INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF POPULATION GEOGRAPHY Int. J. Popul. Geogr. 6, 439±462 (2000) Population Displacement in the Reservoir Area of the River, Central : Relocation Policies and Migrant Views

Li Heming and Philip Rees* 1School of Geography, University of Leeds, Leeds LS2 9JT, UK

ABSTRACT involvement of those affected in policy- making and relocation affairs. Despite Employing empirical data derived from a expressing their support for the project, the questionnaire survey and in-depth majority of rural migrants have mixed interviews (1997±1998) in the Three Gorges feelings about their relocation. The results of reservoir area, and using secondary sources our survey and interviews have revealed the in both Chinese and English, the paper fact that a number of relocatees are facing the describes the number, categories and spatial risk of impoverishment because of a shortage distribution of migrant ¯ows, evaluates the of ®nancial and economic resources, the major methods of settling relocatees, and environmental constraints on relocation explores the state of relocatees' feelings capacity, and mismanagement of the about their relocation. We found that the operation. Under such circumstances, it is number of people to be relocated is still very dif®cult for those affected to view their uncertain and environmental, social and displacement as a good opportunity to behavioural factors in¯uence the number. improve their standard of living. Copyright The relocation programmes are involved in # 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. settling people in nearby areas, in moving them far away, or in settling rural migrants in Received 11 July 2000; revised 19 September 2000; accepted 25 urban industrial enterprises. These September 2000 resettlement processes are challenged Keywords: population; displacement; respectively by a tight people/land resettlement; project; relationship on higher ground above the Yangtze River; China reservoir, by the dif®culties in rebuilding production systems and adapting to a new social setting outside the reservoir area, and INTRODUCTION by increasing unemployment in urban China. A series of problems with the he Yangtze River is the third largest river relocation operation have resulted because of T in the world after the Nile and the the lack of a generalised framework for Amazon, and is the `golden waterway' population relocation and the inadequate in China, linking southwest and central China with coastal regions. Proposed in the early 1900s and reintroduced in the 1950s, the Three Gorges Project (TGP) was launched in 1992 * Correspondence to: P. Rees, School of Geography, University of Leeds, Leeds LS2 9JT. and is currently under construction in the E-mail: [email protected] Three Gorges area of the Yangtze valley,

Copyright # 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. 440 Li Heming and Philip Rees

Figure 1. The area to be inundated by the reservoir. central China. The area, one of the most major reasons: it will generate the most spectacular landscapes in China, is well- electricity of all hydropower stations globally known for its picturesque mountains and and it will displace the most people in a single cliffs, deep gorges and tributaries, as well as project in human history. Over one million for its long history and unique culture. After people will have to make way for its construc- damming the Yangtze at the end of 1997, the tion, and many more people will be affected, project has entered its second phase. The including those whose communities will re- project is also one of the most controversial ceive relocatees from the reservoir area and water conservancy projects in China. Rapid those who will be threatened by the reservoir economic growth has allowed decision-ma- water rising during the ¯ooding season. The kers, planners and technocrats to envisage second section of the paper puts migrants carrying out the huge project, and a relative displaced by reservoir construction in a more degree of freedom of speech has made it general context of forced migration, drawing possible for scholars and intellectuals to on a growing literature. The paper provides in engage in heated debates over the project. In the third section a general picture of the international society, many environmental displaced population, its categories, character- organisations such as the International River istics and spatial distribution, with a focus on Network (IRN) and Probe International call for how they will be moved and resettled. We the project to be stopped, as do the world's draw on TGP planning documents, commen- foremost dam ®nanciers and builders, includ- tary by experts, newspaper reports on reloca- ing the World Bank, the US Export-Import tion schemes, an extensive set of interviews Bank, Canadian BC Hydro and Ontario Hydro, with TGP and government of®cials at various who are refusing to participate. times during 1998 and a large household The Three Gorges Project is regarded as the survey of both potential and actual migrants largest water project in the world for two carried out by the ®rst author and teams of

Copyright # 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Int. J. Popul. Geogr., 6, 439±462 (2000) Population Displacement in the Yangtze River Area 441 student interviewers from the Central China de®nition, there were 13 million of®cially Normal University and the Three recognised refugees in the world in 1996 Gorges College (Li, 2000, Chapter 4). Based (UNHCR, 1997). Parnwell (1993: 42) estimated on the 1997±1998 survey in which 570 migrant that some 140 million people seeking refuge households and hosts were interviewed in from political (and ecological) crises have been , Zigui, Xingshan and Badong counties displaced during this century. The traditional in Province, and in Yunyang and de®nition emphasises that refugees must cross Kaixian counties in Municipality international boundaries to be classi®ed as (Fig. 1), we discovered how these people felt such, but increasing violence within countries about their displacement, what expectations is displacing migrants within countries as well they had, and to what extent they supported (Connor, 1986; Schmeidl, 1997). the project. The survey ®ndings are discussed A second category of forced migrant is in detail in the fourth section of the paper. In produced by environmental change in origin the ®fth section, we explore whether the areas. Myers and Kent (1995: 18) de®ned project might yield a good opportunity for environmental refugees as `persons who no the migrants to escape from poverty. longer gain a secure livelihood in their tradi- tional homelands because of ¼ environmental FORCED MIGRATION AND RESERVOIR factors of unusual scope'. These environmental DISPLACEES factors include a wide range of events: the slow build-up of environmental degradation The migration literature is full of many through drought, deserti®cation, deforestation valuable classi®cations of what is a wide- and sea-level rise, sudden and devastating ranging phenomenon (White and Woods, natural disasters such as earthquakes, volcanic 1980; Standing, 1984; Parnwell, 1993). In most eruptions and ¯oods, and industrial accidents cases these frameworks assume that the such as chemical plant explosions (Bhopal, migrant has a choice about whether to mi- India), the leakage of poison gas (Seveso, Italy) grate or not, and that migration is chosen or and nuclear meltdown (Chernobyl, Ukraine). not depending on the balance of push/pull One of the most severe natural disasters factors at origin and destination. However, occurred in the summer of 1998 in the Yangtze there is an increasing recognition that many valley, when 335,000 people were forced to migrants have no realistic choice but to move: evacuate the Jinjiang Flood Diversion area these migrants are labelled `involuntary' or (Chutian dushibao, 1998). The ®rst author was `forced' migrants (Boyle et al., 1998). Three recruited for levee protection duty in major categories of forced migrants can be during this ¯ood. Timberlake (1988) estimated identi®ed: political refugees, environmental that tens of millions of people have been refugees, and people displaced by dam and permanently uprooted by environmental other major construction projects. All these crises and warned that 15% of the population groups have to move, but the time over which of Bangladesh is likely to be forced to abandon their move can be planned, and the resources their homes because of rising sea-levels. of the state and household available to aid the Normally, international rescue and assistance process, increase as we move through the spring into action when severe natural disas- categories. ters occur, regardless of national boundaries, Refugee migration `represents an extreme as long as the nation states experiencing the form of marginalisation of individuals and disaster are willing to accept help. groups' (Black, 1991: 287). The UN 1951 The term `environmental refugees', how- Convention on Refugees employs a relatively ever, has been criticised by several researchers. narrow political de®nition, limiting refugee McGregor (1993) considered that the use of the status to those living `outside their own term has no foundation in law and confuses country owing to a well founded fear of different types of service and institutional persecution, for reasons of race, religion, responsibility. Kibreab (1994) observed that nationality, membership of a particular social the term has been widely misused by aca- group or political opinion'. Under such a demics and argued that empirical research is

Copyright # 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Int. J. Popul. Geogr., 6, 439±462 (2000) 442 Li Heming and Philip Rees needed on the importance of environmental tal refugees, people displaced by dams share change in the process of population displace- some similar characteristics but also display ment. He argued that the term has been differences. seductive because it enables receiving coun- Firstly, like political and environmental tries to derogate their obligation to provide refugees, people displaced by dams are forced asylum. Identifying a considerable proportion to move against their will despite the differ- of refugees as `environmental refugees' can ence in causes of displacement; they are achieve the goal of limiting the number of neither evading persecution nor escaping from international refugees, since states are not natural disasters, but make way for dam required to provide protection and assistance construction. Given the choice, most people to those displaced by environmental crises affected by dam projects would have preferred (Kibreab, 1997: 21). Scudder and Colson (1982) to remain in their place of origin (Parnwell, argued that both life-threatening human action 1993). Among displacees there is variation in and life-threatening natural disasters should the degree of willingness to migrate. Olive- be considered in identifying refugees. Smith and Hansen (1982) examined the role of One problem in de®ning environmental the state in in¯uencing the decision to leave an refugees is to distinguish them from environ- old place and to determine a destination. They mental migrants. Black (1998: 27) identi®ed the argue that refugees would result if the state former as migrants for whom `environmental determined departure but only in¯uenced decline should represent the main (if not only) destination. In most circumstances, resettle- reason for their ¯ight'. However, a better ment schemes resulting from dam-building de®nition recognises that it is the sudden are planned by governments. Affected inhabi- nature and overwhelming threat posed by tants take it for granted that the state will environmental change that creates environ- take responsibility for re-establishing their mental refugees (Suhrke, 1993). A distinction livelihood after displacement. It is understood has been made by El-Hinnawi (1985) and that there is a social contract between the Jacobson (1988) between temporary and per- many who bene®t from the dam and the few manent environmental stress leading to dis- who suffer. By contrast, political refugees placement, while others (Trolldalen et al., 1992; have dif®culty in gaining assistance within Suhrke, 1993) classify environmental migrants their own country and have to seek external according to the precipitating factor: natural protection. Unlike dam displacees who are at disasters, land degradation, deforestation, least partially compensated by governments, water and air degradation, sea-level rise, environmental refugees and migrants have climate change and industrial accidents. In no rights to compensation for losses, especially the Chinese context, Ma (1997) argued that property damage caused by natural disasters. natural disasters are one of the main driving Secondly, unlike political refugees, people forces producing refugees throughout Chinese displaced by dams do not normally leave their history, and this explains the importance that country of origin and are settled internally. By successive Chinese dynasties have assigned to contrast with both political refugees and water control works. refugees from environmental disasters, dam However, `not all forced migrants are displacees have time to make the necessary refugees' (Boyle et al., 1998: 199). People arrangements for their relocation, although displaced by dams and reservoirs are devel- their choice of destination depends to a great opment-induced displacees (Scudder and Col- extent on resettlement schemes and govern- son, 1982; Cernea, 1990). This category of ment planning. Unfortunately, because of the migration also includes those displaced by huge cost involved in population resettlement industrial, urban or transportation infrastruc- and shortfalls in government spending, `sel- ture projects. Cernea (1997) puts the ®gure for dom have relocatees become materially and development-induced displacees at around 10 socially better off than before their move' million each year, or at least 80±90 millions (Parnwell, 1993: 48). Under some circum- over the past decade worldwide. Compared stances, quite large numbers of displaced with refugees and, in particular, environmen- people suffer from a `refugee-like' situation,

Copyright # 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Int. J. Popul. Geogr., 6, 439±462 (2000) Population Displacement in the Yangtze River Area 443

Figure 2. The inundated land and displaced population in the reservoir area. Sources: REG (1988); Zhu (1996).

and many are likely to leave the resettlement ONE PROJECT, MORE THAN ONE sites planned by the government. MILLION MIGRANTS Thirdly, migrants displaced by dam pro- jects have little possibility of returning to The dam site is situated at , their place of origin, because it is under water. Yichang County, Hubei Province. At the They are permanently displaced as a result of normal pool level (the highest water level of irreversible environmental change. Political the reservoir) of 175 metres above sea-level, the refugees, on the other hand, have a range of back water of the reservoir of the TGP will future options: to stay in the host country, to reach Mudong Township, Chongqing. The transfer to a third country, or to return to total length of the reservoir will be about 660 their home country, either to their original km. With a total surface area of 1084 km2, the residences or to alternative homes. Cunny and reservoir will be narrow, canyoned and river- Stein (1989) estimated that hundreds of like (TGPDC, 1996). Therefore, the displace- thousands of refugees repatriate without of®- ment will take place from densely populated cial assistance annually. China's historical river valleys along the main channel and its records show that, once the natural disaster, tributaries. According to the 1985 survey, some war or tyranny has ended, refugees generally 725,500 people would need to be resettled would return home and continue farming (REG, 1988). Figure 1 shows the results of the (Ma, 1997). second survey conducted by the Yangtze

Copyright # 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Int. J. Popul. Geogr., 6, 439±462 (2000) 444 Li Heming and Philip Rees

Water Resources Commission (YWRC, 1997) of®cials and project authorities. In fact, the during 1991±1992. Some two cities and 17 project did not start formally until 1994, counties in Hubei Province and Chongqing creating an underestimate in the calculations Municipality would be affected, and 846,208 of numbers of migrants. According to the people would be displaced to make way for 1991±1992 survey in the Three Gorges reser- the TGP. Figure 2 gives a general graph that voir area, the `directly affected population' had allows us to see how land inundation and reached 846,208, and the latest ®gure for the people displacement will occur from the dam total population to be resettled by the end of site to the tail of the reservoir along the 2009 has increased to 1,200,000 (YWRC, 1997: horizontal axis in the ®gure. We can see that 23; Zhai, 1997: 16). In a formal report in the more land is lost to the reservoir, the more English, the Three Gorges Project Develop- people have to be uprooted, with an exception ment Corporation (TGPDC, 1996: 15) made it in Wanxian City where the displaced people clear that the TGP reservoir would inundate and inundated land ratio is 5340 per km2 due 27,280 ha of farm land, with 844,1001 residents to its particularly concentrated population in living in the ¯ooded area, but estimated the the urban . Moreover, most relocatees ®nal number of relocatees rather vaguely by are generated in the middle region of the stating that `taking into consideration popula- reservoir. tion growth and relocation during the con- Surprisingly, the number of would-be relo- struction period, the total population to be catees is only de®ned as the `directly affected settled would be over 1 million'. population' (zhijie vanmo renkou) whose hous- Some opponents of the project believe that ing would be submerged by the reservoir. It the actual number of people to be relocated does not cover the `indirectly affected popula- will greatly exceed these of®cial ®gures, and tion' (jianjie yanmo renkou) which comprises a will probably be between 1,300,000 and wide range of migrants affected by the project: 1,600,000. Zhou Peiyuan and Li Rui have (1) people whose farmland will be lost to the concluded that the total number of the dis- reservoir completely or partially; (2) people placed of the TGP will reach 1,600,000 (Qi, whose working arena such as factories and 1998: 52). Dai Qing has suggested that the dam shops or whose housing above the future will cause the forcible resettlement of upwards reservoir are greatly affected as a result of of 1,900,000 people (Dai, 1998: 4). It is hard to urban relocation; (3) people displaced due to provide an accurate estimate because both the reconstruction of new towns and new proponents and opponents of the project infrastructure such as roads, bridges and other appear to reduce or exaggerate the ®gure public facilities; (4) the population in-migrat- deliberately for their own purposes. According ing during the period of relocation; and (5) to the proponents, the fewer the migrants the unregistered urban residents. It seems inap- project has, the easier it would be for the propriate to de®ne those who will lose their proposal of building the dam to be approved farmland to the reservoir as `indirectly affected by the central government and the National population'. These people should be treated in People's Congress. There is evidence that Li the category of `directly affected population' as Boning and other proponents of the dam cited they will lose at least part of the resources on different ®gures on various occasions (Qi, which their livelihoods depend. This treatment 1998). It seems that they were guided by a re¯ects a traditional approach that priority is desire to promote the dam, rather than by a given to house-building based on the progress desire to reach an objective estimate. In the of projects. Less emphasis has been placed on opponents' view, the project produces major the restoration of migrants' livelihoods. diseconomies and should not go ahead be- If we include these indirectly affected cause too many people would be displaced in a groups and make allowance for population single project. Some of them warned the growth of 1.2% per annum between 1989 and central government that moving so many 2009, then the total population to be settled people would bring about political con¯ict would be 1,131,800 (REG, 1988: 14). This ®gure and social instability (Dai, 1998). Because of its has been accepted and cited by government complexity and unavailability of relevant data,

Copyright # 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Int. J. Popul. Geogr., 6, 439±462 (2000) Population Displacement in the Yangtze River Area 445 we do not intend to seek a more precise ®gure, reservoir area (Fearnside, 1990: 52). The num- but we will point out some problems asso- ber of the `temporarily residential population' ciated with trying to estimate the number of was estimated at 87,900 people based on the relocatees resulting from the project. 1990 National Census in the Three Gorges Firstly, some additional displacements may reservoir area (COS, 1993). Even in the 1988 occur as a result of geological hazards and of®cial resettlement plan, these unregistered environmental changes after the formation of urban migrants were up to 53,612 in 1985. the reservoir, which has happened in the past. Although they were incorporated into the In the Sanmenxia reservoir area on the Yellow initial population estimate at 5±10% of `directly River, an additional 90,000 people had to be affected population', no housing compensa- resettled when large stretches of ®elds tion and no industrial jobs would be arranged slumped along the shore of the reservoir. The for them in the resettlement plan (REG, 1988). same happened at the Xin'anjiang and Yong- According to Wan Chengjun,2 an of®cial at the jing reservoir areas (Jing, 1997). By contrast, Relocation Bureau of Wanxian, a large portion the Yangtze River is characterised by more of urban migrants living in urban and sub- severe geological hazards, with a variety of urban areas of Wanxian City have been slumps, landslides and mud-rock ¯ows. Based excluded from the resettlement plan, and this on ®eld investigations conducted by the may bring about a series of social problems in Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) during the near future. the late 1980s and the early 1990s (CAS, 1988; Thirdly, `false migration' may result in an Du et al., 1994), there were at least 214 land- unchecked increase of the number of reloca- slides and slumps with a total displacement of tees. To obtain resettlement compensation and 1.35 billion m3 of material along the Yangtze other bene®ts from the relocation scheme, from the dam site to Chongqing. Large-scale people who are not quali®ed as migrants are landslides produced great damage at Jipazi in trying various means to transfer their house- Yunyang in 1982, Xintan in Zigui in 1985, and hold registration to the reservoir zone (Shi, in in 1987 and 1988 (Qian and 1992). Some people bribed of®cials to let them Gen, 1999). The total population threatened transfer their household registration to the directly by the landslides and slumps exceeds region under the submersion line. Others more than 100,000 people from Fuling and spent a sum of money on purchasing the Wanxian to Wushan and Zigui (see Fig. 1). The household registration in the reservoir area. ®eld survey con®rmed that there were 271 Some 19 kinds of `false migrants' and 807 debris-¯ow gullies in the reservoir area, with people were identi®ed in Zhoujiaba Street, 99 of them occurring along the main channel, Tiancheng District, Wanxian. The total number the rest being scattered in several tributaries of `false migrants' resulting from this inspec- (Du et al., 1994). Undoubtedly, impounding tion reached 2,000 people in Wanxian alone such a large body of water behind the dam (Sanxia gongcheng bao, 1997a). `False divorce' may give rise to environmental changes, in (jia lihun), `early marriage' (zaohun) and `regis- particular some changes in hydraulic patterns tered unborn baby' (gei wei chusheng xiaohai and performance. It can be anticipated that a shang hukou) were techniques employed to variety of geological hazards resulting from increase the number of displaced people and these changes will force the settled people to to get additional compensation. Based on our move for a second time, or the native residents interviews with village cadres in Gaoyang to abandon their homeland and become new village, , just in Group 153 relocatees. there were 20 cases of `false migrants' to be Secondly, unregistered urban residents investigated, accounting for 10% of the total have never received enough attention in the population of the village. resettlement plan. Of urban migrants (having These problems tend to increase the total an urban household registration or having number of relocatees and require more fund- lived in urban areas for more than one year), ing for resettlement. In particular, geological 10% to 30% (27,000 to 80,600) are illegal hazards and environmental changes after the migrants to the cities of the Three Gorges completion of the dam may produce more

Copyright # 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Int. J. Popul. Geogr., 6, 439±462 (2000) 446 Li Heming and Philip Rees potential relocatees and force the resettled can be resettled locally. It is unnecessary migrants to move again. to move them out of the county and the majority of them can be resettled within WHERE WILL THE MIGRANTS MOVE TO? the township.' (REG, 1988: 14)

According to the conservative of®cial estimate, Li (1991, 1994), one of the planners of the the Three Gorges dam will cause at least 1.2 project, claims that infra-red aerial photogra- million people to leave homes which have phy shows that in the reservoir area more than been inhabited for centuries along the stretch 20 million mu (1 mu = 0.067 ha) of barren land of river between Yichang and Chongqing. One is available, of which 4 million mu of slope land key issue arises: where are they going to be is in the resettlement villages that are to receive relocated to, and how can so many people be relocatees. Within the barren land, Li believes, settled within the period of the construction of it is possible to develop 1 million mu of the dam? People from various walks of life, farmland to settle rural relocatees and provide planners of the project, local cadres responsi- new land for the affected hosts as compensa- ble for relocation, resettlement experts and tion. However, the argument has been chal- scholars in the academic community, have all lenged by researchers both inside and outside put forward proposals for population resettle- China because of a long history of develop- ment in the Three Gorges area. Three major ment, the unavailability of spare barren land, approaches to the resettlement of relocatees and the limited environmental capacity in the can be identi®ed: (1) all the displaced can be Three Gorges reservoir area. settled in a nearby area at high elevation Historical research has shown that in the without moving them far away; (2) relocatees Three Gorges area, people from east and south must be moved out of the reservoir region China migrated westward along the Yangtze because of poor local physical setting and and economic activities took place in riverside environmental capacity; and (3) a large num- plains and nearby hills before the Qing ber of migrants can be settled in urban areas Dynasty (1644 AD). More and more people and industrial enterprises. from either direction poured into remote mountain areas to begin farming during the period 1723±1796, leading to a `village on Settling in Nearby Areas every hill and little land left in the river valley' Planners of the project and resettlement (dishan jin cunzhuang, gouhe wu yutu). The schemes prefer to settle relocatees in nearby original development pattern based on farm- areas. In the light of past experience, the ing, commerce and ®shery in the relocation authority is particularly concerned (618±907 AD) was replaced by concentration in that migrants always try to return to the agricultural development, especially farming reservoir area if they are treated badly in the on non-irrigated land in the Qing dynasty receiving areas, which has occurred repeatedly (Lan, 1992). Owing to greater and greater in past reservoir resettlements in China. An- demand for grain and ®rewood, more moun- other concern noted by local governments is tains and hills have been tilled and more that moving relocatees far away may result in forests have been cut for farming and settle- dual losses: resettlement funding and human ment since 1949. As a result, most arable slopes capital, especially young labour, ¯owing out of on hills and mountains have been developed. the local area. More importantly, perhaps, It can clearly be seen that Li's estimate is settling migrants in nearby areas can help the problematic because it fails to take into account promotion of the project, since moving far the physical setting in the Three Gorges area, away is considered a potential issue affecting including elevation, gradient, soil conditions, social stability. For a long time, therefore, the provision of water, and so forth. Of the total proponents of the project have argued that: cultivated land in the area, 60% cent is slope- land, 25±50% of which has a gradient exceed- `In terms of the willingness of local ing 25°. In Wanxian County, the slope of 25% governments and migrants, all relocatees of the total cultivated land is greater than 25°.

Copyright # 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Int. J. Popul. Geogr., 6, 439±462 (2000) Population Displacement in the Yangtze River Area 447

The ®gure is 40% in Kaixian County, 48% in submerged and there will be only 15 mu of Yunyang, and 53% in Wushan (Wang, 1993). farmland left after the reservoir is formed. As a The soils in these uphill areas are very thin and result, migrants had little land to farm and infertile and the agricultural output is far found themselves badly placed after they lower than that of the river valleys and moved uphill. In the case of Gaoyang village, ¯oodplains to be submerged. In rural China, Yunyang County, Chongqing Municipality, the land in this critical condition is called relocatees refused to move uphill where the `hanging land' (guapo di) or `paper land' physical setting is too severe. The reason is that (dazibao di), like a tiny plot attached to the the slopes planned as resettlement sites are too mountain or a piece of paper hanging in the steep to build new housing and too thin to air. Owing to the lack of water and fertiliser farm. The slopes of the mountains and hills are and the dif®culty in cultivation and manage- covered by weathered materials which are ment, `harvesting in this land depends on the likely to erode, bringing about slumps and mercy of God' (kao tian shou). According to the slides. `How can we earn a living on the new Water and Soil Protection Act enacted in slopes?' was the constant complaint of the 1988, the exploitation of land with a gradient of migrants interviewed in July 1998 along the more than 25° is banned. The law also River Xiaojiang, a Yangtze tributary. stipulates that only land with a certain amount of soil can be used for farming, and prohibits Moving Far Away further development on slopes where the vegetative cover has already diminished by Moving migrants far away will be inevitable, 30% (Qi, 1998). The reality is that the vegetative as the short-distance resettlement plan has cover is 13% in the Three Gorges region, and failed to work well. A wide range of options only 11.7% in Wushan County (CAS, 1988). has been proposed. These proposals can be Taking these factors into account, the arable grouped into three categories according to the slope land should be 300,000 mu rather than 4 distance of displacement: (1) letting relocatees million mu, based on research reported by emigrate abroad; (2) moving migrants into Chen Guojie and his colleagues (Chen et al., border regions or remote provinces; (3) settling 1995). Chen (1998) argued that the Three migrant groups in areas that bene®t from the Gorges reservoir area is `maldeveloped' rather project, particularly on several state-run farms. than `underdeveloped', with about 40% under Each proposal is considered in turn. cultivation. Owing to the region's growing Wu (1992) ambitiously suggests encoura- population, the average resident has 0.07 ha of ging relocatees to emigrate to foreign coun- land and produces only 170 kg of grain, far tries, especially Russia and southeast Asia. below the national average. Even without the There are plentiful virgin lands, mineral dam project and its immense inundation of resources and forest resources undeveloped farm land, the local population exceeds its in Siberia, where labour is needed and settle- environmental capacity by 15%. Chen con- ment may be permitted of®cially through cluded that it is impossible to resettle large negotiation between the two nations. How- numbers of relocatees in the area. ever, these relocatees would have dif®culty More importantly, the practice of resettle- adapting to a cold climate and a completely ment schemes since 1994 has proved that different social environment. Many Chinese settling all relocatees in the reservoir area is emigrants live a relatively wealthy life through unrealistic. Based on our survey, especially the successful businesses in Singapore, Indonesia, in-depth interviews in the reservoir area Malaysia and other countries in southeast during 1997±98, we found that relocatees are Asia. Their success is rooted in worldwide facing severe dif®culties in maintaining liveli- business networks, existing credit relation- hoods after they moved uphill due to the ships and advanced marketing and manage- inadequacy of arable land. At Jiuxiancheng ment techniques. However, relocatees from the village, , Hubei Province, some TGP lack all these basic conditions necessary 241 people out of 270 villagers are required to for establishing their own businesses in re- move uphill. More than 200 mu of land will be mote, strange nations. Moreover, arranging the

Copyright # 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Int. J. Popul. Geogr., 6, 439±462 (2000) 448 Li Heming and Philip Rees emigration of relocatees to foreign nations- tion. National relocation policy encourages would be dif®cult to negotiate and might lead migrants to be settled in the regions that to diplomatic and ethnic con¯icts. More bene®t from the dam. Several large-scale importantly, perhaps, this suggestion takes state-run farms in Hubei, Hunan and Jiangxi no account of relocatees' wishes. The proposal provinces have expressed a willingness to to relocate migrants displaced by the TGP to receive migrants from the reservoir area. For foreign countries is completely unrealistic. example, the Caopuhu Farm in Hubei Pro- A second option is to move people to border vince has begun preparatory work to receive areas and remote provinces. Wu (1992) sug- migrants. In the ®rst phase, the farm plans to gests moving relocatees to Hainan Island receive 1500 migrants from Zigui, Wushan and where there are fewer people and more arable Yunyang counties. But many migrants who farmland than in the reservoir area. In 1995, enquired about resettlement policy and prac- more than 80 relocatees went to Hainan and tical procedures hesitated to make a contract worked on a rubber plantation, where it was with the farm. There was some fear that they planned they would settle permanently. But would no longer have other alternatives if they they were very dissatis®ed with working agreed a legal contract. They were anxious that conditions and the living environment, in they would be unable to spend the resettle- particular the low pay and the hot, damp ment funds themselves if they agreed to all the weather in Hainan. Within two months, all of requirements in the contract. Therefore, it has them had returned to their homes. Despite this been hard for migrants to make up their mind failure, relocation authorities have been trying and many are delaying their relocation deci- to move relocatees to remote provinces. One of sions.5 the greatest problems faced by the relocation authorities was that these receiving regions Moving to Urban Enterprises demanded an exorbitant price, over 45,000 yuan Renmimbi RMB (the people's yuan) per Moving rural relocatees into urban areas and relocatee, greatly exceeding the government's having them engage in industrial jobs has been compensation allowance for migrants. seen as another major channel for migrant Although migrants recognised there was suf®- ¯ows. The 1988 resettlement plan of the TGP cient arable land and greater survival space aimed to settle up to 40% of rural migrants in there, they were worried about big differences the industrial and service sectors by carrying in climatic conditions, production mode and out 416 development projects (REG, 1988). living customs between origin and destination. Local governments are eager to take advantage In Xinjiang, for example, they had a strong of the construction of the project to boost their sense of being abandoned in an inhospitable local economy, placing great emphasis on environment. In addition, migrants were industrial development. Young migrants, in afraid that they would become involved in particular, are hoping to move into urban ethnic con¯ict between Han Chinese and the areas, become factory workers, or be employed Uighur nationality. Another attempt to move by the government, earning more money and relocatees from to Inner Mon- promoting their social status. golia proved to be unsuccessful. The govern- So far, however, there have been few ment of Fengjie County had to take back all successful instances of resettling migrants in these 200 relocatees after they stayed in Inner industrial enterprises and the service sector in Mongolia less than one month.4 the reservoir area. In 1984, more than 9.7 A third option is to settle displaced migrants million yuan RMB were used to set up 57 in regions that bene®t from the TGP in the industrial enterprises as compensation for middle and lower Yangtze valley. The TGP land requisition in the dam area. Two years will help control ¯ooding downstream from later, most of them had closed or were the dam and provide hydroelectric power for performing poorly due to a heated debate the region. One policy is to settle migrants in about the TGP, errors in investment decision- the state-run farms in downstream areas, to making and mismanagement (Mao, 1993: 231). bring spare land in these farms into cultiva- The Eastern Sichuan Chemical Engineering

Copyright # 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Int. J. Popul. Geogr., 6, 439±462 (2000) Population Displacement in the Yangtze River Area 449

Corporation based in Wanxian City provides a and ®sheries, in particular, have a higher better example. To develop local industry and requirement for environmental protection. In settle more relocatees of the TGP, a project was the Yangtze basin, there are more than 40,000 planned with an investment of 2 billion yuan industrial pollution sources and over 10 RMB to produce caustic soda for export by million tonnes of industrial waste water and exploiting local rock-salt resources. If com- domestic sewage are discharged into the river pleted on schedule, the project would have and its tributaries each day (Guangming ribao, been able to settle 20,000 rural migrants. 2000a). In fact, annual ®shing output has Unfortunately, the price of caustic soda declined from 300,000 tonnes in the 1950s to rapidly declined in the early 1990s. As a result, 100,000 tonnes in the 1980s, and some rare the huge enterprise had to close its gates after species have become extinct because of serious spending 1.2 billion yuan RMB and employing water pollution in the Yangtze River (Yang, 3000 local peasants as workers, 500 of whom 1995). The number of tourists on the river has were rural migrants.6 In Wanxian City, over also declined dramatically since the damming 1000 migrant workers have been laid off and of the Yangtze at the end of 1997. The Asian some others suffer from low salaries; in ®nancial crisis and unemployment at home Yichang County, more than half the migrant were responsible for the sudden decrease in workers lost their jobs and needed to be tourist numbers. It seems hard to be too resettled. With a very weak industrial base optimistic about the future of tourism on the and without a favourable investment environ- Yangtze because of the unfavourable changes ment, the Three Gorges area has great dif®- in the landscape of the Three Gorges after the culty in developing strong industries. reservoir has ®lled. Moreover, the reservoir area has a population The government and relocation authorities with lower educational levels and it is hard for have become more cautious in making ar- rural migrants to become skilled workers and rangements for settling rural migrants in adapt to new working conditions in modern industrial enterprises in the light of the industrial enterprises in a short period. Local experience of the Eastern Sichuan Chemical governments in Hongshi and Bayang town- Engineering Corporation. Through govern- ships, Yunyang County, have had dif®culties ment directives and some incentives, several in identifying what kind of industry can use famous companies have established branches rural migrants (Lu et al., 1997). in the reservoir area. For instance, the `Waha- Despite having little industry, the reservoir ha' Corporation of Hangzhou City, Zhejiang area has been heavily contaminated. Wanxian Province, invested in two soft-drinks factories City, in the middle of the reservoir region, has in Fuling and Yichang respectively, but both of air pollution twice as high as the national them received few rural relocatees because of average and the frequency of acid rain was their limited production capacity and their about 96%, ranking it as highest in Sichuan need for more highly quali®ed employees. Province in 1984 (Lu et al., 1997). Unchecked In summary, settling migrants in nearby industrial development, especially small rural areas can maintain the suitability of the enterprises such as paper-making, production physical setting, continuity of economic activi- of chemical fertiliser, mining and building ties and availability of social capital, so that materials plants, with old equipment and migrants incur smaller socio-economic costs obsolete technology, may lead to environmen- and the government can save resettlement tal disasters. Guo and Lan (1995) have argued investment and achieve the goal of social that, except for fruit-growing, farming needs to stability. However, in the case of the Three be limited, and that polluting industrial Gorges dam, experience over a six-year period enterprises should be excluded from the Three (1994±1999) suggests it will be impossible to Gorges area. They suggest that, to preserve settle all relocatees in nearby areas at higher harmony between economic development and elevation due to the huge number of displaced environmental conservation, forestry, tourism, people, the inadequacy of farmland and water transport and ®sheries should be devel- limited environmental capacity. Alarmed by oped as a new `industrial' complex. Tourism growing erosion and environmental pollution,

Copyright # 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Int. J. Popul. Geogr., 6, 439±462 (2000) 450 Li Heming and Philip Rees more recently the government has issued a because of their understanding of the commu- new directive for moving 125,000 people living nity bene®ts of the project, and also their in the reservoir area to 11 provinces of the aspirations to pro®t from the project. But it is country (China Daily, 2000a). Moving migrants hard to be clear which aspect is more im- far away is a feasible alternative and can help portant in their minds. The results of Zuo's to reduce population pressure on the reservoir survey (1997) demonstrate that respondents area. But emigrating abroad or moving to would rather hide their opinions than give the border areas and remote provinces are not impression to the interviewers that they are viable options. Settling migrants in the regions standing on different ground from the govern- that bene®t from the project is consistent not ment. Thus, over 87% of the respondents agree only with the requirement of resettlement that `I will obey and follow the instructions of policy, but with the interests of migrants and the government regardless of how I feel about hosts who receive migrants. The big question my relocation.' Zuo concluded that the dis- is how migrants can rebuild their livelihoods placed know how important the TGP is, but do and adapt to a new social setting in more not know how their migration experience will remote parts of the country. Settling migrants work out. in industrial enterprises can help to transform During the period of 1997±98, we conducted local industrial structures, push industrialisa- our own survey in the area. The target tion forward and accelerate the progress of population were those who either had been urbanisation. However, old equipment, out- or were to be displaced by the Three Gorges moded technology, limited relocation funding dam. According to of®cial statistics, by the end and low educational levels among rural of May 2000 some 220,000 relocatees had been migrants have contributed to a less competi- moved, and about half a million more are tive industry in a market-oriented economy. required to be displaced before 2003 (China The need for environmental protection to Daily, 2000a). Thus two major groups can be encourage the development of tourism and identi®ed: those who had yet to be relocated ®sheries imposes further restrictions on the and those who had already been relocated. In expansion of industry. our survey, we paid attention to these two groups: migrants before relocation and mi- grants after relocation. To carry out the survey, WHAT DO MIGRANTS FEEL ABOUT THEIR we invited 20 undergraduates from the Central RELOCATION? China Normal University in Wuhan and from the Sichuan Three Gorges College in Chong- No Choice but to Move qing to join our survey team (Li, 2000). Do the relocatees in the reservoir area support The initial survey plan proposed a randomly the project? The result of a survey by Li et al. selected sample. The purpose of employing (1995) in 1994 shows that some 86% of the sampling methods is to collect data from a relocatees surveyed expressed their support representative sample of respondents, from for the project. Another study on the social which the attitude of the surveyed population psychology of migrants in the reservoir area towards the project and relocation schemes carried out in 1995 by Zuo (1997) revealed that can be inferred with a known degree of 93% of respondents viewed the dam-building certainty. However, we faced various dif®cul- as a good thing that bene®ts the state and ties. Firstly, we had great problems in obtain- younger generations, and 78% of them were ing migrant household lists from the proud of making a contribution to the project government departments, especially from re- construction. At the same time, however, 35% location bureaus at county and township of respondents felt they were at a loss as the levels. Few local cadres responsible for reloca- day of their displacement approached, and tion affairs took a cooperative approach to our 43% of them felt upset at leaving their home. request for this basic information. Many As a whole, therefore, the majority of those complained that too many institutions and displaced by the project have a positive scholars wanted data on migrants, while the attitude towards the dam-building, partly upper governments had issued regulations

Copyright # 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Int. J. Popul. Geogr., 6, 439±462 (2000) Population Displacement in the Yangtze River Area 451 preventing data relating to the relocation two major categories: near-removal and dis- schemes of the TGP from being published. tant-removal. In the other group, namely Occasionally, we were lucky enough to obtain `migrants before relocation', respondents in some valuable data through particular rela- Kaixian County live around the county seat, tionships such as close friends and relatives, engaging mainly in the cultivation of vegeta- but we found that these data were not bles, self-employed businesses and other non- complete enough to set up the sampling base. farming economic activities. The migrants in It proved especially dif®cult to gain a full list of live along the and migrants at county and township levels, which grow orange trees, while the majority of was a precondition for employing a sampling respondents in Yunyang County live in moun- method. Furthermore, we also found it dif®- tainous areas and engage in agriculture, and so cult to proceed with our survey even when we can also represent varied regional and eco- obtained such lists. The reason was that most nomic categories (see Fig. 1). migrants, especially rural migrants, live in Secondly, the villages, as basic location scattered locations, and some were too remote units, were then arranged on the basis of or isolated in high mountains to be accessible displacement categories for `migrants after by bus, boat or motorcycle. Another problem relocation', and economic development levels was that we would have dif®culty in ®nding for `migrants before relocation', within strata speci®c respondents selected by our sampling obtained from a general understanding or method. They may be away seeking jobs as through looking at the annual economic ¯oating labour, or working in the ®elds. We statistics of the target county or township. did not have enough time and funding to ®nd According to this procedure, therefore, the speci®c respondents. surveyed villages were selected based on To make our survey more representative, a displacement categories and different stan- `location selection-centred' strategy was dards of living in each county. For `migrants adopted and some measures were employed after relocation', for example, these displace- to ensure the survey locations were represen- ment categories included: near-removal and tative of particular migrant situations. Firstly, distant-removal; rural migrants and urban we took into account regions as varied as migrants; rural migrant households that have possible in the selection of the surveyed been settled in urban industrial enterprises. counties. The counties were arranged into Migrant households interviewed were chosen geographical strata according to the following from these selected villages. The procedure is classi®cation: urban district; rural plain; near associated with an important aspect of our hills; and remote mountains. The survey of survey method: interviewer training, in which `migrants after relocation' was undertaken in we attempted to teach student interviewers Hubei Province because the major displace- how to choose their respondents in actual ments so far have taken place in that province, surveys. Apart from general guidelines and while the survey of `migrants before reloca- some basic rules for interviewing, the inter- tion' was mainly carried out in Chongqing. In viewers were asked to select their respondents the former group we planned our interviewing properly. The major principle was to assess with migrant households in the county seats of respondents before interviewing them, balan- Yichang and Zigui; in the peri-urban districts cing the number of respondents between male of Yichang City; in Zhijiang County, a rural ¯at and female, young and old. The implementa- region; and in Xingshan and Badong, both tion of this quota procedure aimed at strength- mountainous areas, representing different ening representativeness and reducing bias. areas geographically and economically. Zhi- Finally interviewers were required to select jiang County and peri-urban Yichang are their respondents from as wide a range as located below the dam and have received possible so as to cover different socio-econom- migrants from the reservoir. The majority of ic classes, which could be done by local respondents in Yichang, Zigui, Xingshan and enquiry and interviewers' observations. For Badong counties have been settled in a nearby example, housing could be a benchmark to area. In this way, we attempted to re¯ect the judge income level, particularly for those

Copyright # 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Int. J. Popul. Geogr., 6, 439±462 (2000) 452 Li Heming and Philip Rees

Table 1. A comparison of willingness to move by income group. Income group No choice but to (yuan RMB per year) Yes (%) No (%) move (%) All migrants (n) <400 45 10 45 42 400±1000 26 37 37 123 >1000 15 45 40 100

Source: Authors' survey of `migrants before relocation', 1997±1998.

about to move. unease at leaving their homes and having to In our 1997±98 survey, we asked an addi- face an unknown future. They hold the belief tional question: `Are you willing to move?' We that the government will never leave them expected one of two answers: either `yes' or alone once it has taken the decision to build the `no'. When we undertook our pilot survey in dam. The dam will become higher and higher Yichang and Zigui counties in November 1997, and the water of the reservoir will ¯ood their to our surprise, we found most respondents homeland regardless of what they do. Hence, hesitated but replied `no choice but to move'. for the migrants, the best way is to accept the Hence we had to add the new answer `no arrangements made by the government. Under choice but to move' into our modi®ed ques- these circumstances, as a whole, the majority tionnaire. The survey results show that 39% of of respondents focused on the answer `no respondents answered `no choice but to move' choice but to move', thereby re¯ecting their and 34% answered `no', indicating that the complex feelings. majority of migrants felt unhappy about relocation. Many people think that the govern- `We are Very Unwilling to be Moved Far ment has made the decision to build the dam Away' and nobody can change the reality. Because they can be given a sum of money and have a The question `Are you willing to move far chance to gain better housing, move into cities, away?' was employed to measure migrants' get a good job and so on, they are willing to views about the distance of removal. The move. However, because they will lose their survey results show that 64% of respondents home to the reservoir, be separated from their are not willing to be moved far away, while relatives, and face an uncertain future, they are 32% are willing. The result has con®rmed a reluctant to move. general hypothesis for involuntary resettle- Our survey suggests a strong relationship ment: most migrants affected by dams and between income and willingness to move reservoirs prefer to be settled in a nearby area (Table 1). The richer the rural migrants, the rather than move far away. In the relocation of less motivated they are to move. Conversely, the Liujiaxia Dam on the Yellow River, 34,174 the poorer the migrants are, the more willing relocatees rejected the ®rst two resettlement they are to move. The richer rural migrants are plans to move them far away, and instead worried more about losing their established accepted the third one to settle them in a economic and social capital. They are anxious nearby area despite better production condi- that their standard of living may decline as a tions in distant resettlement sites. For the result of their displacement. By contrast, the Sanmenxia Reservoir on the same river, 67% poorer rural migrants hope to alter their living of relocatees were settled in the regions around situation and are less worried about their the reservoir (Yang, 1992). losses. In a sense, they are in¯uenced by Despite few successful examples in the past, government propaganda that the construction resettling locally can reduce economic and of the TGP will give them a chance to raise social costs. A short-distance movement from their standard of living. However, both the the place of origin to the new destination can rich and the poor share a general sense of reduce the expenditure on transportation and

Copyright # 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Int. J. Popul. Geogr., 6, 439±462 (2000) Population Displacement in the Yangtze River Area 453 the loss of property. Living in the same project, argued that it would destroy the land, physical environment, the migrant's cultiva- the animals and their survival; that money and tion techniques, management experience and jobs do not last, but land does; and most even production tools can still be used, which importantly, that they know only one way to can help relieve settlers' stress during the live (McCutcheon, 1991). Many native people period of transition. With regard to production are therefore unwilling to change their way of systems, there are few changes in the original life and the traditional hunting culture in the networks of trading establishments, credit area affected by the James Bay project. relationships and business foundations, which The British government's plan to ®nd $200 helps to maintain migrants' livelihoods. million for building the Ilisu Dam on the River Lessons derived from the World Bank- Tigris in Turkey has been bitterly condemned, assisted projects involving resettlement have since the proposal failed to take account of shown that those people involved in displace- social and environmental impacts. Many peo- ment are frequently unwilling to move. Love ple are concerned about the fate of the minority of birthplace or grieving for a lost home is Kurdish community which has suffered from quite possibly a universal human character- human rights abuses, and about the prospect istic and is particularly hard for the old with of potential con¯ict between Turkey, Iraq and their limited contact with outside areas (Scud- Syria over the cross-border ¯ow of water from der, 1973a; Pardy et al., 1978). At the Kariba the River Tigris (The Guardian, 2000). Dam in Rhodesia/Zimbabwe, women be- It is particularly unfortunate that the stress moaned the fact that they would have to leave of resettlement is often exacerbated by bad the gardens, and especially the garden shel- planning and inappropriate policy. Loss of ters, that had passed through the female line assets, unfamiliar environments, unprepared over generations (Scudder, 1973a). One of the resettlement sites, poor living conditions and most bitter complaints voiced by the 57,000 hopeless economic prospects are all elements Tonga people at the same project was that they in the human and economic costs of resettle- were being forced to leave the land where their ment (Scudder and Colson, 1982). In 1985, ancestors were buried (Goldsmith and Hild- while most evacuees at the Kariba Dam were yard, 1984). These complaints and dissatisfac- settled nearby, 6000 Gwenbe Tonga people tion may become stronger when the relocatees were removed by force. In clashes, nine people ®nd that they face many dif®culties in the new were killed and more than 30 injured. When settled sites. As Scudder (1973b) has sum- the Bakolori Dam in Nigeria was built, the marised, in the major African dam projects, property of the 12,000 people displaced by the water supplies in the new homes were initially reservoir was still being surveyed as the water unsatisfactory, a particularly dif®cult situation rose (Adams, 1988). In the case of the Chico for those resettled at Kariba and Aswan since Dam, the Philippines government brought in their former villages were usually within a few units of both police and army to quash hundred metres of the Zambezi and the Nile. opposition to the dam. At times, the methods Even worse, new land-use systems were not used by those troops were brutal in the ready at the time of relocation, so that extreme, and arbitrary arrests were common- government-supported food relief was essen- place. It is even alleged that the army was tial to support the relocatees. responsible for the assassination of one of the In North America, the James Bay project in main opponents of the dam, Apo Panget Quebec, Canada, failed to provide as many Macli-ing Dulag, and the attempted murder jobs as planned. More importantly, the job of one of his chief lieutenants, Pedro Dungoc offers did not help the people displaced, since (Goldsmith and Hildyard, 1984). very few speak French, a necessary quali®ca- At the international level, the World Bank tion for the jobs with Hydro-Quebec was the ®rst international development agency (McCutcheon, 1991). Actually, fear of reloca- to respond to the complexity and dif®culty of tion and the hardship of resettlement begins development-induced displacement by adopt- before displacement. The Cree Indians in ing an explicit policy and institutional proce- Canada, who were against the James Bay dures to address displacement processes and

Copyright # 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Int. J. Popul. Geogr., 6, 439±462 (2000) 454 Li Heming and Philip Rees

Table 2. A comparison of willingness to move far away, for two counties. County Willing (%) Unwilling (%) Do not know (%) n Yunyang 52 46 2 124 Kaixian 18 77 5 119

Source: Authors' survey of `migrants before relocation', 1997±1998. resettlers' needs (Cernea, 1988). For this migrants, big and medium cities are attractive, reason, the World Bank stresses that the but entry to these cities is not easy and authorities should `move people in groups' in employment prospects have declined recently. its resettlement policy: So the more realistic choice is a small city or town, especially the county seat, which is a `Minimising the distance between depar- regional centre of economy, culture and busi- ture and relocation sites can facilitate the ness. It is interesting to note that fewer women resettlers' adaptation to the new socio- than men are willing to stay in rural areas. The cultural and natural environments. The results of a survey on migrant women by the trade-offs between distance and economic Women's Federation of Wanxian in four opportunities must be balanced carefully.' counties of the reservoir area showed that (World Bank, 1994: 10) migrant women have higher expectations for the improvement of economic conditions, However, the Three Gorges area poses living space and lifestyle (Liao, 1998). It is also particular dif®culties for resettlement because signi®cant that about half of female respon- of the lack of farmland in nearby areas. Local dents have been living in small towns or the resettlement sites tend to have steep slopes at a area around the county seat before their higher elevation. Table 2 shows that more displacement. Thus it is no wonder that they respondents in Yunyang County were willing prefer small towns and the county seat to rural to move far away because most of them live in areas. remote mountainous areas where there is little room for them to live at present, let alone ®nd new locations for the restoration of their What are Migrants Expecting and Worrying income. By contrast, migrants in Kaixian About Most? County preferred to settle in a nearby area In our questionnaire, we asked migrants to since the majority of them live around the rank 12 areas of potential concern connected county seat where there are more economic with their future migration as having `pre- opportunities. eminent importance', `great importance', In the Three Gorges reservoir area, the `some importance' or `no importance' in their majority of relocatees prefer to move to small relocation. Table 4 provides the results of towns. Table 3 shows that 65% of respondents respondents (n = 275) assigning `pre-eminent prefer to move to small towns or `around the importance' to selected concerns. county seat' (usually a small city). For rural Why did migrants place compensation at the

Table 3. Preferred relocation areas, by gender. Big and medium Around the Gender cities (%) county seat (%) Small town (%) Rural area (%) n Male 13 34 23 29 188 Female 12 43 37 8 86 Total 13 37 28 22 274

Source: Authors' survey of `migrants before relocation', 1997±1998.

Copyright # 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Int. J. Popul. Geogr., 6, 439±462 (2000) Population Displacement in the Yangtze River Area 455

Table 4. Respondents assigning `pre-eminent im- migrants have been expecting to be given portance' to selected concerns (n = 275). generous resettlement compensation. In the Three Gorges area, house-building Area of potential concern Frequency % and the betterment of housing has become one Compensation 233 86 of the greatest aspirations of migrants. There is Housing 179 66 some fear among migrants that they will be Education 169 63 displaced hastily and have to live in a Land 138 52 temporary shelter, waiting for the house- Employment 128 48 building. Therefore, when we asked those Bene®ts for the old 93 35 Living surroundings 81 31 who were about to move `When is the best Social security 79 30 time to move?', over half of the respondents Healthcare 60 22 selected the answer `after the housing has been Food 52 19 completed', while 41% replied `after the Social relationships 42 16 compensation has been given'. In our survey Social status 24 9 on those who have been moved, 93% of respondents spent almost all resettlement Source: Authors' survey of `migrants before relocation', funding on house-building. In another survey 1997±1998. on migrant women by the Women's Federa- tion of Wanxian, as Table 5 shows, the majority of migrant women wished to build better top of the list? This is because resettlement housing and intended adding more money compensation is paid to every migrant house- from their own savings or borrowing money hold and affects the pro®t/loss balance sheet from relatives and friends. associated with displacement. Compensation Traditionally, education for children has offsets losses including physical capital (farm- been given a high priority by Chinese peasants land and housing), human capital (business who have no other means to climb the social networks and speci®c professional skills) and ladder. Some migrant parents are concerned social capital (personal ties and social net- more about their children's future than about works). Migrants are concerned about how themselves. It was interesting, in our survey, much money they can obtain and what that the migrant parents appeared not to care methods will be used to disburse the relocation about their own rural household registration compensation. Migrants in the Three Gorges but they thought it necessary for their young reservoir area have high expectations for children to have an urban residential status. compensation, with which they are hoping to Hence almost half the respondents we inter- build bigger and better housing, to reconstruct viewed expressed their wish to change their their terraced ®elds and fruit orchards, and to rural household registration. The case of one establish their own businesses such as shops, rural migrant interviewed in Dongxi village, restaurants and transport agents, and so forth. Yunyang County, indicates the strength of As the propaganda of governments and feeling shared by many. He said that he did relocation authorities emphasises, migrants not care about his wife and himself in the have been eager to take up the opportunity displacement, but he was particularly con- presented by the dam-building to lift them- cerned about his three children, their educa- selves out of poverty. To achieve this goal, tion, their jobs and their future.

Table 5. Responses to `How are you going to build your new house?' (%). Will depend on Will add money to Will borrow money Will follow relocation funding build better house to build better house others 13 29 58 10

Source: Liao (1998). Note: More than one answer was possible, so percentages do not sum to 100.

Copyright # 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Int. J. Popul. Geogr., 6, 439±462 (2000) 456 Li Heming and Philip Rees

Rural migrants are concerned about farm- no idea about their production conditions in land and employment, which are closely the new resettlement sites. Migrants in Hubei associated with the restoration of their liveli- Province do not know whether there will be hoods. However, why are `farmland' and suf®cient farmland for them to continue `employment' ranked only fourth and ®fth orange cultivation. The young migrants do among selected concerns in Table 4, since they not know whether they can change their rural are extremely important to the rebuilding of household registration and engage in non- earning capacity after relocation? This is farming jobs. Furthermore, a number of because, for the majority of rural migrants, migrants do not know where they are to go the provision of `farmland' means engaging in and when they are to move. In our survey, 47% agricultural activities, while `employment' is of respondents do not know when they will usually regarded as urban or industrial job move, while only 38% know they are to be arrangements. There are obvious variations moved before 2003 in Zigui, Yunyang and among different age groups of rural migrants. Kaixian counties. Thus migrants have every The results of our survey suggest that 60% of reason to worry about their production condi- respondents under 35 years of age do not view tions and economic situation, particularly the `land' as a `pre-eminent' concern in their restoration of their income. relocation. By contrast, the percentage is Another worry, directly associated with the smaller in the age group of 35±45 years (45%) above, is that rural migrants are extremely and in the age group over 45 years old (39%). concerned about the resettlement compensa- Younger migrants expect to escape from farm- tion. We asked migrants before relocation the ing, to work instead in industrial enterprises, question: `What is the greatest dif®culty in the government departments or commercial busi- coming resettlement?' The question involves nesses. In our survey, 24% of young rural several important aspects related to displace- migrants under 35 expect to enter factories; ment and resettlement, such as compensation, 13% would prefer to be employed by govern- loss resulting from relocation, feelings about mental departments; and 44% intend to enter leaving home, and fears for the future. Some commercial businesses. It is understandable 40% of the interviewed respondents regard that young people should be less attached to `too little compensation' as the greatest dif®- ancestral land, and look forward more to the culty in resettlement, followed by `great losses opportunities ahead. in displacement' (32%). In fact, both variables More migrants have begun to pay attention are closely connected: like two sides of a coin, to bene®ts for the old. Social security has one side is the loss of property caused by the played and will play an important role in displacement while the other side is the population resettlement, especially for the compensation for relocation. The loss is un- elderly. By contrast, the rural migrants we doubtedly great and unavoidable, but can be interviewed seemed not to place great empha- compensated to some extent. The actual sis on social relationships and social status. compensation, however, according to these This is because most migrants will be settled in migrants, is too small to compensate the loss. nearby areas, allowing migrants to retain their More importantly, migrants are anxious that original community and social networks. their relocation funding may go missing Concurrent with their great aspirations for during the disbursement procedure. Some the project, migrants also have worries. We migrants regard the resettlement policy made asked them what they worried about most. by the central government as being a good and Over 80% of respondents before relocation considerate one, but the policy has been worry about worse production conditions misused, even spoiled, by local cadres. Among (mainly farmland) and the decline in their rural migrants there is a common feeling that it income after relocation. Rural migrants are is inevitable that local cadres will take money facing an uncertain future as a result of from the relocation funds under the current relocation. Urban migrants will move to new social circumstances in China. The of®cial towns and cities and may still engage in their newspapers have reported a series of cases of original occupations, but rural migrants have corruption connected to the project. Huang

Copyright # 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Int. J. Popul. Geogr., 6, 439±462 (2000) Population Displacement in the Yangtze River Area 457

Faxiang, an of®cial in charge of new town ment of a normal life. Despite 61% of respon- construction in , was executed dents in our survey expecting to bene®t from for embezzling 12 million yuan RMB (US$ 1.45 the dam-building, migrants seem not to be million) of relocation funds, and Wang Sumei optimistic about their future. Even urban was sentenced to life imprisonment for divert- resettlers who have been guaranteed a move ing 1.85 million RMB for gambling purposes to new towns and their original jobs, tend to (Nanfang zhoumo, 1999; Guangming ribao, 2000b; adopt a circumspect attitude toward the China Daily, 2000b). When we interviewed government's promises. The results of a migrant households by the River Xiaojiang in survey of 700 urban migrants, by the Sichuan July 1998, some migrants in Gaoyang Town- Three Gorges College in 1994, reveal that ship, Yunyang County, stated angrily that `the almost half the urban migrants feel it is compensation is too low to move', `I will not dif®cult for them to improve their standard move unless the government gives me more of living as a result of relocation (Li, 1996). money and a good location to move to', and `I Compared with urban migrants, some rural do not want to move unless the police force me migrants may ®nd opportunities to improve to move.' their lives. They may bene®t from a special location created by the construction of the WILL RELOCATION PROVIDE project and other relevant infrastructure. Zhu- OPPORTUNITIES FOR MIGRANTS? jiawan village in Yichang County, around the dam site, for instance, has rapidly developed In any major project, especially a dam/ by taking advantage of its unique location. reservoir project, there are always potential There, migrants make a pro®t from house- sufferers and bene®ciaries. Naturally, as a letting, varied services for workers at the dam multipurpose water conservancy project, the site, and other business activities (Sanxia Three Gorges dam not only brings about great gongcheng bao, 1997b). They may also receive bene®ts and inevitable losses, but also involves more care from the government so as to set a complex interest relationships. On the one good example to the other rural migrants. In hand, for millions of residents downstream our survey, some rural migrants expressed from the dam, the dam-building means a good satisfaction with their new housing and some chance of escaping from the threat of ¯oods families were pleased to obtain replacement along the Yangtze. This is because the project is farmland equivalent to their original. How- designed to be the centrepiece of efforts to ever, the majority of migrants seemed not to control ¯oods along the middle and lower expect that the displacement would create a Yangtze. Provinces downstream of the dam, good chance of escaping from poverty, let especially Hubei, Hunan and Jiangxi, will alone becoming rich. In our survey, some 47% receive signi®cant bene®ts in the form of of rural migrants who have been moved do not ¯ood-control and hydroelectric power without view their relocation as a good chance of paying a real cost (Lieberthal and Oksenberg, escaping from poverty, while only 8% express 1988). The severe ¯ooding that occurred along con®dence in an improvement in their stan- the middle and lower Yangtze in the summer dard of living after relocation. Interestingly, of 1998 helps to strengthen the view that the 45% of respondents were reluctant to disclose construction of the TGP will play a great role in their views, indicating further doubt that the ¯ood-control. The project also means that displacement can provide opportunities for ¯ood-control, supplies of cheap electricity advancement. and navigation improvement will allow those There are several reasons for such doubt. medium and large cities below the dam to Firstly, rural migrants anticipate insuf®cient attract more external investment and develop compensation to rebuild their earning capa- a market-oriented economy. city. Secondly, they have a clear understanding On the other hand, people in the area of their farming environment: most good land upstream from the dam will have to leave along the river valleys will be lost to the their homes and rebuild their lives. Their reservoir, and it is hard to ®nd adequate losses have a long-term impact on re-establish- replacement land to farm in nearby areas. If

Copyright # 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Int. J. Popul. Geogr., 6, 439±462 (2000) 458 Li Heming and Philip Rees moved far away, they will face a greater enterprises that received them. Thus both the challenge: how to establish a new production jobless urban migrants and rural migrants system and adapt to a strange social environ- share the opinion that the government and ment. Their future livelihood depends not only relocation authorities might no longer care for on physical settings and production condi- them after uprooting them from the reservoir tions, but also on their ability to initiate and area. run a new business. Thirdly, the prospects of moving into urban areas and engaging in non- CONCLUSIONS farm jobs are gauged to be poor because of overstaf®ng and current unemployment in In most developing nations, controlling the urban industrial sectors. In the light of past natural environment and promoting economic relocation schemes involving the Gezhouba growth have been regarded as the cornerstone Dam, Xiaojiang Hydrostation and other smal- of development. Dam-building in developing ler reservoirs on the Yangtze and its tributaries nations provides an indication that the con- experienced by some migrants in Zigui and struction of large-scale projects has been seen Yunyang counties, it is not surprising that in as a major way of achieving this goal. Priority the Three Gorges reservoir area, rural migrants is often given to the construction of dams since are sceptical about the government's promises. many people believe they create manifold Their experience in resettlement and the bene®ts: producing clean and cheap hydro- realities they face after displacement make electric power, providing water resources for them less con®dent about improving their industry and domestic use, reducing the risk of standard of living. Contrary to the govern- ¯oods and providing safer navigation. Thus it ment's argument that the construction of the is no wonder that most industrialised nations TGP is a good chance for migrants to escape such as the US, Russia, Canada and Switzer- from poverty, migrants after relocation land built numerous big dams and established seemed to have a different opinion. Based on excellent power supply systems during the the results of our survey among 195 migrants early part of the twentieth century. By the time who have been moved, 25% feel it is hard to most developing countries obtained their restore their former standard of living, 19% independence from western countries and have little con®dence in the restoration of their started large-scale construction projects, the livelihoods, while less than a third feel it is golden era of building high dams had gone possible to recover their original standard of and a series of problems concerning dam- living. Furthermore, rural migrants who were building had been revealed. Many developing settled in urban areas seemed to have less nations face the following dilemma: on the one con®dence than those who were settled in the hand, as one means to bridge the gap of villages. As our survey shows, some 67% of economic development between them and respondents in urban Yichang viewed the developed countries, they are trying to build restoration of their livelihoods as `dif®cult', more large-scale dams, to provide cheap even saying they have `no con®dence', while energy to fuel national industrialisation and among rural migrants in Zhijiang County, 36% to produce suf®cient food to feed more people; of respondents think that they will be able to on the other hand, they are troubled by a series recover their livelihoods, and 31% have more of environmental and resettlement problems con®dence in a `better life than before reloca- associated with the dams. tion'. This is because the migrant jobless have From both a global and Chinese perspective, greater dif®culties in ®nding new jobs than the we found that the building of dams not only urban jobless because of lower standards of provided bene®ts but also produced socio- education, less working experience, and a lack economic, cultural and ecological problems. of social relationships in the city. With extreme Population relocation involving dam construc- dif®culty in ®nding new jobs, their income is tion is characterised by compulsory, non- declining rapidly since their farmland has selective, mass removal. The lack of a legal been lost to the reservoir and their production framework, inadequate planning for relocation resettlement funds misused by the local schemes and insuf®cient compensation for

Copyright # 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Int. J. Popul. Geogr., 6, 439±462 (2000) Population Displacement in the Yangtze River Area 459 relocatees are common features in resettle- should be adequately considered. Settling ment. Most relocatees have to experience a migrants in the regions that bene®t from the transition period in which they suffer not only project provides a new approach, but great from a drop in household income, but also emphasis should be placed on selecting appro- from sociocultural stress. They have rarely priate destinations. Settling migrants in in- been consulted or invited to participate in dustrial enterprises can help boost the local relocation policy-making. As a consequence, economy and accelerate urbanisation in the relocatees face a variety of dif®culties in reservoir area. The key to success lies in restoring their livelihoods, incorporating developing appropriate industrial pro- themselves into local communities, and re- grammes based on market demand, using building their new lives in new environments. resettlement funding properly, and strength- Our study has shown that the ®nal number ening the technical training of migrant work- of people displaced by the Three Gorges dam ers. is still unclear due to of®cial sensitivities and to The fourth section of the paper focused on the complexity of the calculation. The latest migrants' feelings about their relocation. De- of®cial ®gure, 1.2 million people by 2009, is spite having considerable anxieties about their believed to be conservative. Environmental relocation, the majority of migrants take a changes associated with the formation of the positive attitude and express their support for huge reservoir, especially geological hazards, the project. Migrants have high personal unregistered urban residents and unchecked expectations for better housing, non-farm jobs `false migrants', tend to increase the total and improvements in their standard of living. number of relocatees. The most farmland that At the same time, they are sad at losing their will be submerged and the greatest displaced land and other assets and leaving their homes population will take place in the middle region and neighbours. Most rural migrants are un- of the reservoir. Urban relocatees accounted willing to be moved far away; they wish to for a greater percentage of the displaced continue in production conditions they are population, but rural migrants will have great- familiar with and to retain links with their er dif®culty with resettlement owing to the original community. To seek more economic inadequacy of available farmland and limited opportunities and better social services, the opportunities in industrial enterprises. majority of migrants are willing to move into One of the greatest challenges in the TGP towns, in particular the county seat. Suf®cient relocation is how to settle so many migrants in compensation for their losses, the betterment a limited period. We examined three major of housing, a good education for the young methods that have been proposed: settling and the restoration of livelihoods related to relocatees in a nearby area, moving them far farmland and job opportunities are what away, and settling them in industrial enter- migrants are expecting, but also worrying prises and urban areas. We found that it is not about most. possible to settle all relocatees in nearby areas For millions of residents living below the at higher elevation because of the enormous dam, the dam-building will reduce the threat number of displaced people, the lack of of ¯ooding along the middle and lower suf®cient arable land, and the fragile ecological Yangtze. The TGP has create good career environment. Project planners have overesti- opportunities for policy-makers, planners mated the amount of arable slopeland and its and builders, through which they can gain production potential in order to be able to political advancement, prestige and job secur- launch the dam programme. The achieve- ity. More directly, some local cadres have seen ments of the trial resettlement projects are the dam-building as a chance to enjoy `double not good enough to indicate that it is feasible to bene®ts': gaining advancement in their careers settle all relocatees in nearby areas. So long as and diverting funds for dam-building and its it does not involve sending migrants abroad or relocation schemes to their own pockets. moving them to border areas and remote Although the majority of rural migrants want provinces, moving far away is a feasible to bene®t from the displacement, they do not alternative, but the willingness of migrants see the project as a good way of escaping from

Copyright # 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Int. J. Popul. Geogr., 6, 439±462 (2000) 460 Li Heming and Philip Rees poverty. For migrants who have already been Gorges Project on Ecological Environment and moved, our survey revealed a big gap between Solutions). Science Press: Beijing, China. their aspirations before relocation and the Cernea M. 1988. Involuntary Resettlement in Develop- reality after resettlement. ment Projects: Policy Guidelines in World Bank- Financed Projects. World Bank Technical Paper No. 80. World Bank: Washington, DC. NOTES Cernea M. 1990. Internal refugee ¯ows and devel- opment-induced population displacement. Jour- (1) This ®gure (844,100) is different from the former nal of Refugee Studies 3: 320±339. one of 846,208 claimed by the Yangtze Water Cernea M. 1997. Hydropower Dams and Social Impacts: Resources Commission (YWRC), which carried A Sociological Perspective. World Bank Paper No. out the survey of resettlement in the reservoir 44. World Bank: Washington, DC. area. Chen GJ. 1998. The environmental impacts of (2) Information provided by Wan Chengjun, of®- resettlement in the Three Gorges Project. In The cial from the Relocation Bureau of Wanxian River Dragon Has Come! Dai Q (ed.). M. E. Sharpe: City. We interviewed Wan in Wanxian on 28 London and New York; 63±69. May 1998. Chen GJ, Xu Q, Du RY. 1995. Sanxia gongcheng dui (3) In rural China, a village includes several groups shengtai yu huanjing de yingxiang ji duice yanjiu of villagers (cunmin xiaozu). Groups are usually natural settlement sites within a village. (Impact of the TGP on Environment and Solu- (4) The cases of Hainan and Mongolia were tion). Science Press: Beijing, China. provided by Wan Chengjun, head of the China Daily 2000a. 17 February. Relocation Bureau of Wanxian City. We inter- China Daily 2000b. 15 March. viewed Wan in Wanxian, Chongqing Munici- Chutian dushibao (Chutian Urban Daily) 1998. 17 pality on 28 May 1998. August. (5) We happened to meet several of®cials who were Connor KM. 1986. Rationales for the movements of persuading and mobilising migrants to make Afghan refugees to Pakistan. In Afghan Resistance: contracts with the farm when we were doing the Politics of Survival, Farr GM, Merriam JG (eds.) our survey at Gaoyang, Yunyang County, Westview Press: Boulder, CO; 151±190. Chongqing Municipality in July 1998. They told COS (Census Of®ce of Sichuan Province) 1993. us that migrants had too many worries to be Sichuan 1990 renkou pucha ziliao (Census of convinced to move to Caopuhu Farm in Sichuan Province 1990). China National Statistics Yichang City, Hubei Province. Press: Beijing, China. (6) We were told the same story on several Cuny F, Stein B. 1989. Prospects for and promotion occasions by Xu Guangping, a staff member of of spontaneous repatriation. In Refugees and the Agriculture Bureau of Wanxian, several International Relations, Leoscher G, Monaham L teachers at the Sichuan Three Gorges College, (eds.) Oxford University Press: Oxford; 293±312. and local migrants, during our survey in May Dai Q (ed.) 1998. The River Dragon Has Come! M. E. and July 1998. Sharpe: London and New York. Du YY, Shi DM, Yuan JM. 1994. Changjiang sanxia REFERENCES kugu shuitu liushi jiqi yingxiang (The Impacts of Water and Soil Erosion on the Three Gorges Adams WM. 1988. Rural protest, land policy and Reservoir Area in the Yangtze River). Science the planning process on the Bakolori Project, Press: Beijing, China. Nigeria. Africa 58: 315±336. El-Hinnawi E. 1985. Environmental Refugees. United Black R. 1991. Refugees and displaced persons: Nations Environment Programme, Nairobi. geographical perspective and research directions. Fearnside P. 1990. Resettlement plans for China's Progress in Human Geography 15: 281±298. Three Gorges Dam. In Damming the Three Gorges: Black R. 1998. Refugees, Environment and Develop- What Dam Builders Don't Want You to Know, Barber ment. Addison Wesley Longman: Essex & New M, Ryder G (eds). Earthscan Publications Ltd: York. London; 34±58. Boyle P, Halfacree K, Robinson V. 1998. Exploring Goldsmith E, Hildyard N. 1984. The Social and Contemporary Migration. Longman: London. Environmental Effects of Large Dams. Sierra Club CAS (Chinese Academy of Sciences) 1988. Chang- Books: San Francisco. jiang sanxia gongcheng dui shengtai yu huanjing de Guangming ribao (Guangming Daily) 2000a. 26 yingxiang ji duice yanjiu (Impacts of the Three January.

Copyright # 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Int. J. Popul. Geogr., 6, 439±462 (2000) Population Displacement in the Yangtze River Area 461

Guangming ribao (Guangming Daily) 2000b. 14 (Economic Research in South China). Economic April. Management Press: Beijing, China; 115±133. Guo SB, Lan Y. 1995. Sanxia yimin yu chuanxinan Ma X. 1997. New trends in population migration in kaifa de xinsilu (New ideas about the resettle- China. In Floating Population and Migration in ment of the TGP and development of : the Impact of Economic Reforms, Scharping T Sichuan). Changjiang luntan (Yangtze Tribune) 1: 9± (ed.). Institut fuÈ r Asienkunde: Hamburg; 56±71. 11. Mao YF. 1993. Fuwu da sanxia jianshe xin yichang Jacobson J. 1988. Environmental Refugees: a Yardstick (Serving for the Three Gorges project and of Habitability. World Watch Paper no. 86. World constructing new Yichang). Hubei People's Pub- Watch Institute: Washington, DC. lishing House: Wuhan, China. Jing J. 1997. Rural resettlement: past lessons for the McCutcheon S. 1991. Electric Rivers: the Story of the Three Gorges Project. The China Journal 38: 65±92. James Bay Project. Black Rose Books: Montreal. Kibreab G. 1994. Migration, environment and McGregor J. 1993. Refugees and the environment. In refugeehood. In Environment and Population Geography and Refugees: Patterns and Processes of Change, Zaba B, Clarke J (eds). International Change, Black R, Robinson V (eds). Belhaven: Union for the Scienti®c Study of Population, London; 157±170. Derouaux Ordina Editions: Leige, Belgium; 115± Myers N, Kent J. 1995. Environmental Exodus: an 129. Emergent Crisis in the Global Arena. Climate Kibreab G. 1997. Environmental causes and impact Institute: Washington, DC. of refugee movements: a critique of the current Nanfang zhoumo (South Weekend) 1999, 19 debate. Disasters 21: 20±38. November. Lan Y. 1992. Sanxia diqu lishi shiqi de yimin yu Olive-Smith A, Hansen A. 1982. Involuntary migra- jingji kaifa (Migration and economic develop- tion and resettlement: causes and contexts. In ment of the Three Gorges area in History) Jingji Involuntary Migration and Resettlement: the Prob- dili (Economic Geography) 12: 92±96. lems and Responses of Dislocated Persons, Olive- Li BN. 1991. Kaifaxing yimin hao (Developmental Smith A, Hansen A (eds). Westview Press: Resettlement Is Good). Water Conservancy and Boulder, CO; 1±9. Electric Power Publishing House: Beijing, China. Pardy R et al.. 1978. Quoted from Purari: Over- Li BN. 1994. Opinions and recommendations on the powering PNG? International Development Three Gorges Project. In Yangtze! Yangtze!, Dai Q Action for Purari Action Group: Victoria, Aus- (ed.). M. E. Sharpe: London; 89±106. tralia; 103. Li HM. 2000. Population Displacement and Resettle- Parnwell M. 1993. Population Movements and the ment in the Three Gorges Reservoir Area of the Third World. Routledge: London and New York. Yangtze River, Central China. PhD Dissertation, Qi R. 1998. Is developmental resettlement possible? School of Geography, University of Leeds, UK. In The River Dragon Has Come!, Dai Q (ed.). M. E. Li JG. 1996. Sanxia kuqu nongcun yimin xintai Sharpe: London and New York; 50±62. diaocha yu duice yanjiu (Survey on psychology of Qian G, Gen DG. 1999. Ershi shiji zhongguo zhongzai rural migrants and solutions in the Three Gorges bailu (One Hundred Devastating Disasters in reservoir area). Changjiang luntan (Yangtze Trib- China In the 20th Century). Shanghai People's une) 1: 15±18. Press: Shanghai, China. Li JG, Cui GP, Xu SH. 1995. Sanxia gongcheng dui REG (Resettlement Expert Group of the TGP) 1988. Wanxianshi yingxiang yanjiu (Social Impact of the Sanxia gongcheng yimin xiangmu kexingxing yanjiu TGP on Wanxian City), Working Paper. Sichuan baogao (Feasibility Report on Resettlement Three Gorges College, Chongqing, China. Scheme of the TGP). Water Conservancy Press: Liao H. 1998. Sanxia kuqu nongcun nuxing yimin Beijing, China. xintai diaocha baogao (Survey on Rural Migrant Sanxia gongcheng bao (Three Gorges Project Daily) Women in the Three Gorges Reservoir Area), 1997a. 18 June. unpublished Research Report. Women Associa- Sanxia gongcheng bao (Three Gorges Project Daily) tion of Wanxian, Chongqing, China. 1997b. 10 July. Lieberthal K, Oksenberg M. 1988. Policy Making in Schmeidl S. 1997. Exploring the causes of forced China: Leaders, Structures, and Processes. Princeton migration: a pooled time-series analysis, 1971± University Press: New Jersey. 1990. Social Science Quarterly 78: 284±308. Lu JD, Liao YH, Li SQ. 1997. Sanxia yimin anzhi Scudder T. 1973a. The human ecology of big wenti yanjiu (Population resettlement issues of projects: river basin development and resettle- the TGP). In Zhongguo nanfang jingji yanjiu ment. In Annual Review of Anthropology, Siegel BJ,

Copyright # 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Int. J. Popul. Geogr., 6, 439±462 (2000) 462 Li Heming and Philip Rees

Beals AR, Tyler SA (eds). Annual Reviews Inc.: of China's Three Gorges Project, Luk SH, Whitney J Palo Alto, California; 43±62. (eds). M. E. Sharpe: London; 71±109. Scudder T. 1973b. Summary: resettlement. In Man- White P, Woods R. 1980. The Geographical Impact of made Lakes: Their Problems and Environmental Migration. Longman: London and New York. Effects, Ackermann EC et al. (eds). William Byrd World Bank 1994. Resettlement and Development: The Press: Virginia; 707±719. Bankwide Review of Projects Involving Involuntary Scudder T, Colson E. 1982. From welfare to Resettlement 1986±1993. Environment Depart- development: a conceptual framework for the ment, World Bank: Washington DC; April. analysis of displaced people in Involuntary Migra- Wu XM. 1992. Sanxia kuqu yimin shehui sheji tion and Resettlement, Oliver-Smith A, Hansen A (Design on social development of the Three (eds). Westview Press: Boulder, Colorado; 267± Gorges reservoir region). Zhongguo renkou ziyuan 287. yu huanjing (China Population, Resources and Shi WY. 1992. Sanxia: yige kuashiji de mong (The Environment) 2: 59±61. Three Gorges: A Dream Across the Century). Yang FZ. 1992. Shilun shuiku gongcheng nongcun Huacheng Press: Guangzhou, China. yimin anzhi wenti (Study on resettlement of rural Standing G. 1984. Labour Circulation and the Labour migrants displaced by reservoirs). Renmin Process. Croom Helm: London. huanghe (People's Yellow River) 9: 35±37. Suhrke A. 1993. Pressure Points: Environmental Yang ML. 1995. Changjiang jingzhong: shujhuanj- Degradation, Migration and Con¯ict. Occasional ing wuran (Alarm from the Yangtze: water Paper of Project on Environmental Change and Acute pollution). Changjiang luntan (Yangtze Tribune) 2: Con¯ict. American Academy of Arts and Sciences. 14±16. Washington, DC. YWRC (Yangtze Water Resources Commission) TGPDC (Three Gorges Project Development Cor- poration) 1996. Three Gorges Project. Yichang, 1997. Sanxia gongcheng yimin yanjiu (Study on China. the TGP's Resettlement). Hubei Press of Sciences The Guardian 2000. 13 July. and Technology: Wuhan, China. Timberlake L. 1988. African Crises: the Causes, the Zhai XG. 1997. Sanxia: dangjing shijie (The Cures of Environmental Bankruptcy. Earthscan: Three Gorges Project: surprises the whole world). London. Shenghuo Zhoukan (Life Weekly) 21: 12±21. Trolldalen JM, Birkeland N, Borgen J, Scott PT. Zhu N. 1996. Sanxia gongcheng yimin yu kuqu fazhan 1992. Environmental Refugees: a Discussion Paper. yanjiu (Research on the TGP: resettlement and World Foundation for Environment and Devel- development of the reservoir area). Wuhan opment and Norwegian Refugee Council: Oslo. University Press: Wuhan, China. UNHCR 1997. Refugees and Others of Concern to Zuo B. (ed.) 1997. Sanxia kugu yimin shehui xinli UNHCR, 1996 Statistical Overview Of®ce of the yanjiu baogao (Study on Social Psychology of United Nations High Commissioner for Refu- Migrants in the Three Gorges Reservoir Area). gees, Geneva. Unpublished Research Report, Department of Wang CJ. 1993. Ecological and environmental Psychology, Central China Normal University, impact of the TGP. In Megaproject: A Case Study Wuhan, China.

Copyright # 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Int. J. Popul. Geogr., 6, 439±462 (2000)