Transmigrant

The move-in area is one of the last, largely unsettled areas of Qinghai suitable for irrigated agriculture. The economic benefits touted by the WB for the project were largely undisputed. Crop yields near the move-in area were already three to four times higher than those in the move-out area, and the WB estimated that, in a few years, settlers would be able to triple or quadruple their incomes and have better health care and educational facilities than they had in eastern Qinghai.⁵¹⁸ While there were no schools for many settler group children in eastern Qinghai,⁵¹⁹ ten schools that would reflect the ethnic and language background of students were to be built for ethnic minority transmigrants.⁵²⁰ Because the settlers were to live in twenty-four compact villages in a small part of the county, they would have left the rest of it undisturbed.⁵²¹ Tibetans were to live in a separate area, near villages inhabited by fellow Buddhist ethnic Tu people.⁵²² The projected increase in economic activity in the county would likely provide some opportunities for those already living there. As pointed out by the Dalai Lama’s nephew, who lives in his uncle’s hometown in Ping’an County (part of the move-out area), those remaining in the move-out area would also benefit from an increase in available land there and from less strain on resources.⁵²³