Discussion On Xinjiang’s Immigration And Settlement

With a "tragedy" color, the settlement to the west of china especially Xinjiang oftenconsidered as compelling. It is well known that people in the Central Plains have aprofound sense of provincialism, it is not easy for them to give up land and then select andadapt a place where natural environment relatively harsh and poor. Therefore, it wasassumed that those of mainland immigrants to Xinjiang were passive and they had no willof immigration and settlement. Once the political, economic, or social environment isrelatively relaxed, they would tend to return to the homeland.The author using the theoretical perspective of "social action-situation analysis" toanalysis the ideal types of Xinjiang’s immigration and settlement in the view of a kin group(such as prisoners moved frontier, victims flowed into the frontier, educated youthsupported the border and descendants moved to urban place) found that the traditionalknowledge is not fully applicable to Xinjiang immigrants: deported immigrants were notvery passive to adapt the environment; they would make their own rational judgment onwhether to settle down or not; mobilized immigrants were influenced greatly by theirculture and values (however, scholars doing less in this field); spontaneous immigrantswere influenced greatly by resources and economic factors, in traditional views they werealways called “blind flow”, on the contrary, they flowed but not blind; the secondgeneration were influenced by their parents’ experience of immigration, they were alwaysprepared for danger in times of safety, they concerned about their upward mobility of statusand more stable life environment.Factors which affecting migration decision are complex, it is the result of interactionbetween “action selection”and “situational factors”（push-pull factors） towards differenttypes of immigrants. Resources, economic, social and cultural environment are importantdrivers of migration. Migration is essentially a social and economic phenomenon; economicmigration is regarded as the main types of migration. Moreover, in a certain period and thespecific conditions, the changes of social, political, cultural and other factors will alsoaffect migration activities decisively.When the intensity of push-pull factors far outweigh the individual actions, theindividual will obey the specific situation and his effect to settle is relatively weak.Conversely, when pushed-pull factors abate, the autonomy of individual action willincrease subsequently and the individual will make rational value judgment on whether tosettle or return. For example, the "push" of the political pressure produced deported immigration, the autonomy of this type is relatively weak, if pressure has always been there,they will have to obey national authority and long-term settled down; once externalpressure lifted, the options of individual migration will be spreaded, they will choose theoptimum move scheme(Choosing move back, or changing passive migration to activemigration, etc.) according to the specific situation. Some immigrants choose economicrationality, traditional values, emotion factors or self realization as the judgment ofmigration. Because of the diversity, complexity and expedient (adjust measures to localconditions) of individual goals, we cannot think migration and settlement idealized.The author found that for a certain historical period, Xinjiang has a suction to differenttypes of immigrants, this is also the most important reason for them to choose permanentmigration and settlement; corps culture which has multiple and interchange structure hasbroken away from the traditional "local" culture, immigrants can get a chance to walk outof the local social networks and re-establish a new relationship under the corpsmanagement system; corps system has been promoting resettlement for different types ofimmigrants, but with the Corps system in transition, requirements and challenges should befaced to new era of immigration.In the author’s view, the ideal evolution path of migration type should be: passivenon-voluntary migration will be less and less and it will gradually shift to active voluntarymigration. In the normal state of society, Xinjiang immigrants will show a sustained, stableand orderly stream flow including immigration and emigration. Big fluctuational flows inmigration before reform and opening up will not likely to happen again, but do not rule outsmall fluctuations occur in the future. As long as the situational factors can ensure thegreatest survival and development to meet the needs of individual, immigrants can makerational move judgments and relocation options.