A Study On Population Outflow And Its Impacts On The Economic Situation Of The ’left-Behind’ Families In Yanbian Prefecture

With the rapid development of China’s economy after the government’simplementation of the reform-and-open policy, population movements have becomeincreasingly frequent and the scale of floating population is rapidly growing in China.Concerning the population movements in prefecture of Yanbian in particular,population outflow dominates. And the increasing population outflow in recent yearshas led to a large number of left-behind families in prefecture and has greatly shapedthe region’s socio-economic development. Based on the quantitative analysis of theFloating Population and its Impact Factor Surveillance Survey Data (2011), thisstudy aims to examine the extent to which population outflow has influenced theeconomic situations of the ‘left-behind’ families in Yanbian prefecture. To be specific,the data volume covers9704residents from3094households in Yanbian prefecture(including Yanji City, Hunchun City and Longjing County); however, this researchsamples and focuses on the examination of the outflow population aged over15(i.e.2027residents in total) as well as on791of the ‘left-behind’ families.According to the survey data,41.73%of the surveyed households have familymember(s) who do(es) not work/live in prefecture and the out-flowed populationaccounts for21.58%of the whole surveyed population. Generally speaking, thecharacteristics of the population outflow in Yanbian prefecture can be summarized asfollows: most population outflows are cross-border outflows (among which Korea isthe most popular destination) stimulated by economic interests; in terms of age, mostof the out-flowed are between20and49; with regards to ethnicity, most are ethnicallyKorean (the Chaoxian minority); concerning marriage status, high proportions areeither single or in their first marriage (with spouse); regarding the level of educationobtained, the highest proportion hold junior secondary school diploma; as for the hukou type, most of them are rural-registered resident; moreover, the first time whenmost of the out-flowed left the region is in their twenties; furthermore, amongst themigrant workers who send money back home, a majority of them send less than50,000a year (most send less than10,000); last but not least, the highest proportion ofthe out-flowed go back home once in over two years.Amongst all the surveyed left-behind households, it is most common (41.47%)that the elderly are left at home on their own, although the spouse or the child(ren) arealso likely to be left behind on his/her/their own. Most households live in brickhouses with its size ranging from50to100square meters. Among the179land-owning households, the land is normally less than20acre. While many familieshave cell phones and cable TV access, only1.52%of the surveyed households havetheir own car. For more than half of the surveyed households, the income of themigrant worker(s) is taken as the main source of household income.90.02%of theleft-behind households have an increased total household expenditure in the past year.38.18%of the left-behind residents have the willingness to become migrant workersin the future, and69.96%of those hope to find a job in other countries.Logistic regression analysis will be applied in this study to examine the impactsof population outflow on the economic situations of the left-behind households. To bespecific, the independent variables of this study include gender, age, ethnicity,marriage status, education level, hukou type, the migration purpose as well as thelength and the destination of labour migration, while the dependent variable isindicated by whether the main source of family income is derived from themigrant-worker family member(s). The regression results suggest that age, ethnicity,marriage status, the length and the destination of migration are statistically significantamongst all the independent variables. In terms of age, the age group of45-59isshown to have the greatest influence on the economic conditions of their left-behindfamily. With regards to ethnicity, the Korean minority tends to have the greatestimpacts. As for marriage status, single migrant workers seem to contribute most totheir household income. As far as the length of migration is considered, the longer amigrant worker stay outside hometown the greater influence he/she might have on their family’s economic condition. Concerning the destination of population outflow,those who work in Korea are found to have the most significant contributions tohousehold income.Based on the research findings concerning the impacts of population outflow onthe economic situations of the left-behind households, this study would put forward afew suggestions as follows: to steadily promote the land reform, to carefully balancethe human-capital structure,and to further improve the social security system in ruralareas so as to reduce the number of left-behind households.