In the process of regional balanced development, the rural migration of returning farmers and returning rural residents could play an important role in developing rural areas. Their human capital and network relationship within the urban setting could improve the environment of farm marketing and other rural income activities. The incoming of highly cultivated human capital into rural areas would bring a good chance for the rural areas to reap the rewards.
The impacts of rural migration, however, have not been studied. Only a few case studies were carried out. The socio-economic impact of rural migration on the urban and rural society will bring the rationality of related policy programs for subsidizing the returning farmers and residents, and their local governments.
With data related to the cost of traffic congestion and environment pollution, employment and number of business units, and the net social benefit of one person's migration to the rural area were calculated in terms of money terms. The individual aspects of rural migration were analyzed through a case study because of lack of quantified data.
Rural migration could not be a temporal issue. Different variants of rural migration will keep on coming, and related policies for rural migration and its subsidy will be continuously requested. Analyzing the socio-economic impacts of rural migration will bring some insights into making rational rural policy decisions.


Researchers: Kyeong-Duk Kim, Jun-Pyo Hong and Ji-Eun Lim
Research period: 2011. 11 ~2012. 2
E-mail address: kdkim@krei.re.kr