysis will be employed: secondary data, household surveys, and key informant interviews. The findings will show the differences between labor-migrant and non-labor-migrant households with respect to rural livelihood processes including agricultural practices, daily consumption and natural resource use, and will explore the subsequent environmental outcomes in terms of farmland fertility, soil erosion, and environmental conservation. The study will also demonstrate the role of community in modifying the influence of labor out-migration on the local ecological conditions in areas of origin.
This doctoral dissertation research project addresses an understudied question in the relationship between migration and environment in an under-examined region. The potential contribution of this project to the extant literature is twofold. Theoretically, this study will integrate the concept of community as an important mediating factor into the migration and environment framework based on a synthesis of literature. Empirically, this study will assess the efficacy of this conceptual framework in the setting of rural Chongqing in Southwest China. This project will be the first in-depth research on the impacts of rural-to-urban labor migration on the rural environment in China. The research findings of this study have the potential to provide policy implications for China and other developing countries to enhance the ecological and socioeconomic sustainability of the rural areas that are increasingly involved in labor migration and urbanization development. The collaborative relations with Chinese universities and researchers cultivated in this project may also lead to productive and long-term impacts on international scholarship in the migration-environment research area.
