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Why Is There No Income Gap between the Hui Muslim Minority and the Han Majority in Rural Ningxia, China?*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 November 2014

Björn Gustafsson  and
Ding Sai
Björn Gustafsson*
Affiliation:
Department of Social Work, Göteborg University, and Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), Bonn
Ding Sai
Affiliation:
Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology. Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. Email: dingsai@cass.org.cn.
*
Email: Bjorn.Gustafsson@socwork.gu.se (corresponding author)
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Abstract

Using a household sample survey for 2006, this article shows that the Hui population in the rural part of Ningxia Autonomous Region in China is disadvantaged compared to the Han majority as regards length of education and household per capita wealth. Yet, there is no gap in average disposable incomes between the two ethnic groups and poverty rates are very similar. This paradox is owing to members of Hui households earning more off-farm income than members of Han households. In particular, young Hui males living in poor villages have a remarkably high likelihood of migrating, thereby bringing back income to their households.

摘要

通过对 2006 年宁夏回族自治区家庭调查数据的分析, 本文发现虽然宁夏回族自治区农村中的回族较之于汉族在教育、家庭人均收入和家庭人均财产上存在弱势, 但宁夏回族自治区农村中的回族与汉族在人均可支配收入上几乎不存在差距, 贫困发生率也基本一致。究其原因主要是回族家庭和汉族家庭相比, 回族家庭获得了更多的非农收入, 特别是贫困村落中的年轻回族男性外出流动比例很高, 其外出务工收入对家庭的贡献导致了上述结果。

Keywords

Chinaethnic minoritiesHui ethnicityincomepovertymigration中国少数民族回族收入贫困移民
Type
Articles
Information
The China Quarterly , Volume 220 , December 2014 , pp. 968 - 987
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Copyright
Copyright © The China Quarterly 2014 

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Footnotes

*

This research was supported by a grant from the Swedish agency for Development Cooperation, Sida. The survey we analysed was funded by the Neiwa Nakajina Foundation, Japan, and Hitotsubashi University, Tokyo (Need-based Area Studies project and Global COE project). We are grateful for comments received when presenting earlier versions of the paper at the workshop, “Economic and Society Development in China and the World,” held at the Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Beijing, 13 and 14 October 2011, and the 32nd General Conference of the International Association for Research on Income and Wealth (IARIW), 5–11 August 2012, Boston, USA.

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