ABSTRACT

Under the background of new urbanization，relocation and settlement is the most effective realization path of targeted poverty alleviation. With the continuous advancement of the relocation project，many problems existed in the implementation of the project have posed a challenge to the successful implementation of this activity. In this context，policymakers begin to realize the importance and urgency of the achievement of sustainable livelihood for relocated household. Relocation and settlement can repair，rebuild and improve the livelihood capability of rural household by changing their livelihood accumulation，and adjust and optimize the livelihood strategy of rural household，to complete the restructure of livelihood capital and realize the sustainable livelihood of household. However，the fragile ecological environment and external impact force and dynamic changes of policy easily lead to face new livelihood risks and livelihood dilemmas for vulnerable household in poor mountain area. It can be found that the construction of sustainable livelihood of rural household is important policy pursuit and realistic problem，and the research on the realization of the policy goal and whether rural household can realize “move out”，“settle down” and “become rich” are also full of practical significance. Through review of the past research，the influence of government-guided voluntary immigrants on farmer’s livelihood lack systematic demonstration，especially the effect of relocation on livelihood capability of rural household.

By bringing the perspective of relocation and settlement into the Sustainable Livelihood Framework，this paper improves and builds a sustainable livelihood analysis framework for the influence of relocation and settlement on rural households’ livelihood. Based on livelihood capital and livelihood environment characteristics，this paper builds the target model of household，and demonstrates the decision of the policy identification，the reason of error identification and the method of improving the validity of identification. Then this paper measures the livelihood capability of rural household with the capability approach and multi-dimensional poverty index，then empirically analyzes the influence of relocation variables on the livelihood capability of rural household. Finally，this paper examines the double impacts of relocation variables on livelihood strategy of rural household with the framework. Employing the survey data of 1404 households from Ankang City，South Shaanxi，it examines the theoretical framework with the Proxy Means Test，the A-F multidimensional poverty measurement and the propensity score matching.

Main contributions of this paper can be summarized as follows.

Firstly，this paper brings the relocation and settlement as research perspective into the Sustainable Livelihood Framework，improves and builds the Sustainable Livelihood Framework applicable to the livelihood of rural households in poor mountain area. It can be seen from the modified framework that the relocation and settlement rebuilds the livelihood capability of rural household by influencing their livelihood capital accumulation，optimizes livelihood strategy，completes the reconstruction of livelihood capital，thus realizing the sustainable livelihood of immigrants. The current research focuses on the impact of migration on livelihood capital and livelihood strategy of rural household and the relationship between livelihood capital and livelihood strategy，and the modified framework of this study effectively links sustainable livelihood theory and capacity methodology，to make up for the neglect of livelihood capability in the current research. And the restoration and reconstruction of migrant livelihoods is precisely the endogenous motivation for achieving sustainable livelihood，which provides a new approach to the theoretical analysis and practical testing of sustainable livelihood. This study enriches the theoretical research on the livelihood of immigrants，and it is more operational than previous research of the measurement of livelihood capability.

Secondly，based on livelihood capital and livelihood environment，this paper builds the target model to identify the household，and it demonstrates the decisive factors of the policy identification，the reason of error identification and the method of improving the validity of identification. This paper uses the Probit model to verify important decisive factors that influence the choice of the relocation by taking the livelihood capital and livelihood environment characteristic variables of rural household as important factors. After combing the identification results，the error identifications are further subdivided into “should have moved” and “should not have moved”，and we also use Mlogit model to verify the fundamental cause of error identification in current policy practice. By constructing household identification Index system，this paper analyzes and verifies promotion of the application of the indicator system on the targeting efficiency and validity of identification. By discovering the mechanism of the relocation selection and the reason of error identification，this paper breaks through the lack of attention to the limitation of household’s livelihood capital and livelihood environment characteristics in the process of relocation selection，and the reconstruction of household Identification index can effectively solve the problems of project omission and “move out” in policy practice.

Thirdly，this paper proposes and demonstrates the influence mechanism of the relocation on the livelihood capability of rural household，and through introducing the capability approach to link the sustainable livelihood framework and capability poverty research，it fully demonstrates the process of the formation and change of migrant livelihood capability. By discriminating the multidimensional poverty index differences between relocated and non-relocated，this paper tries to explore the influence path of relocation and settlement on the livelihood capability of household. The multivariate linear regression model and the Tobit model verify that relocation and settlement can improve livelihood capability of rural household by improving their multidimensional poverty. The above findings make up for the lack of research on the impact of relocation on livelihood capability of rural household，which helps deepen understanding of the mechanism. The above conclusions also provide theoretical and empirical support for that government-guided voluntary relocation can realize “settle down” with policy operation and support.

Fourthly，this paper proposes and examines the double impacts of the relocation on livelihood strategy of rural household in poor mountainous area：Relocation and settlement and its support measures not only have direct impact on livelihood strategy of rural household，but also indirectly affect their livelihood strategy by influencing their livelihood capability. By combing of the relocation policy and support measures，this study proposes the indirect mechanism of relocation and settlement to livelihood strategy of household and the direct mechanism of support measures on livelihood strategy of household. This paper verifies that relocation and settlement can raise the income level by improving rural household livelihood capability with the propensity score match，and the direct mechanism of support measures on income level，realizing the comprehensive evaluation of the effect of the implementation of the relocation policy on the micro level. This study makes up for the neglect of the indirect effects of the relocation on household livelihood strategy in current research，and enriches the understanding of the function process of household livelihood strategy，and suggests that the indirect effect of relocation on household livelihood strategy should be considered in the policy effect evaluation. These conclusions not only validate the means of livelihood which makes household to “become rich”，but also the dynamic reflection of the livelihood model of immigrants.

Keywords：Poverty Alleviation Resettlement；Rural Household’s Livelihood；Livelihood Capital；Livelihood Capability；Livelihood Strategy