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provide the basis for prosperity or growth. She uses her analysis, however,to convince policymakers, who have largely sought to discourage ruralmigrants from settling in cities, to take into account the benefits of circularmigration in planning broader strategies that might link rural agriculturaland urban development.Prema Kurien analyses the uses of overseas earnings in three ethnicallydistinct villages in the Kerala state of South India. Although she mentionsthat some villagers had earlier been involved in internal migration, shefocuses her analysis on why migrant families tend to regard funds earnedabroad as “easy money” and, thus, to spend them for consumption morethan productive investment. She examines how differences of ethnicityand social organization in Muslim, Hindu, and Christian villages affectsconsumption patterns that result, respectively, in the redistribution ofgoods throughout a whole village, in more limited support of extendedfamily networks, and in concentrated savings for the advancement onlyof nuclear family members. One of the implications of her findings isthat policymakers would benefit from considering the influence of socioculturalas well as economic factors when relying on remittances to promotelocal development.The volume’s three chapters about Chinese migration focus on differentaspects of migration and development but within the same context ofChina’s shift from a planned to a market economy. Huang Ping and ZhanShaohua are particularly concerned with the contributions that rural–urbanmigration can make to alleviate the poverty of rural families and help toclose the income gap between rural and urban areas. To save wages andsend remittances to families in rural areas, migrant workers in cities enduremiserable deprivation in their work, diet, housing, and health. The authorsfind that remittances sent back to rural areas are used primarily to paythe costs of education, health, and local government administration. Whilesuch consumption does alleviate poverty, it diminishes the possibility ofremittances being invested in productive enterprises. To promote ruraldevelopment, the authors advise the central government to increase statesubsidies for rural public services, particularly education and health, soas to free up remittances for investment. To help migrant workers, theyadvocate for access to better employment and services in cities.Cai Fang and Wang Dewen examine rural migrants’ integration into urbanlabor markets and their contribution to China’s industrialization andeconomic growth. They argue that urbanization is necessary for China’sgrowing private enterprises to take advantage of economies of scale thatcan increase productivity. Although rural–urban migration between 197821