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Given the size <strong>of</strong> recent emigration, what are the consequences for themigrant-sending communities in China? Many scholars in China havewritten about the impact <strong>of</strong> emigration on the development <strong>of</strong> the localeconomy in China, and much <strong>of</strong> <strong>this</strong> line <strong>of</strong> work was carried out byChinese historians and anthropologists who tend to rely on aggregate dataand statistics. Our approach is to move the discussion to the individual andhousehold level, and to model the decision-making process using recentlycollected data both at individual, household, and community levels.4. Data and MethodsThis project is modeled on the success <strong>of</strong> the Mexican Migration Project(MMP) and the <strong>La</strong>tin American Migration Project (LAMP) directed byDouglas Massey and Jorge Durand. From February to June 2002, wedesigned three questionnaires to be used in the ethnosurvey: the householdquestionnaire used in China, the household questionnaire used in theUnited States, and the community-level questionnaire for migrant-sendingcommunities in China. We used the questionnaires for MMP and LAMPas a model and naturally modified the questionnaires to take into accountthe Chinese context. The household-level questionnaire contains basicinformation on socio-demographic characteristics <strong>of</strong> each member <strong>of</strong> thehousehold (including those who are abroad), and basic information on theinternal and international migration history for all household members.In light <strong>of</strong> the importance <strong>of</strong> religion in immigrant lives (Guest 2003),we include information on religion for each person. Unlike the case <strong>of</strong>Mexico, we also include question items on cadre status (ever been a cadreand year <strong>of</strong> that position) in order to test our hypothesis from the markettransition theory. For household heads and spouses, we gathered marriagehistory, fertility history, labor history, and consumption patterns. At thehousehold level, we have information on remittances in the year <strong>of</strong> thesurvey, and cumulative remittances, business formation, land ownershipand other property ownership, housing conditions, and tenure status.Our community questionnaire (at the village level) covers a widespectrum <strong>of</strong> information: demographic background (population figuresfor major census years, immigration history), agriculture sown, industrialinfrastructure, educational infrastructure, public services, financialinfrastructure, transportation infrastructure, and medical infrastructure.279After some modifications, we finalized the questionnaires in early July2002. Within eastern Fujian Province, we decided to survey three majorregions: the Mafu district (suburban district <strong>of</strong> Fuzhou city), ChangxiaoCity, and Tujiang County (all fictional names). All three regions send large

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