Colony Settlers
But the political and economic reforms of the 1980s brought a new uncertainty to both Han settler life and to the Uyghur homeland. In the 1990s, for the first time, millions of Han migrants were encouraged to move into Uyghur oasis cities to build up the oil and natural gas infrastructure. By the mid-1990s the state had instituted a new Develop the West campaign that sought to transform pre-modern Uyghur cities into modernist Chinese cities. State planned urbanization using Han migrant labor was seen as a way to alleviate poverty in the province and integrate the nation.