Rapid demographic and socio-economic changes have been taking place in China during the past thirty years. The economic reforms initiated at the end of the 1970s led to increased agricultural productivity and excess rural labour force; in parallel, the rise in the inflow of foreign investment in urban areas generated high demand for low-priced labour. Demographic pressures accompanied by economic reforms set the background to the Great Migration, arguably the largest move of labour force in history, where recent estimates from the census show that there are over 250 million migrant workers in China (NBS, 2012).
As a consequence, besides affecting the life of migrants themselves, migration also has socio-economic implications on individuals, families and communities left-behind in sending areas and on those living in receiving areas. Hence, this theme examines the determinants and implications of migration within China and of international migration from China.
Among the topics of interest are: the role of social networks in the migration decision and in the job search process; the health and well-being of individuals left-behind in rural areas (including more vulnerable groups such as elderly, women and children); the determinants of entrepreneurship and self-employment choices; the short and long run consequences of policy (particularly labor market interventions); the role of migration in affecting consumption patterns.
Theme Leads
Professor Jackline Wahba – Principle investigator of a large research project “Migration and the Reshaping of Consumption Patterns”. Funded by DFG/ESRC/ANR/NSFC. Consortium: University of Southampton, University of Nottingham, CNRS, Beijing Normal University, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, 2015-2018
Professor Jackie Wahba is Professor of Economics at the University of Southampton. In the University of Southampton, she is leader of the Migration Research at the ESRC Centre for Population Change. Her research interests include Development Economics, Labour Economics and Applied Micro-Econometrics, in particular migration and labour markets in developing countries. She is a research fellow of the Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA) in Bonn, the Centre for Research and Analysis of Migration (CReAM) in London and the Economic Research Forum (ERF) in Cairo. Professor Jackie Wahba also acted as an academic consultant in international migration and labour markets for several international organisations including the World Bank, OECD and IOM. She is the managing editor of the IZA Journal of Labor & Development.
Projects
There are two ESRC Pathfinder Research Projects relevant to China:
- “Assessing the impact of internal labour migration on intergenerational support, health and income: the cases of China and South Africa”
Coordinator: Professor Jane Falkingham (University of Southamption)
Consortium: University of Southampton, the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and the University of Witwatersrand (South Africa), and the Africa Centre for Health and Population Studies 
“Coping with the Urban Environment? Gender Disadvantage, Social Inequalities and Well-being of Economic Migrants in China”
Coordinator: Professor Sabu Padmadas (University of Southamption)
Consortium: University of Southampton, in collaboration with the China Population and Development Research Centre, the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and Nanjing University
Relevant activities of these two projects include:
- ESRC Pathfinder Project Meeting, Johannesburg, South Arica, 15–20 January, 2012
(Participants from University of Southampton: Professor Jane Falkingham, Professor Jackline Wahba, Professor Maria Evandrou, Dr. Rachel Bennett, Dr. Lucy Jordan and Dr. Vicky Hosegood) - ESRC Pathfinder Project Meeting, Beijing, China, 28-29 March, 2012
(Professor Sabu Padmadas gave an overview of the ESRC Pathfinder Project; Professor Jane Falkingham and Professor Nyovani Madise participated and made a speech) - ESRC Pathfinder Research Programme Research Methods Training Workshop, China Population & Development Research Centre (CPDRC), Beijing, China, 30 March–1st April, 2012
(Professor Jackline Wahba, Professor Sabu Padmadas, and Professor James Brown delivered lectures regarding modelling types of longitudinal data) - ESRC Pathfinder Project Meeting, Beijing, China, 5–6 April, 2012
(Participants from University of Southampton: Professor Jane Falkingham, Professor Jackline Wahba, Professor Maria Evandrou, Dr. Rachel Bennett, Dr. Lucy Jordan, Dr. Athina Vlachantoni and Dr. Vicky Hosegood) - ESRC Pathfinder Project Joint Workshop, Southampton, UK, 4–6 September, 2012
(Participants from University of Southampton: Professor Jane Falkingham, Professor Sabu Padmadas, Professor Maria Evandrou, Professor James Brown, Dr. Athina Vlachantoni, Dr. Priya Khambhaita, Dr. Lucy Jordan, Dr. Rachel Bennett and Yekai Chen) - British Society for Population Studies (BSPS) Special Session on “Internal migration and wellbeing in China”, University of Nottingham, UK, 10–12 September, 2012
(Session organizer is Professor Sabu Padmadas. Participants from University of Southampton included Professor James Brown, Professor Maria Evandrou and Dr. Lucy Jordan) - International Symposium on Migration, Economic and Social Development in Modern China, organised by the Confucius Institute and the Centre for Contemporary China jointly with the ESRC Centre for Population Change (CPC) and Centre for Global Health Population, Poverty & Policy, University of Southampton, UK, 9 November, 2012
(Welcome and opening remarks by Professor Don Nutbeam and Mark Cranshaw; Professor Jane Falkingham chaired a panel on “Migration and socioeconomic transformation in modern China” and Professor Sabu Padmadas chaired a panel on “Broadening the migration impact within and beyond China”)
Publications
Jordan, Lucy., Qiang, Ren. and Falkingham, Jane. (2015) “Youth education and learning in 21st century China: Disentangling the impacts of migration, residence and Hukou.” Chinese Sociological Review, 47 (1), 57-83.
Giulietti, Corrado, Jackline Wahba, and Yves Zenou (2014) “Strong versus weak ties in migration.” CEPR Discussion Paper No. DP10248.
Zhang, Nana (2014) “Performing identities: women in rural-urban migration in contemporary China.” Geoforum, 54, 17-27.
Giulietti, Corrado, Jackline Wahba, and Klaus F. Zimmermann (2013) “Entrepreneurship of the Left-Behind.” Research in Labor Economics, 37, 65-92.
Zhang, Nana (2013) “Home divided, home reconstructed: children in rural–urban migration in contemporary China.” Children’s Geographies, 1-17.
Zhang, Nana (2013) “Rural women migrant returnees in contemporary China.” Journal of Peasant Studies, 40, (1), 171-188.
Urban, Frauke, Nordensvard, Johan, Khatri, Deepika and Wang, Yu (2013) “An analysis of China’s investment in the hydropower sector in the Greater Mekong Sub-Region.” Environment, Development and Sustainability, 15, (2), 301-324.
Feng, Z., Wang, W., Jones, K., & Li, Y. (2012). “An exploratory multilevel analysis of income, income inequality and self-rated health of the elderly in China.” Social Science & Medicine,75(12),2481-2492.
Zhang, Nana (2011) “The impact of guanxi networks on the employment relations of rural migrant women in contemporary China.” Industrial Relations Journal, 42, (6), 580-595.
Urban, F., Nordensvard, Johan, Wang, Y., Khatri, D. and Mohan, C. (2011) “China and the African oil sector: channels of engagement, motives, actors and impacts.” Brighton, GB, Institute of Development Studies (IDS Working Papers).
Zhang, Nana (2006) “Social networks and women’s rural-urban migration in contemporary China.” Labour, Capital and Society, 39, (2), 105-122.
Events
ESRC-CASS Conference on Migration & Labour Markets: China and the UK
- Sponsor: UK Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) & Chinese Academy of Social Sciences
- Organizer: ESRC Centre for Population Change (CPC) & Institute of Population and Labor Economics, CASS
- Location and time: University of St Andrews, UK, 12-14 June, 2010.
- Participants from University of Southampton: Professor Jane Falkingham, Professor Jackline Wahba, Professor Sabu Padmadas, Professor Maria Evandrou
Urbanization and Development in China Conference
- (themes include migration, urbanization, China’s new middle class, urban planning and development, rural development, food security, health and population change, environment challenges)
- Organizer: Department of Sociology, Social Policy and Criminology & The Confucius Institute
- Location and time: University of Southampton, UK, 30-31 October 2014
Presenters: Assistant Professor Jing Gao and Assistant Professor Xiaoman Li from China Capital University of Economics and Business
Assistant Professor Jing Gao and Assistant Professor Xiaoman Li from China Capital University of Economics and Business, and Dr. Johan Nordensvard (University of Southampton)
Professor Jackline Wahba – Presented a paper and chaired a session at the 5th IZA/CIER Annual Workshop on Research in Labor Economics, Beijing, China, 25–27 October, 2013
Professor Yves Zenou (Stockholm University) – Presented a paper on “Strong versus Weak Ties in Migration” joint with Professor Jackline Wahba and Dr. Corrado Giulietti at the Economics Departmental Seminar, University of Southampton, UK, 18 February, 2015
Dr. Corrado Giulietti (Institute for the Study of Labor) – Presented a paper on “Social Networks and the Labour Market Outcomes of Rural to Urban Migrants in China” at the Centre for Population Change (CPC) Seminar Series, University of Southampton, UK, 6 December, 2010
Professor Jane Falkingham and Dr. Lucy Jordan – the XXVII International Union for the Scientific Study of Population (IUSSP) International Population Conference, Busan, South Korea, 26-31 August, 2013 (paper: “Youth education and learning in 21st century China: Disentangling the impacts of migration, residence and Hukou”)
Dr. Traute Meyer – Presented a paper on “Free Movement? The impact of migration on the pensions of European migrants” at the Social Policy Conference, Xiamen University, Fujian, China, 5 April, 2014
Hao Xu (PhD student in Economics) – Presented a paper at the DTC-ESRC Funded Students in Final Year Conference, University of Oxford, UK, 17 April, 2015
Chuhong Wang (PhD student in Economics) – Attended the 6th IZA/CIER Annual Workshop on Research in Labor Economics, IZA, Bonn, Germany, 17–19 July, 2014
Staff & PHD Students
Professor Jackline Wahba
Professor Jackline Wahba – Principle investigator of a large research project “Migration and the Reshaping of Consumption Patterns”. Funded by DFG/ESRC/ANR/NSFC. Consortium: University of Southampton, University of Nottingham, CNRS, Beijing Normal University, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, 2015-2018
Professor Jackie Wahba is Professor of Economics at the University of Southampton. In the University of Southampton, she is leader of the Migration Research at the ESRC Centre for Population Change. Her research interests include Development Economics, Labour Economics and Applied Micro-Econometrics, in particular migration and labour markets in developing countries. She is a research fellow of the Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA) in Bonn, the Centre for Research and Analysis of Migration (CReAM) in London and the Economic Research Forum (ERF) in Cairo. Professor Jackie Wahba also acted as an academic consultant in international migration and labour markets for several international organisations including the World Bank, OECD and IOM. She is the managing editor of the IZA Journal of Labor & Development.
Personal homepage: http://www.southampton.ac.uk/economics/about/staff/jew3.page
Dr. Corrado Giulietti
Corrado Giulietti is Associate Professor of Economics at the Department of Economics, University of Southampton, where he is also Associate Researcher within the ESRC Centre for Population Change. After being awarded a PhD in Economics from the University of Southampton, Corrado worked at the Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA) in Bonn, Germany, where he held several positions, including Director of Research until his return to the UK in February 2016.Corrado’s main research fields are Labour Economics and Development Economics. Part of his research agenda is devoted to the study of labor markets and the rural-to-urban migration in China.
He has published research on China in outlets such as the China Economic Review, the Journal of Human Capital, the Review of Economic of the Household and the International Journal of Manpower (winning the Emerald Award for Excellence in 2013). He has edited a special volume on the Chinese labor market for Research in Labor Economics.Corrado is currently involved in the large project “Migration and the Reshaping of Consumption Patterns” funded by DFG/ESRC/ANR/NSFC and has led the project “Europe Meets China: Images of contemporary China” funded by the European Commission. He has visited and gave seminars and lectures at several Chinese institutions including Peking University, Tsinghua University, Renmin University of China, Beijing Normal University, the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, and the City University of Hong Kong.
Personal homepage: http://www.southampton.ac.uk/economics/about/staff/cg204.page?
Chuhong Wang (Ph.D. Candidate)
Mrs Chuhong Wang is Postgraduate research student within Social Sciences: Economics at the University of Southampton. She completed her B.Sc in Economics and Finance at Southampton, M.Phil in Economics at Cambridge, and is now on her PhD at Southampton.
Her research interests are on Labour Economics and Development Economics, with a particular attention to labour market outcomes of vulnerable groups (e.g. the disabled), migration and its economic and social effects, the impact on the welfare of families left behind, and issues on the intersection between health and migration.
Personal homepage: http://www.southampton.ac.uk/economics/postgraduate/research_students/cw8g09.page
Hao Xu (Ph.D. Candidate)
Mr Hao Xu is Postgraduate research student within Social Sciences: Economics at the University of Southampton. He received the bachelor degree from Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Msc degree from University of Essex in 2011.
Personal homepage: http://www.southampton.ac.uk/economics/postgraduate/research_students/hx2g12.page