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government should improve migrant workers’ access to “pro-poor” socialprograms including grain distribution, hospital care, and education. Sheadds that the government should improve postal services to address therisks, delays, and costs that migrants face in sending money home. WhileDeshingkar recognizes the importance and difficulties of increasingagricultural productivity, the main purpose of short-term migrationpolicies is to sustain rural incomes and consumption. By permitting urbanemployment, protecting workers, and reducing migrants’ costs, Deshingkarsays the government would enable rural populations to “keep options openin their villages.”In contrast to India, China’s national government has embraced rural–urban migration as a means of promoting urbanization and economicgrowth. Huang and Zhan advocate for policies that will enable this processto promote rural as well as urban development and to reduce the incomegap between rural and urban sectors. While they recognize that migrantworkers’ remittances increase consumption and improve the standard ofliving of rural households, they question whether remittances are “put toeffective and rational use in promoting rural development.” To “liberate”remittances from consumption and channel them more effectively into ruraldevelopment, they argue that the national government should increase itssubsidies for education, health care, and local government administration,the costs of which currently absorb much of the remittances received byrural families. To enable rural families to invest the resulting savings inagricultural or non-agricultural enterprises, the authors draw attentionto the need for reform of bank loan policies, which currently acceptrural deposits but offer loans only in urban areas. To improve the lot ofurban migrant workers who are forced into impoverishment and squaloras a result of sending remittances back home, the authors call for anexpansion of recently initiated government training programs that canhelp migrants find better-paying jobs and adjust to urban living. Theyalso call for government support of independently organized programsthat bolster workers’ self-help efforts to strengthen rural–urban networksand integrated rural–urban development projects. Whereas in IndiaDeshingkar’s policy recommendations to the India government are aimedat increasing consumption to sustain rural livelihoods, Huang and Zhan’srecommendations for subsidizing rural services and credit, and supportingself-help efforts in China, are aimed at encouraging the investment ofmigrants’ earnings in productive enterprises.361The authors who examine the development contributions of internationalremittances to sending areas similarly focus on the use of remittancesfor consumption or investment, their impact on both rural and urban