Remittance houses in rural China : migrant workers' journeys of making a home

Abstract

This dissertation examines the phenomena of emerging remittance houses – houses built with the remittance of rural-to-urban domestic migrant workers – in rural China since the opening-up of its economy after 1979. The dissertation is contextualized within transitional China. By putting agency at the fore, this dissertation aims to illustrate how migrant workers' social relations with the state, the society, and the family are folded out in space through activities and practices. The process-oriented research tackles three interrelated questions: How do migrant workers translate government policies of the land and the house into spatial actions that benefit themselves? How do migrant workers with limited resources develop complex individual or collective strategies to make a home? How do migrant workers manifest their social identity through co-building material imprints and spatial imageries on the landscapes? The dissertation suggests that remittance houses play a co-constitutive role in the process of urbanization from below. Through case studies, the research reveals how migrant workers, in their fighting against life struggles and precariousness, respond to the state's policy, social customs, and kinship requests through their active participation in the process of making remittance space. The dissertation contributes to understanding the evolving social relations in transitional China and offers a novel perspective to rethink the power of people, buildings, and space.