Abstract
The relocation in coal mined-out areas has a significant impact on migrants’ livelihoods. The present research analyses the factors influencing the ecological migrants’ livelihoods by applying the sustainable livelihood framework based on the sample data collected from key state-owned coal mined-out areas. The structural equation model was employed to explore the main influencing factors of ecological migrants’ livelihoods from the human assets, physical assets, natural assets, social assets and financial assets aspect. Empirical findings show that human assets, natural assets and financial assets are positively associated with livelihoods of ecological migrants in coal mined-out area, while physical assets and social assets are positively associated with livelihoods after relocation with a relatively weaker trend. In addition to this, the present study shows that various other factors including education and skill of householder, number of labours, frequency of family members attending the training, household housing area, self-employed business value and relocation compensation funds of migrants are also positively associated with livelihoods of ecological migrants in coal mined-out areas. The results of present appraisal recommend that policy implications should include further enhancing the quality of human assets, encouraging migrants to run self-employed businesses and enriching the cultural and social services for migrants to enhance the livelihoods of ecological migrants of coal mined-out areas.
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Acknowledgements
We thank local governments for providing support for our field work. In addition, we sincerely appreciate the local households who provided valuable data. We also gratefully acknowledge the help of four anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments on a previous version of the manuscript.
Funding
This research was funded by the Ministry of Education Humanities and Social Sciences Subject of China (Grant No. 16YJCZH131) and the Shanxi Province Philosophy and Social Science Planning Foundation.
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Xue, Y., Huang, L. Factors influencing the livelihoods of ecological migrants in coal mined-out areas in China. Environ Dev Sustain 21, 1853–1867 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10668-018-0106-2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10668-018-0106-2