Homeland Space Reconstruction for Poverty-Alleviated Migrants: A Case Study in China

Poverty reduction, which is central to the UN Sustainable Development Goals, drives strategies like poverty alleviation relocation. China’s poverty alleviation relocation program represents a systematic government project to achieve national modernization. However, a holistic perspective of examining the process of reconstructing the social space of resettlement areas in poverty alleviation relocation is relatively limited. Drawing on spatial production theory, this study examines the mechanisms of spatial reconstruction in the Mu’en Di Resettlement Area in China from a holistic perspective, focusing on institutional, material, and spiritual spaces. This study primarily employs field-based ethnography, supplemented by a text analysis of policy documents. The findings reveal that the reconstruction of social space in resettlement areas constitutes a dynamic arena of interactions among state planning, market regulation, and migrant adaptation. This study offers insights for the practice of spatial reconstruction for impoverished migrants and emphasizes the importance of empowering migrants as active agents in this process.