Sustainable Livelihood Study For Residents Of Very High Altitude Eco-Relocation Demonstration Areas

Due to its special geographical location on the plateau,many areas and cities in the Tibet Autonomous Region are located at extremely high altitude,resulting in a fragile ecological environment,harsh natural conditions,poor living environment and severe lack of development conditions,which make them unsuitable for human production and living activities.As a major initiative in the poverty eradication project,extreme altitude ecological relocation can effectively solve the problem of production and living difficulties of people in extremely high altitude areas of Tibet and achieve leapfrog development,relocating them from ecologically fragile areas unsuitable for production and living,with a view to getting rid of their livelihood difficulties and enhancing their development capacity,while also facilitating ecological restoration and protection of the relocated areas.At present,the goal of enabling migrants to move out has basically been achieved,but very high altitude ecological relocation not only brings about changes in spatial location,but also a longterm process of "reconstructing" various resources,and improving the sustainability of migrants’ livelihoods is the The ultimate goal is to improve the sustainability of migrants’ livelihoods.This paper introduces language capital as a new livelihood capital to improve the theory of sustainable livelihoods,based on 524 sample data obtained from an actual study in the demonstration area of extreme high altitude ecological resettlement in Senburi,Shannan City,Tibet Autonomous Region.Firstly,a questionnaire for measuring sustainable livelihoods of migrants was developed by drawing on the practices of relevant scholars in three dimensions: livelihood capital,livelihood strategies and livelihood outcomes,and incorporating the actual situation of migrants,by classifying livelihood capital into linguistic capital,natural capital,physical capital,human capital,social capital and financial capital;Research on livelihood strategies of migrants in terms of both existing livelihood strategies and willingness to continue with existing livelihood strategies;Drawing on existing research,migrant livelihood outcomes are measured in four dimensions: perceived quality of public services,increased income,improved standard of living,and job satisfaction in employment.Then,the pathways of livelihood capital on migrants’ livelihood strategies and livelihood outcomes are explored,and a "livelihood capital-livelihood strategy-livelihood outcome" chain is constructed to explore the pathways of livelihood capital,such as language capital,on migrants’ sustainable livelihoods using a regression equation model.The study found that(1)three types of livelihood capital-linguistic capital,human capital and financial capital-had a significant positive effect on migrants’ choice of mixed livelihood strategies,while four types of livelihood capital-linguistic capital,human capital,social capital and financial capital-had a significant positive effect on migrants’ continuation in their existing livelihood strategies.(2)Natural capital,physical capital,human capital,social capital and financial capital have a significant positive effect on the perceived quality of public services for migrants.(3)Linguistic capital,human capital and financial capital have a positive impact on the increase of migrants’ income.(4)Linguistic capital and physical capital have a significant positive effect on the improvement of immigrants’ living standards.(5)Linguistic capital,physical capital,human capital and financial capital have a significant positive effect on migrants’ employment satisfaction.(6)The test of mediating effect found that existing livelihood strategies of migrants played a mediating role in the effects of three types of livelihood capital-linguistic capital,human capital and financial capital-on migrants’ livelihood outcomes.(7)Willingness to continue with existing livelihood strategies mediated the effect of four types of livelihoods-linguistic capital,human capital,social capital,and financial capital-on migrants’ livelihood outcomes.Finally,based on the findings of the study,this paper proposes the following countermeasures for sustainable livelihoods of migrants from the perspective of livelihood capital: strengthen training in the national common language and script;carry out a campaign to improve the surrounding environment and continuously improve public infrastructure;promote the quality of migrants’ human capital around education,employment skills and health care protection;strengthen the capacity of community social capital cultivation;develop and optimise financial services;and provide diversified livelihood strategies.