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PLOVER COVE VILLAGE TO TAIPO MARKET: A STUDY IN FORCED MIGRATION
MORRIS I. BERKOWITZ*
This paper is a preliminary report of a research project which aims to trace the impact of migration from rural, semi-isolated villages to a major market center upon the lives of the villagers. The current paper will discuss only some methodological considerations and preliminary data analysis based upon the results of interviews with household heads and housewives; later work will report other phases of the study.
There are six villages and two hamlets under question, although at the time of the resettlement of the population one of the hamlets had already been largely deserted. The reason for the resettlement was the intention of the Hong Kong government to build a major fresh water reservoir by damming the inlet of a large bay (Plover Cove) and impounding water therein.† The villages along the coast line of the bay would eventually be inundated and had to be evacuated. With this in mind the government constructed a large redevelopment project with multi-storied buildings, playgrounds, and a government subsidized school on reclaimed land in Taipo Market. This development was given directly to the displaced villagers as partial compensation for their homes and land. The buildings were completed and the removal accomplished by December of 1966, and this study began almost one year later, November 1967. The total population of the villages was 1,041 at the time of removal, distributed through the villages and hamlets as shown in Table I. Approximately 41% of the people were not residing in the villages at the time of removal. Of these, 108 (10.3%), mostly men, were working abroad, and the remainder were residing in other parts of the colony. As later data will show, not all of the villagers chose to move into the resettlement blocks+.
* Dr. Berkowitz is currently Senior Lecturer, Chinese University of Hong Kong, on secondment from the University of Pittsburgh, where he is an Associate Professor in the department of Sociology.
† See, inter alia, the twelve pages of photographs "Winning a Reservoir from the Sea" between pp. 180-181 of Hong Kong 1967, (Hong Kong, Government Press, 1968), and text at pp. 167-168 of that Report and pp. 171-172 of the Report for 1966. Ed.
+ This description of the Plover Cove re-housing estate does not follow the Hong Kong usage, in which "resettlement blocks" refer to Government-owned low-cost housing administered by the Resettlement Department of the Hong Kong Government, Ed.