Three Gorges Project Resettles Employment Willingness and Behavior Mechanism: A Grounded Theory Approach

Abstract

The construction of hydropower projects has resulted in a significant number of reservoir displacements. Resettlement is unavoidably going to be a difficult problem to solve. Employment can provide endogenous economic sources for resettles as a key measure to address the issues of resettlement and development. While most researchers focused solely on its exogenous impact, they overlooked the employment psychology and internal drive intention of resettles, which are critical factors for resettlement programs to be successful. It is critical to study the resettles willingness and action mechanism for employment in order to obtain stable living resources through employment. Based on this, we use the China Three Gorges Project reservoir resettlement as an example and employ grounded theory to survey resettled employees’ employment willingness and the mechanisms underlying their employment behaviors. Our research concludes that: (1) Asset expulsion affects resettles’ employment, and the primary reason for their employment is an urge to reclaim their livelihood. (2) Government incentives and market opportunities foster favorable conditions for employment after resettlement. Family pressures and social ties are important motivators for resettled workers. (3) Individual characteristics are the most important factors influencing whether someone chooses to work. Hence, our findings could pave the way for a specific path to guide resettlement employment and serve as a reference for promoting the stable development for resettles.