Qiang Livelihood Plight Of Migrants After Their Visit May 12 Earthquake

The poverty of involuntary resettlement has been a research hotspot in every country and international economic organizations including the World Bank. In2008, Wenchuan Earthquake made Qiang ethnic minority a focus of all academic world’s and public attention. So far, it has been more than four years since the Wenchuan Earthquake victims relocated to new places. Their living status quo and their thoughts about the immigration during these four years are all the issues needing our concerns. In this opportunity, the livelihood predicament of the Zhitai Village becomes the primary point of the paper’s concern.Zhitai Village in Longxi Town, Wenchuan County is the only Qiang immigrant village that was totally moved to a remote place after the earthquake. In May2009, Zhitai Village started its new life with the movement from Longxi Town to Nanbao Mountain in Qionglai City. With the shifts in geography, the immigrants’livelihood changed as well and got into current predicaments. In the first half, this paper introduces the basic situations of the old Zhitai Village including its environment, internal relationship, labor-division structure within the family, and its belief. Besides, it reveals a whole image of the local livelihood before immigration, including agriculture, animal husbandry, caterpillar fungus excavation as well as working in the city. In the following part, the paper describes the environment of the new Zhitai Village in Nanbao Mountain and its land policy, and contrasts its livelihood methods after immigration including agriculture, animal husbandry, breeding industry, caterpillar fungus excavation, working in the city and business with the previous ones to some extent. By doing this, the paper shows the current livelihood predicaments of the Zhitai villagers.Then, the paper concludes the specific livelihood predicaments of the Zhitai Village such as the loss of land and work, the increase of sickness, the loss of the public resources and the marginalization, and sums up four important reasons for these predicaments, including the change of the environment, the variation of the social network, the compensating mechanism and development programs, and the lack of immigrant subjectivity.After sketching the phenomena and summarizing their causes, the paper puts forward the attentions which should be paid, as well as the responsibilities that the government should take during the involuntary resettlement.Livelihood is the basis of protecting the culture. Only when the livelihood issue of the Qiang ethnic minority has been resolved, will the allopatric existence of the Qiang culture be realized substantially.