Labor migration in the 1990s -: Homeward orientation of migrants in the Pearl River Delta region and its implications for interior China

Throughout the reform era, China's government has struggled to find ways to increase labor productivity and incomes while maintaining social stability. In recent years, central authorities have endorsed limited labor migration as necessary to continued economic development. Drawing on fieldwork among zanzhu renkou (temporary residents) in Guangdong Province's Pearl River Delta, this article explores two related issues on labor migration. First, it examines factors that might explain the homeward orientation of labor migrants in coastal China in the mid-1990s. Second, it looks at the effect of these labor migrants' home orientation on the development of their community of origin in interior China. Before discussing the results of this investigation and its economic and social implications, I review changing central and local policies toward labor migration in reformera China.