Effects of Rural-Urban Migration on Rural Female Workers

Transcription

1 Paper for NACS Conference Helsinki, 7-9 June 2005 Effects of Rural-Urban Migration on Rural Female Workers ----A case study of Chinese rural women Guifen Luo Department of Social Policy, University of Turku, Finland & Renmin University of China, Beijing 1

2 Effects of Rural-Urban Migration on Rural Female Workers ----A case study of Chinese rural women 1 Introduction This paper concentrates on the effects of female rural workers migration in terms of the transformation of the role of rural women. The topic will be discussed under the framework of the relationship between modernization and traditionalism. For this purpose, I apply the modernization dimension in order to interpret the observations on the complex influences of Confucian moral values on rural female workers changing role and its implications. As described in previous study, the main goal of female migrants going out to the urban areas is to earn a higher income and improve their household s economic wellbeing. Indeed, off-farm employment enables them to gain relatively higher earnings and improve their family s living standards. However, although migration is usually motivated by economic goals, the outcome permeates cultural, political, and ideological spheres of rural life, which in turn shape the content of values and lead to the next generation of goals (Murphy 2002, 21). From this point of view, this paper focuses on the mixed effect of migration and the return process on female workers as well as their household. I intend to exam the complicated relationship between individual goals and the traditional collective good in the new situation, and further explore the relevance of traditional Confucian ethics behind the family strategies in context of modernization. In particular, by illustrating female returnees experience, the paper aims to answer following questions: What role have female migrants played in improving their household s material well being? What kind of contingent outcomes have occurred if any, have they had positive or negative implications for rural women, other than household economic well-being? How do female migrants transform their traditional role into the new role? How do Confucian moral values 1 The data used in this paper were collected during 1999 and 2000 in Anhui and Sichuan provinces of China as a part of a research project on rural-urban migrant workers in China Study on Out-Migrants and Return Migrants. The project conducted by Research Center for Rural Economy, Ministry of Agriculture from 1997 to The author of the paper was a member of the research team. 2

3 influence rural women s career activities and level of achievement? Do Confucian ethics serve as a motivation, a restriction, or a clash in the new circumstances? How does rural women s agency develop as the active element in the processes of fulfilling family strategies? The paper is organized as follows: First, I examine female migrants contribution to their household s well-being and the collateral effect on rural women. By displaying the usage of remittances, the chapter will illustrate female workers financial contributions to their families welfare, and then analyze the non-planned outcome - the planned outcome being household economic gains, including women improving their position both inside and outside the family domain, and villagers new attitude towards the changing role of female migrants. Then, the chapter reveals how rural female workers achieve their new roles, and explores the influence of Confucian ethics on this process. This part begins with a discussion on the way in which rural female workers identify themselves and balance the conflict between the individual goal and the traditional collective good in the context of migration; following that I shall examine the migrant identities of a younger generation of rural women and pertaining issues; finally I shall illustrate the occupational variety of female migrants who have returned home and the complex implications of their achievements. This is followed by a discussion on the negative effects of rural-urban migration on female workers. I break the argument down into two parts: firstly, I shall look to the victims of gender stratification in labor market migration, that is, the women who stay in the villages and work in agriculture while their spouses have the nonagricultural employment in urban areas. Secondly, the role of female worker in terms of household decision making will be analyzed. Finally I shall draw some conclusions from the findings. Contributions and gains of female migration Financial contribution to household s well being Previous studies have shown that in order to get higher income for their households, female migrants have to suffer bad working conditions on the urban labor market and harsh living conditions during their years as migrants. Then the question of those 3

4 women s financial contribution to the households becomes a crucial factor in understanding the reasons for their migration, and in further explaining the effects of their migration. For this purpose, this chapter illustrates at this point the use of female migrants remittance in detail, and therefore explores the role their off-farm earnings have played in improving household material well-being as well as the other important social implications of this transaction. Regarding the share of female off-farm earnings in households budget, it is important to notice some general aspects of this issue before focusing our empirical analysis. Firstly, earnings from non-agricultural employment have been the primary source of the income increase of rural households. In fact, income from farming has been shrinking recent years in absolute terms (Du 1997a, Song 2000, Huang 2000). Our interviews indicated that, to a great extent, the income from agriculture activities nowadays provides only the minimum subsistence income for most typical rural households, and the migrant remittances have developed into a main part of household disposable income. The needs for money are several: farmers must earn money for purchasing farming materials and tools; housing; children s educational fees, and daily livelihood goods. The share and usage of agricultural as well as nonagricultural earnings of rural households described by one of our interviewees represented the prevalent situation: the earnings coming from farming is only sufficient for eating so that the stomach is full; for peasant families like mine, almost all households cash expenditures, such as children s educational fees, purchasing crop seeds and agricultural chemicals, expenses on house building, and daily livelihood goods depend on off-farm work (Case W1--11). As indicated above for most farm households, agricultural activities just provide a basic food supply while almost all financial resources for other purposes come from non-agricultural activities. Secondly, according to various sources, wage discrimination against female workers is pervasive in the rural sector and rural women s earnings are the lowest among the various employment groups (Tan 2003; Zhang & Han 2002; Gupta, Lee, & etc.2000; Rozelle & etc. 2002; Matthews & Nee 2000). For instance, with reference to the wage gaps between rural migrants and the local residents, Meng and Zhang s (2001) research which was based on data sets from surveys conducted in Shanghai in

5 and 1996, shows that the average hourly earnings of rural migrants were 48% of those of urban residents. Turning to gender wage differentials between female migrants and male migrants, according another separate piece of research (Zhu 2002), the earnings received by female migrants are about 40% lower than that received by their male counterparts. With regard to the remittances sent home, Hou & Luo (2002) found that the amount sent home by females is 25% lower than that of male migrants. 2 In spite of the relatively disadvantageous aspects of the outcome of labor market participation, my research illustrates that the earnings of female migrants contribute to a sizable part of their household income and substantially improve the well-being of the families and, perhaps more importantly, there are other meaningful effects created by those earnings; in particular, the potential trend for rural women to shift in position within as well as outside of the family. The data collected from the interviewees both male and female show that the usage of remittance for the rural households is concentrated in a few categories: construction of a new house; farming inputs, such as purchasing crop seeds, agricultural chemicals, farming tools and machines; repaying debts caused mainly by a bad harvest after a disaster and the cost of reconstruction of a house; payment of education fees; preparation for marriage; payment of fines, mainly for breach of family planning; investment in business. Of course, there are a few female migrants who admit that they have used the money they earned on themselves, mainly on buying new and fashionable clothes during their stay in cities. However, the majority of the interviewed female returnees mentioned that the greatest portion of their earnings was spent on the various households expenditure. Among the categories of remittance usage, house building takes up the largest amount of expenditure. The vast majority of female interviewees identified new housing construction for both their own households and the childhood-family as the main use of their migrant earnings. A better-quality house has a comprehensive set of economic and social meanings in rural China. Of course, the criterion of better-quality varies great depending on villages general economic situation and the average living 2 Those empirical data come from the separate researches which examining the matters and present the results in different dimensions. In this sense, those data are incomparable. 5

6 standard of the villagers. In the areas we conduct the interviews, a better-quality house means a two-story concrete building with an indoor water closet and white tiles, and paint on the outside in the rich villages, usually of about 200 sq. meters; even the single-story brick house with cement floors usually of 100 sq. meters is the dream of better-quality in the poorer villages. For most rural households, a house is not only the living place for the family, it is also for the basic source of social prestige for the household among the villagers. Some villagers interviewed said they feel embarrassed about their family still living in an old bad-quality house (usually with mud walls and floors), not because of the physical inconvenience but it says that they are unable to build a well-constructed house like other households. Being in a position to build a new better-quality house is, on the one hand, effectively an aspect of the rural household which improves the material well-being of the family; on the other hand, it is the reaction of the family wishing to keep face by increasing the family s standard of living rather than remaining a poor and mean household in the village. As the most important indicator of wealth and capability, possessing a reasonable good-quality house is usually a precondition for male farmers to get married. Therefore, it is the dominant task for an ordinary rural household to construct a house in preparation for their grown-up boys. Therefore it is not surprising that a great portion of women s off-farming income contributes to this family goal: unmarried girls earnings support their brothers, married women earn and spend money on their sons. If a given household manage to build a new better-quality house, it means not only the improved material well-being of the family but also an increased status within the village, and an advantage for young male family members when it comes to marriage. Thus, under the new conditions, the traditional filial piety ethic takes a new form and leads to income transference from female relatives to males. A significant phenomena of housing construction particularly worthy of note, is that most households incur debt as a result. At first glance this spending practice seems to be in conflict with a traditional Chinese custom of not becoming indebted. However, if we look more closely at the issue, we can find an alternative interpretation. The 6

7 villagers usually borrow money from a next of kin, such as a sister or brother, 3 so it can be seen as the means of multiple aid among kinships. This reflects a social network rather than a simple economic contract. In spite of all this, the money must be repaid sooner or later. Therefore, it is not unusual in rural China for the households to be heavily in debt and women have to migrate in order to earn money to repay debts. Education fees are another main category of spending in the rural household expenditure package. According to the statutory education system in rural China, the base localities of rural organization village and township are responsible for financing their own primary (six years) and secondary (three years) schools, in principle. However in practice, individuals, that is farmer s households, mostly finance rural basic education. 4 As a result of ever increasing school fees and miscellaneous fees, the financial burden for rural households with children attending schools becomes heavier and heavier. Raising money to pay school fees is the main task for those households, and therefore, spending on education becomes one of the prioritized uses of women s remittance. There is one phenomenon regarding educational expenditure that demands special attention: for rural unmarried young women it is not unusual to work outside to support their brother s education, yet it is very rare, if it takes place at all, for young men working outside to support their sister s education no such case appeared in our 3 In fact, it is almost impossible for farmers to get loan from bank even for farming or investment purpose aside from through a few special programs. Another alternative for farmers to borrow money in emergencies is to borrow on the usurious black finance market. 4 Since the 1980s, a separate-level running and separate-level management educational system was introduced in rural China. Regarding the crucial issue of the financing of rural basic education, according to this policy local villages and townships were wholly responsible for raising their own revenue locally to provide their villages and townships with public education (including primary and secondary schools). However, many villages and townships, especially in agricultural localities, have difficulties in doing this because they already have debts. In practice, localities usually increase miscellaneous school fees paid by rural residents in addition to defaulting on teacher s salaries in solving the problem of lack of financial resources. As a consequence, fees paid by farmers for their children s education comprise a very high share of their cash income. In poor rural areas, private expenditures on education often account for one fifth of household net income, and roughly half of many households discretional income (World Bank Country Study, China Overcoming Rural Poverty, World Bank Country Study 22137, March 2001, pp70), and even up to 90% of the most poor households discretional income (Zhang, Y. 2002). 7

8 interviews, yet many of the unmarried young women mentioned that a part of their remittance was used for this purpose. Thus there exists a significant gender bias to the disadvantage of girls and women. The dowry is another item which distinctly characterizes gender difference of the usage of remittance. It is customary for the dowry to consist mainly of household items, such as bed-clothes and some furniture and nowadays includes appliances, usually a television set. In reference to the usage of young unmarried women s earnings among our interviewees, while some of them told us they sent the earnings to their parents in villages and entire remittances were spent for childhood-family, most of them admitted that their parents or they themselves had saved a part of the earnings in preparation for their marriage trousseaux. That means, aside from contributing to supporting their parents, a part of young unmarried women s earnings is transferred to their new families via the trousseaux. Xingying is one of these typical cases. Xingying is a 34-year-old with primary school education living in Anhui province. Her family members include her husband, who is 34 years old and has secondary school education who does farm work as well as some small trade and has no migration experience, and their 9-year-old son who is in primary school, and a 70 year-old mother-in-law. Before getting married, Xingying worked as a servant for five years in big cities and her earnings contributed to approximately one third of her childhood-family s income. From 1984 to 1986, she took care of a baby for a family in Beijing. Because they were satisfied with her work, her wage was quite high, 50 Yuan per month on top of free food and accommodation. Altogether that was almost twice the normal servantgirl s wage. Three years later, she returned to the village. Soon after that, a villager recommended her to another family in Shanghai who needed a domestic helper, so she went to Shanghai and worked for them for over 2 years. Here her wage was 120 Yuan per month in addition to free food and accommodation. She saved almost all the earnings and sent them to her parents. Her parents managed her earnings: a great part of the remittance was used to construct a new house and her parents saved the rest as her trousseau. 8

9 After marriage in 1998, she returned to her home village and did not migrate any more. She and her husband once intended to do some business in the countryside, such as trade vegetables, but they did not have enough money to buy a vehicle, so they had to ditch that plan and do farm work instead. She said she enjoyed working in cities and wanted to find a job there as a servant-girl again, but not now. As a result of her mother-in-law being too old to look after the grandchildren, she must stay in the village to take care of her son (cases of interviews W3-110, The data set of Study on Out-Migrants and Return Migrants, 2000, Beijing). In rural China, a woman's dowry is one aspect which strengthens a household s social standing and the prestige of women s childhood-family on one hand; on the other hand, the size of the trousseaux is also a strong implication of the status and values of the daughters within the family, of course at the given household s economic and financial level. In this sense, the financial arrangement via the dowry can serve as an attempt to guarantee daughters status in the future family. Although compared with the crucial role in rural men s marriage of possessing a house, the dowry may not be the most essential element, yet due to the reasons discussed above, it is also necessary for farmers to arrange their daughter s marriage. In practice, a rural family usually needs to provide reasonable sized trousseaux in line with the household s financial situation and economic status. Rural girls migration and their relatively higher wages not only give financial support to their parents but also earn collateral for the trousseaux for themselves. As a consequence, there are further implications for rural girls off-farm income; while improving the well-being both of natal-family and husband s households, it also helps to improve women s position within both households and brings other benefits. Gains other than family collective well being As examined previously the rural-urban migration of female workers is usually motivated by their households financial goals. The immediate outcome of their nonagricultural employment seems to be that their remittance has constituted a necessary part of the family budget and played an important role in improving the households material and psychological well-being. In addition to this primary outcome in terms of the family s collective interests, according to general arguments on the impact of female labor force participation, we can suppose that there are also other positive 9

10 consequences for an individual. Indeed there is some evidence suggesting that the relatively higher earnings gained from off-farm employment and the consequently significant contribution to the household s welfare redound on rural women s position within family and society. Firstly, a non-planned benefit is that the family members appear to appreciate female migrants work and to esteem their contribution to family well-being. Under the household responsibility system currently practiced in rural China, farm workers income is measured based on the entire household instead of in terms of the individual. As a family member, women s earnings are an unobservable component in the household-based economy and it is hard to identify the contribution as distinct from a family budget (Gao 1994, Gupta & etc. authors 2000, Fui 1994). However, the most crucial issue here is that, partially due to the influence of traditional Confucian ideology deeply rooted in rural society, women s work is considered as subordinate and their contributions to the family s well-being are usually undervalued (Jin 1990, Beaver, Rozelle & etc. authors 2002). Migration and off-farm employment in cities enables rural female workers to gain a reasonable independent income and the contributions to the household well-being become obvious. Their earnings are no longer insignificant for the household budget. As a consequence, their position within families is improved little by little. Almost all our interviewees, regardless of their age and gender categories, appeared to appreciate female migrants work, achievements and contributions. There are couple of sayings and common remarks we heard during the interviews, such as: when talking about the ability to make money and the contribution to family, women can do almost as the same as men do outside. Although most of the time men s wages are higher than women s, in cities it is easier for women to find a job. Women can do a lot of things which men cannot do, such as nursery-maid, sell things for a private boss, cleaning work. Even if a man wanted to do this kind of work, nobody would offer him the job. So most women can earn the same money as men do in cities, and women s contribution to the family is also the same as men s (W1-103m, W3-101m, S2-109m, F1-110m, F1-202f F2-115m, Z2-107m). 10

11 These contemporary opinions tend to some extent towards gender equality. However, the echoes of gender disparities are also there. In most situations, men can earn higher than women in cities. Gender roles also play a part in consumption patters during the migration. Women care for the families much more and spend little money on themselves when they are living in cities. Women tend to only eat rice, do not smoke, drink, do not make friends or participate in costly social activities. They just want to save money and send it home. So, because of this denial of the personal satisfaction of personal needs the money women send home is not necessarily much less than the resources provided by men. (F3-105m, Z2-301m). Here it is possible to make an interesting reference to Weber s worldly asceticism. Parallel to what Weber argued to be characteristic to Protestantism, these Chinese women refuse to consume and they save for greater needs of their family. These kinds of comments show that female migrants work and contributions have won recognition from both the male and female family members. According to the opinion of interviewees we can say farmers attitude towards female family members is quite positive. The opinion expressed above suggests that farmers seem to accept the facts without objection: female family members have equal status within the family in terms of the contribution to household welfare. A second by-product of women s migration is that there is some evidence that farmers are changing their traditional attitude towards girls education and appear willing to invest in their daughters education. The changes could be shown by the prevalent views among our interviewees both male and female, such as: children should go to school; boys and girls are the same. They must gain as much as knowledge possible (S1-105, S2-307,); and we are going out and earning money just for our children, for their education, both our son and daughter. It is my greatest wish that they go to university some day (F2-109, F3-111). Village leaders also highlighted this change. All of the 12 village leaders interviewed pointed out this shift. According to village leaders, with respect to the impacts of migration on social development in the village sphere, one of most obvious indicators of social change created by migration is children s education. It was mentioned that the returnees household pays much more attention to their children s education. As illustrated previously in a number of cases, when interviewees talked about their children s educational issues, they did not 11

12 concentrate on the sons which used to be the traditional habit but they usually included daughters in their discourse as well. Here again we see a cultural shift: female migrants played the role of carriers of the change. This important change caused by female workers migration can be partially explained on two accounts. First, as displayed by the interviewees, through their migration experiences farmers have learned the important role of education in job searching and for better earnings in non-agricultural sectors. This understanding generally leads to an increase in input into their children s education in terms of finances and time. Secondly, due to the ever greater size of remittance sent home by migratory girls, the parents start to recognize the significance of their daughters income in the household budget and appear at least to some extent to reappraise girls economic value (Li, X. 2001, Feng 2002). As a result of traditional patriarchal custom which is still prevalent in rural China, women will move in with their husband s families after they get married (ACWF & UNU 1993, Gao 1994). So on the one hand, daughters are commonly reckoned as a member of their future husband s kin by their childhoodfamilies; on the other hand, according to traditional custom, daughters are not responsible for taking care of their old parents. Hence farmers investment in their daughters human capital means investment in another family s household. Therefore, farmers lack willingness to invest in their daughters education (ACWF 2001, Li 1995). This results in a disregard for girls education in rural China. In some rural households that have financial difficulties and labor shortage problems girls are usually asked to take on housework or farming jobs instead of going to school. When this traditional system changes families will become more interested in their daughters. With an increasing number of rural women going out and getting off-farm jobs in urban areas, more and more daughters supplement their parents income until they marry. Daughters increasing financial contribution to the childhood household s well-being significantly increases girls values within rural family. This has created some changes regarding the negligence of rural girls education. Despite the above described improvements taking place in the area that the interview was conducted, on a national level, the problems of girls low enrollment and high drop out rates from primary school are still serious in poor rural areas (Li 1995, Zhang, Y. 2002). There are various socioeconomic aspects in shaping educational 12

13 discrimination against women, particular to rural girls: examples are government policies, economic poverty of farming households, traditional gender-bias notions and practices, and so on. This research suggests that female workers rural-urban migration and consequently independent earnings are the positive factors that have affected farmers decisions regarding their daughters educational issues. Without question, this trend is favorable for the improvement of the situation of rural girls in education. Education is an important tool which can empower poor people and overcome exclusion based on gender, location and other correlates of poverty (UNESCAP 2003, 227); it is acknowledged to be one of the most important means to create gender equality throughout the world. From the perspective of female agency, education strengthens women s agency and also tends to make it more informed and skilled (Sen 1999, 192). In the case of China, education has been proven to be an effective vehicle in the effort to improve women s economic and social status, and therefore promote development for both women and society (ACWF 2001). The changes to rural girls education will, without question, help rural women as a whole increase human capital, gain skills, and enable them to compete in a better position on the labor market. All of these factors have profound implications in terms of strengthening rural women s agency in the modernization process. Recognition of the new role Due to their successful migratory experiences, the female migrants seem to have gotten esteem among villagers, and the rural community appears have to accepted rural women s new role as a bread-winner when needed or even possible. Thus also some old cultural patterns and traditional expectations of certain roles are clearly changing. This is one form of unexpected individual benefit. Village leaders appraise serves as evidence of this, as their opinions and comments are quite representative of the villagers. With regard to the outcome of migration in terms of female workers social skills and working ability, the majority of village leader s expressed their overall evaluation in definitive, positive tones. When describing the characteristics of women who have migrant experiences, the most frequent dictions cited were: they have got brains and have the ability to run business better, they are much more competitive, are more knowledgeable are able to take risk, because of living and working in cites, they 13

14 are more open-minded (Date of village interview F3, F1, Z1, Z2, W1 & S2). For instance, in Jiangzhong, a village located in Sichuan province, villagers began, in the early 1980s, to go out to look for off-farm work. At first most of migrants were men and concentrated on construction work and informal service sector employment. From the 1990s, there was an increasing number of women, especially young unmarried women, who started to leave villages and trying to find jobs in urban areas. In 1998, 20% of the total village labor force was out-migrants and women account for one third of migrants. The out-migrants who were concentrated in Xinjiang and Gansu province, mostly female, were engaged in service work as well as small businesses. One leader of the village said: the women who have migrant experience have a greater ability to coin their brain; those women also take care of their domestic affairs more efficiently and make it well-organized. In particular, he mentioned as an example a story of a woman who returned to the village. After coming back from the cities, this female worker ran a small cloth shop in the village and she also raised livestock to make money for the household (village interview Z1, The data set of Study on Out-Migrants and Return Migrants, 2000, Beijing.). As far as rural women s changing role is concerned, two village leaders views may show an interesting shift in attitudes. This kind of comment is in fact quite representative of the villagers interviewed. These three examples, Wugang, Yulin and Madao villages, are exemplary cases of their genre. Wugang is a relatively poor and isolated village located in Anhui province. The nearest post office and bus stop were about 4 km away, and there were 4 telephones in a total of 462 households (2110 person population). About 10% of the total 1100 laborers, half of whom were women, had migrated in In fact, there was no migrant history among the villagers until the early 1990s. In 1991 the village suffered a catastrophic flood. Farmers not only lost their harvest, but the farmland and houses were also swept away. Needless to say, they received no compensation for their losses. Since then, the villagers have begun to migrate to urban areas to find jobs, earn money, and to some extent simply to survive. At the peak of the out-migration in 1992, approximately 30% of the village laborers had left. The main destinations were the rich coastal regions such as Shanghai, Jiangsu province and Guangdong province. Male migrants were concentrated in heavy labor jobs, like stevedoring and 14

15 construction, while female migrants worked in various labor intensive factories. Due to a lack of initial capital, there were only a few villagers who established small businesses during their migration period. The head of village gave his views about female migrants: compared to the female villagers who did not migrate, the migrant women and the women who had returned were more daring and willing to get jobs and take other opportunities via competition; they are more independent too. However, when talking about farming work and housework, the leader said that the women who have migrant experience are not as good as those who stated at home, in particular the young unmarried women (village interview S3, The data set of Study on Out-Migrants and Return Migrants, 2000, Beijing.). The village leaders came from another village Yulin which had many more outmigrants about 40 % of the village labor force at the peek in the middle of 1990s, and about 30% in 1999 shared the same opinion and even gave an explanation. They mentioned a number of advantages of women with migrant experience, such as: they have a good business sense and they are much more clever when doing business ; migration made the women open their eyes, and they became more courageous. The village leaders admitted that although the migrant women, especially young girls, do not endure as much hardship as those who stay in the village all the time, they do other things better. (Village interview S1, The data set of the Study on Out-Migrants and Return Migrants, 2000, Beijing.) In another village, Madao in Anhui province, the leaders of village commented: migrant experience is very helpful for rural women to improve their ability to deal with various matters. Migrant women no longer make a fuss over small matters. Living and working outside enables them come into contact with a variety of matters and makes them broad-minded. A migration experience also betters women s social skills and skills in handling problems in personal relationships; for example, when they encounter these kind of problems they are beginning to reason out of rationality instead of simply quarrelling or resorting to submission as they used to before migration (village interview S2, The data set of Study on Out-Migrants and Return Migrants, 2000, Beijing.). 15

16 These comments suggest clearly that villagers attitude towards women s new role appears quite open and flexible, even in the villages which do not have such a long history of out-migration. Of course, there are some negative opinions about women s migration; most of the criticism was concentrated on the issue of young unmarried women s dress code, such as the new style of clothes, the make-up, the painted nails, etc. However, this kind of critique does not downplay the generally positive image. This would suggest that farmers have, to a certain extent, accepted the facts: women can gain outside employment as an independent worker, even at the cost of weakening the home-based tasks housework and farming labor in some way. This shift in attitude is a profound challenge to the traditional view that never deemed rural women as independent human beings or active agencies. Thus the migrant worker, in particular the female migrant, can be seen as the vehicle of modernization and change that is taking place in villages. Changing role of female migrants in the countryside It is widely considered that massive structural changes in the modernization process make women more independent (Wilensky 2002, 5). From this perspective, the transformation of rural women from traditionally submissive family members to active labor market participants is a significant change, which indicates the independence of rural women. Based on this assumption, this section examines the outcome of migration in a broad sense: the transformation of rural female workers from a traditional to a modern role, as well as the influence of traditional Confucian values on the changing process. The issues will be discussed based on the concepts of individualization and family. The individual goal vs. the collective good To fully understand the role transformation of rural women in the modernization process, it is necessary to examine the way in which rural female workers handle problems of individual goals and traditional collective goods in the context of migration. Firstly interviewees responses concerning matters of priority in rural women s current lives indicated by the embarrassments the women interviewed feel 16

17 and the wishes they have will be displayed, and then the responses are interpreted in terms of role identification/self-image. During the interview, all interviewees were asked: What is the most difficult matter you face now? and What is your greatest wish? The interviewee was asked to give only one response. The results of female interviewees responses displayed in Table 6.1 (the difficult issues) and Table 6.2 (the wishes). Table 6.1 The most difficult issues faced by rural female workers* Rank Returned female migrants issues % Non-migrant women s issues % (n= 85) (n= 44) 1 Cannot find opportunities to earn money 30 Fail to get money from farming 44 in home village 2 Lack of money in the household 26 Lack of money in the household 25 3 Lack of labor in the household 10 Feud between the family members 20 4 Feud between the family members 7 No difficulties 6 5 No difficulties 6 Others** 5 6 Low education level 5 7 Others** 16 Source: Luo (2001), calculated by author based on The cases of interviews, The data set of Study on Out-Migrants and Return Migrants, 2000, Beijing. Table 6.2 Wishes of rural female workers* Rank Returned female migrants wishes % Non-migrant women s wishes % (n=85) (n=44) 1 To go to city again to find non-farm 25 To do better in farming to earn 25 jobs money 2 To find opportunities to earn money in 23 To run a small business in home 20 countryside village 3 To run a small business in home village 12 To do other non-farm jobs in countryside 16 4 To do better at farming to get money 11 To do better at taking care of 15 children and household work 5 To engage in stock-raise work 8 Look forward to children grow-up 10 and have a future 6 To run a small workshop in countryside 6 To engage in stock-rearing work 9 7 To do better at taking care of children 5 To not do work in the fields 5 and household work 8 Others** 10 Source: Luo (2001), calculated by author based on The cases of interviews, The data set of Study on Out-Migrants and Return Migrants, 2000, Beijing. * The rank goes by item s percentage of the responses. The percentage is calculated according to the interview record text. **Including various items which the interviewee gave, but the percentage of each individual response is less than 5%. 17

18 From these responses we can obtain some important and useful evidence for our arguments. Firstly, considering that the questions and answers were open, the responses are pretty similar and concentrate on the family collective goals. However, if we take a close look at some aspects of the responses, there appear to be some fundamental differences between the returnees and non-migrant women s experience. Generally speaking, most of the female workers in both groups expressed a desire to have a non-agricultural job. However, comparatively more female returnees appear to have a strong desire trying to do something as the active participator in order to overcome household financial difficulties: they total over 85% (items 1-6 and 8 in Table 6.2.) while the non-migrants only total approximately 70% (items 1,2,3,6, in Table 6.2.). In addition, compared with the returnees, non-migrant women appear to pay much more attention to domestic issues. For instance, in the families care responsibilities category, non-migrants total 15% (see table 6.2 item 4) while the returnees only total 5% (Table 6.2 item 7); in feud between the family members non-migrants total 20% (Table 6.1 item 3) whereas the returnees only total 7% (Table 6.1 item 4). Some women (10%, item 5 in Table 6.2) with non-migrant experience place their hopes greatly on their children, whereas none of the returnees mentioned this issue (see Table 6.2). These findings support our previous conclusions that the migrant women are breaking the traditional patterns and bring new ideas to their villages. Furthermore, the migration experience seemed to broaden female workers horizons, therefore they appear more individual. This suggestion is indicated in the higher percentage of others in embarrassments (16%, see Table 6.1) and wishes (10%, see Table 6.2), which reflect much more individualized matters rather than general issues. Secondly, the implications which are revealed by these opinions can be explained in terms of role identification. On the one hand, the expressions reflect the matters of utmost concern for the women interviewed. The data show that job opportunities and household income are of importance in one way or another. This clearly implies that rural women have always regarded themselves as the laborers or a bread-winners of the household in spite of the presence or absence of migratory experience; from the agency point of view, they all struggled to fulfill themselves as a active social agents. On the other hand, off-farm employment provided more opportunities for rural 18

19 women to become active participators. Whilst female migrants gained relatively higher earnings, the migration experience undoubtedly intensified their self perception of being the bread-winner rather than the dependent person. In this sense, ruralurban migration serves as an arena for rural female workers to exercise their potential ability to become an active agent and enable them to achieve their individual goals not only those goals traditionally given to them. Furthermore, comparing these Chinese cases with Thai women working in Hong Kong as domestic workers, we find quite an interesting difference in the way they express their wishes regarding the financial goals of migration. Thai women gave wanted to become rich (Li, Findlay & Jones 1998), as their reason for migrating to Hong Kong, whereas Chinese rural women said they wanted to earn money. Of course, such a comparison may be somewhat crude because of the interpretation of the descriptions from the two separate research projects, and there may be problems of comparability. So here I simply narrow the argument to a very limited topic: the identification of self-image and status. Chinese rural women seemed to halt at the laborer position and do not consider anything beyond this such as the outcomes of working in terms of individual benefits. This situation coincides with the findings of some sensitive Western researchers in their studies. For instance, Tamara Jacka (1997, 60) noticed that a Chinese peasant women, when asked about her status or her personal welfare, will very often either be completely nonplussed by the question, or will respond in terms of her family s welfare. Jacka argued further that, Chinese peasant women do not always recognize their personal interests or welfare as distinct from the interests of their family. One could say that this is the case for most rural women - certainly many of our interviews fortify this view. Thirdly, the responses indicate how Chinese rural female workers integrate individual goals and family well-being in the new situation. This integration process mirrors the imprint of Confucian values which are deeply rooted in rural women. We know that rural women s migration is mainly motivated by household economic poverty, but there is no evidence allowing us to draw the conclusion that they work outside unwillingly. In this sense, one can assume that the individual identifies the family s 19

20 collective good as the individual goal rather than as a sacrifice for the collective good. The facts show the special way in which Chinese rural female workers, as active agents, meet traditional family responsibilities during the modernization process. It also suggests that nonetheless, Confucian moral values of filial piety and familial duty have strong influence on rural women. The issue of housing can serve as a colorful example in interpreting this characteristic which seems strange from a Western perspective. We know that one important role of a farmer s house is to prepare the marriage for young male family members, and a great part of migrant women s earnings is contributed to this end. According to traditional Confucian ethics, getting married and then producing offspring is the primary objective of life, and it is also the most important vehicle in getting a good name. Raising offspring and filial piety are the two dimensions of the integrated practice of the faith inof human beings; this religious idea connotes the essence of human beings and is deep-rooted in socio-cultural traditions, therefore it is a selfevident truth and a belief for the Chinese (Mou, Z., Xu, F., Zhang, J. & Tang, J. 1958). On the other hand, according to common standards the provision of basic material help for male family members getting married, the inclusion of a proper house is the duty of the family in Chinese thought and custom. Failure to arrange a marriage for an adult male family member is considered a serious cause for humiliation for the family. Thus building houses becomes the most import objective of rural households. Migrant women identify this primary family objective as an individual goal and voluntarily contribute to it. According to Confucian ethics, ideally for women, sacrificing ones individuality in order to cater for the family s interests is considered a necessary virtue. In addition, playing a strong role in domestic issues was assumed the active fulfillment of life, therefore contributing to the collective good was deemed as a means of practicing women s power rather than weakness (Tu 2001, 202). In this sense, for rural female workers, migration in order to earn money and subsequently contribute to families well-being is simply the way they fulfill their meaning of life. This situation suggests that Confucian ethics on family duty and female ideal virtues are deeply embedded in Chinese values as the core of moral rule, and still influence rural women strongly. However, things are changing gradually in this era of migration, with the shift taking place particularly in the case of younger generations which shall be the topic of the next section. 20

21 Migrant identities of young generations The vanity of women s self-interest appears to change in the cases of young unmarried rural women. Previous research argues that younger rural women have a greater desire for individual achievement than the older ones who are more bound to traditional images and ideas. With regard to migration, more unmarried young women prefer to go after their individual goals than to look out for the family s collective welfare (Tang 1996, Feng 2002, Tan 2002). Our interview data revealed that, the younger generation of rural women is more ambitious than the old generation in terms of pursuing economic achievement, and they are more inspired to obtain their personal objectives. Some interview statements below refer to the issue: One example is Hong, a 23 years old unmarried women. When she graduated from secondary school in 1995, she went to Guangdong and was employed in the factories there until Her out-migration was driven by mixed the motivation of earning money and opening her eyes. The reason for her retuning to the village was that it became more and more difficult to find a job in the locality she worked in due to so many factories going bankrupt. With regards to her future plan, she said: I am going to run a business and become a my own boss, because I have learned the skills and knowledge. If it turns out to be impossible to do that in my home village, I will migrate again. I have no plans to get married in short term. (Case Z-101). Another young woman, 22 years old Xu, unmarried and with secondary education, had worked as a factory worker in Fuzhou from 1995 to As her father ran a small factory in their hometown, her family neither lacked money nor expected her earnings. Xu said that her migration was mainly for looking around the world outside the village, and trying to learn something new. There are two factors which forced Xu give up her migration: on the one hand, her parents considered that it was time to help her to arrange the marital issue; on the other hand, she herself said, it is time to go back home, but I want to continue to work in my father s factory. Here, the old customs, the tradition expectation of particular roles are changed totally. The difference in motivations for migration caused by marriage and age could be explained from the perspective of women s identification of their role. As shown in Chapter 5, for all most all married migrant women, the only goals they want to fulfill 21

22 through migration are earning higher wages and improving their family s well being; whilst some young unmarried women more often have the desire to open their eyes through migration on top of having the household financial goals. Traditionally, daughters are not under obligation to do heavy labor and provide financial support for their childhood-families in rural China. When girls are grown-up and prepared to move across to another family via marriage, daughters are expected to repay their parents for their upbringing in whatever form, be it monetary or material through the husband s family rather than from the daughter s work income. Nowadays, although this traditional custom has changed greatly in urban China, it is still prevalent among rural residents. Apart from in the extremely poor households and the families which lack male labor, most interviewees both male and female - generally do not think young unmarried women are the main bread-winners of their childhood-family. In fact, as mentioned previously, quite a substantial portion of unmarried female migrants earnings is saved by their childhood-families in preparation for transference to their future husband s household in the form of dowry. As most young unmarried rural women do not have as much family responsibility as married women, they have not developed that sense of having a strong role as the bread-winner of the household. Given the relatively smaller duty imposed on young unmarried female migrants it is not that surprising that they are able to satisfy their own desires somewhat, in addition to achieving household economic goals. In their case, individual goals are not as strongly subordinated to collective well-being as in the case of married women. Furthermore, viewed from the life cycle status perspective, grown-up unmarried girls are actually not treated as members of their childhood-families in rural China. For rural women, the period between becoming an adult and getting married is a transitional period labeled by status-uncertain. As family is central to Chinese men and women s perceptions of themselves (Tu 2001, 43) and marriage is almost a universal phenomenon for rural women, young unmarried rural women lack a certain status and role in terms of being a family member. They find themselves in an interim position between the childhood family and the future husband s family; during this short status-transition period of their life cycle, they have no decisive role in the family strategy. This situation enables them to take advantage of migration and take the chance of enjoying city life and pursuing their individual goals. 22