Social Mobility of Migrant Peasant Workers in China

Ke-Qing Han,Chien-Chung Huang,Wen-Jui Han

doi:10.4236/sm.2011.14026

Ke-Qing Han, Chien-Chung Huang + Show 1 more

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https://doi.org/10.4236/sm.2011.14026

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Abstract

Using data from four cities in China (Shenzhen, Suzhou, Beijing, and Chengdu), this article examines the occupational and social mobility among migrant peasant workers in urban areas. Through qualitative interviews with 109 peasant workers in 2005, we found that institutionalized social structures, such as the household-registration system, constrain the occupational and social mobility of rural peasant workers who migrate to and reside in urban areas. Obtaining more education and skills appear to be viable mechanisms for at least some migrant peasant workers to achieve higher occupational or social status in the city. Nonetheless, after several years of working in the urban areas, many rural workers plan to return to their rural hometowns, largely due to the social exclusion they experienced in the cities.

Highlights

China has undergone great changes in social structure and class hierarchy since the economic reform of 1978, which moved the country from a planned economy to a market economy (Chan & Zhang, 1999; Bai & Li, 2008; Lin, 2009)
Peasant workers live and work in urban areas together with urban residents, clear social-class distinctions are apparent and have great implications for the social exclusion experienced by migrant peasant workers
In the course of migration to urban areas, peasant workers face social exclusion that results from geographic differences and from not being allowed to obtain an urban household-registration status

Summary

Introduction

China has undergone great changes in social structure and class hierarchy since the economic reform of 1978, which moved the country from a planned economy to a market economy (Chan & Zhang, 1999; Bai & Li, 2008; Lin, 2009). Bian (2002) examined social stratification and social mobility in China and found that the economic reforms and ensuing rise of the market economy since 1980 disintegrates many traditional divisions in Chinese society, including the demarcations between urban and rural areas, work-unit boundaries, the dichotomous classification of party leaders and workers, and political barriers to the institutionalization. Despite these substantial changes, the stringent household registration system (hukou) that was set up in 1955 still creates notable divisions between the urban and rural populations. The household-registration system still serves as an important mechanism in distributing resources and determining life chances in China today (Chan & Zhang, 1999; Wu & Treiman 2004)

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