colonial resettlement vs exploitation

[Master Chief]

colonial resettlement vs exploitation, which one is better?

[Menkerot]

resettlement in the long run, I'd say.

[RandyNewman]

Exploitation is probably your go-to, buuuut it depends on your conditions.

Resettlement is generally better for overpopulated countries, or places with high unemployment. I've watched playthroughs from earlier patches where they'd dominion/annex Brazil as Qing, so all their unemployed Han pops have some empty subsistence farms to move to. But population growth was still so high that annexing freaking South America only had a small impact on shrinking unemployment.
(Again, that was before they changed vassal mechanics and rebalanced pop growth).

You will see more turmoil from exploitation, but otherwise it's helpful for areas producing rare/niche raw materials, like opium. (Oil production no longer gets a buff). It's not as good for long-term stability or developing the state, but you can rush to integrate the state if the land is that important (or even release it as a vassal once you've built their foundations for them).