An employee waters flowers in a greenhouse at a flower cultivation base at Zhushan County in central China’s Hubei Province. The base was set up by two returning migrant brothers in 2015.

 

In the first 15 years of the 21st century, Shanghai’s migrant resident population shrank for the first time, according to recently released data. One factor contributing to the phenomenon was the wave of migrant workers returning to their rural hometowns to start businesses.

The interaction of push-and-pull forces in the market is driving the exodus of urban workers to the countryside, said Guo Aijun, dean of the School of Economics at Lanzhou University. Guo explained that the high cost of living in cities pushes young migrants back to rural areas, while nostalgia and blood ties pull them back to their birthplace. Rural development is also creating new job opportunities, he said.

Changes to China’s urban-rural structure in recent years have also played a major role, said Wu Guobao, a research fellow from Rural Development Institute at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

Wu pointed out that China’s small and medium-sized cities and towns have prioritized infrastructure construction, narrowing the gaps between them and big cities like Beijing. As the infrastructure in the countryside improves, small cities’ relative advantages—low living costs—become more apparent.

Zhu Qizhen, director of the Institute of Peasant Affairs at China Agricultural University, said that the changes in thinking hold another key to understanding changing migration patterns. Zhu elaborated, saying that migrants have started to reflect on and take a more rational attitude toward their faith that a better life can be had through working in big cities.

In addition, influenced by counter-urbanization, some migrants are increasingly realizing the meaningful role that the countryside plays in people’s lives. And that is why more people are more willingly returning to their homes, Zhu added.

The shift in migration patterns is bound to have an impact on China’s social and economic development, Zhu said. Although it might raise labor costs, it provides space for the adjustment of industrial structure and optimization of the production model. At the same time, it will help to alleviate a number of rural problems, including the shortage of rural talent and the phenomenon of left-behind children and seniors being neglected.

Wu said that there is currently a glut of labor in the big cities, so it will not severely affect their economic development in the short term. But if urban-rural migration becomes a long-term trend and exceeds a given threshold in scale, it may have a profound impact on big cities.

Guo said the returning workers not only increase the labor productivity in rural areas but also promote local consumption. In particular, some of them have acquired techniques and management experience in cities, which will encourage local industrial development.

However, the barriers preventing returning migrants from starting businesses, including a lack of funds and financing, need to be addressed, Guo said. Guo added that if high risks and opportunity costs are not managed correctly, attempts to relieve poverty through entrepreneurship could actually worsen the problem. In addition, some returning workers are hobbled by their lack of skills, he said.

Zhu stated that the right to use rural lands has been circulated into private capital in some rural areas, which will limit the space for new business to some degree.

Wu suggested that state and local agencies issue targeted polices for returning migrants who want to start their own businesses, including offering preferential housing loans and improvements to working conditions. He also emphasized that migrant workers should seek their own way forward, reducing the risks inherent in blindly following trends.

More professional training should be provided by local government, especially for workers with practical skills and management ability, to encourage them to lead more local people to learn these skills, Guo suggested.

 

 

Niu Dongjie is a reporter at the Chinese Social Sciences Today.