Liquidization of the Farmlands Located in Chinese Farming Villages Vacated by Migrating Citizens: A Study of Village H, Jixi City, Heilongjiang Province
An analysis of a case study involving village H in Heilongjiang Province produced the following results with regard to the liquidization of the farmlands located in the minority Korean farming villages and diversification in the scale of agricultural activities. First, in a labor market where employment opportunities are scarce, restrictions on ethnic Korean citizens regarding travel to Korea have been loosened, leading to a surge in ethnic Korean migrant laborers. This has brought about an increase in the lending of land usage rights. On the other hand, in neighboring village T, where each household administers only a small plot of land, there are numerous farming households harboring a latent desire to expand the scale of their activities by renting out land. These borrowing and lending activities have encouraged the liquidization of the farmlands located in villages, leading numerous ethnic Korean farmers to vacate their land and creating upper-class farming households.