Rural Migrant Workers Research Articles

Mobilizing Truck Drivers in China

In June 2018, a group of Chinese truck drivers, overwhelmingly made up of rural migrant workers, staged wildcat strikes across China to demand better pay from a monopolistic, logistic, app-based platform. The strike wave intersects with two emerging phenomena in China: the rising employment in the logistics industry and the expanding platform-based economy taking over new and traditional sectors. As the locus of the Chinese economy shifts from manufacturing to service, understanding the nature and implications of the logistics workers’ organizing sheds light on China’s ever-evolving labor movement.

Family Responsibilities and Silence of Rural Migrant Workers in China: The Role of Town-Fellow Organizations

Employee voice in China remains an under-researched topic from an industrial relations perspective. We investigated the relationship between family dependents (children and elderly) and migrant worker silence, with town-fellow organizations as a moderator, based on the data of the 2014 Guangdong Migrant Workers Survey. The findings reveal that migrant workers with dependent children are more likely to keep silent when their labour rights and interests are violated at the workplace, while family responsibilities for dependent elderly family members do not have significant impacts on migrant workers’ silence. In addition, town-fellow organizations weaken the association between family responsibilities for elderly dependents and silence. Our study contributes to the existing literature on employee voice and provides evidence on the role of town-fellow organizations in China as an informal, emerging institutional actor that regulates labour relations through their involvement in dispute resolution.

The health service use of aged rural-to-urban migrant workers in different types of cities in China

BackgroundThe association between different types of cities and the use of health services by aged migrant workers in China has not been widely reported in previous studies. This article aims to focus on rural-to-urban migrant workers in China aged 50 years and older to examine the relationship between the region of these migrant workers’ destination city (eastern, central or western) and migration city type (first-tier, second-tier, third-tier and smaller cities) and their use of health services (e.g., establishing health records, participating in health education, and seeking medical treatment when ill).MethodsThis study’s data were obtained from China Migrants Dynamic Survey in 2017. A total of 14,732 rural-to-urban migrant workers aged 50 years and older were included in the analysis; 6,938 of the migrant workers were either ill or had recently experienced physical discomfort. A chi-square test and binary logistic regression were performed to explore the associations between these rural–urban migrants’ destination cities and their use of health services.ResultsThis study found that aged rural migrant workers who moved to the east or to first- or second-tier cities were less likely to establish health records, participate in health education programme, and seek medical care.ConclusionsMigrant destination cities are linked to the use of local health services by migrant workers aged 50 years and older in China. We found that aged migrant workers who migrated to relatively developed regions and cities accessed fewer health services. Such results signify that more attention should be paid to aged migrant workers’ use of health services in economically developed regions and cities, to eliminate regional differences in healthcare inequality.

‘Labor is the most glorious’ : Chronotopic linguistic landscaping and the making of working class identities

This paper draws on the notion of chronotope to investigate linguistic landscape (LL) signs of an urban migrant community on the out skirts of Beijing. Internal rural migrant workers have relocated to urban centers for labor-intensive jobs on a massive scale since the 1980s when China underwent rapid economic changes. While many migrant workers are pre-occupied with their jobs, some have built a community center to record their migrant histories, to voice their concerns as a marginalized social group and to construct their identity as legitimate workers. This paper argues that the LL signs of this migrant community center invoke multiple chronotopes and need to be understood in complex timespace frames. The analyses of three examples show that the migrant workers use painting and other creative ways of representation in public space to address their economic position and social identification in a globalizing China.

Issues of Elder Care among Migrant Workers in Contemporary Rural China: Filial Piety Redefined from a Foucauldian Perspective

ABSTRACT This article reports on research that explored rural migrant workers’ experiences of returning to their hometown to provide care for elderly parents diagnosed with cancer. The authors used a culturally integrated approach to Foucauldian discourse analysis to consider how 24 participants narrated their experiences of care in China. The discourse of care demonstrated a strong commitment to filial piety despite their unique care challenges, and this commitment was bolstered by discourses that emphasized how much parents had sacrificed, as well as by a persistent forgetting of experiences or background details that suggested any lack of parental sacrifice in recent Chinese history. Policy implications related to enhancing filial care are discussed.

Migrant Workers Role in Rural-Urban Linkage, Case Study: Industrial Growth in Semarang Regency, Indonesia

Rural-urban linkages are part of regional development concern, providing a regional network strategy to deal with the rural-urban divide issue. Industrial growth in the peri-urban area is an important activity that could bridge the linkage of rural and urban. The recent growth of the industrial sector in Semarang Regency, Indonesia, has fostered the surrounding region workers to migrate into the area that promoted the rural-urban linkage. This paper presents a research result of the industrial migrant workers role in rural-urban linkage of the peri-urban region. The research approach was carried out by descriptive analysis to understand the role of migrant workers in the rural-urban linkage. The research collected data from a sample of migrant workers in the regency. The study found that the rural migrant workers as people movement are the main component of rural-urban linkage, which fosters the other linkage components. The workers bring rural social capital from the origin area to support migration and working activity in the urban area. In general, the growth of migrant workers in the industrial sector in the Semarang Regency has a significant impact on promoting rural-urban linkage, especially regarding the contemporary flow of workers to the urban area and spreading remittance income and information surrounding rural areas. Despite the opportunities, the current rural-urban linkages were not yet effectively realized and utilized by the government to deal with the rural-urban divide issue.

Is There a Digital Divide Between Urban Students and Migrant Students in China?

The digital divide is an important issue that has been addressed in the world for several decades. However, little attention has been paid to the special population that emerged in cities of developing countries: rural migrant workers. Previous studies have shown that family background is a potential determinant of digital inequality among schoolchildren. The study aims to explore whether the disadvantaged conditions of rural migrant workers have an impact on their children (i.e., migrant students). A questionnaire survey and multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) were conducted to examine the digital divide in information and communication technology (ICT) access, ICT usage, and ICT skill between urban and migrant students. We draw upon 1,230 fifth and eighth grade students from six urban public schools in China. Results indicate that all the indicators of the digital divide are statistically non-significant between the two groups, and the predictor of parental education level is invalid to an extent. Additional analyses suggest that providing equal opportunities like Chinese government for disadvantaged migrant students to enroll in urban public schools would reduce the digital divide between migrant students and urban students.

Impact of risk perception on migrant workers’ employment choice during the COVID-19 epidemic

As the Chinese government called for “targeted resumption of work and production in different regions and at different levels” after the novel coronavirus pneumonia (COVID-19) outbreak, rural migrant workers returning to work became an important factor for economic recovery and stabilizing labor supply. Based on data collected during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, this paper investigates farmers’ perception of risk in the epidemic situation and reveals the impact of farmers’ risk perception on working outside of their hometowns. The results show that: 1) farmers generally believe the risk of epidemics is higher in urban areas than in rural areas; and 2) farmers’ risk perceptions significantly influence their decisions of working outside of their hometowns. This paper provides important policy implications in labor supply and crisis management.

Social Work Organizations’ Role in the Social Capital Building in China: A Case Study Among Rural Migrant Workers in Xiamen

Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) are considered important actors in promoting social capital, social welfare, and social work organizations (SWOs) and are fast-developing in China. This research adopted a case study to look into SWOs’ (Social Work Organization’s) capacity to build social capital among rural migrant workers (RMWs) in Xiamen, China. It is found that SWOs’ capacity in linking social capital is still weak. Their capability in social networking and trust and norms building is over-shaped by the environmental factors. SWOs’ role in building social capital in China is social construction production. SWOs should reexamine their social development roles but not to be co-opted into the authoritative control system and play a major factor in social capital establishment standing for clients’ authentic development. It is suggested that SWOs should focus more on linking social capital (both structural and cognitive social capital) between vulnerable groups and other organizations, especially government departments and policymakers, and apply social capital into social work theory development with its context in China.

Bottom‐Up Unionization in China: A Power Resources Analysis

AbstractDrawing on the modified power resources approach, this article examines efforts at bottom‐up unionization by rural migrant workers in China. Prior to 2010, they utilized their associational power to pursue predominantly immediate economic interests, but since 2010, they have begun to deploy associational power, and societal power at times, in attempts to form enterprise unions that could provide them with workplace institutional power. Through three revelatory in‐depth case studies, the article investigates the efforts made by workers to unionize and the strategies used by employers, the state and the upper‐level unions to suppress them. It highlights that the attainment and exercise of workers’ power do not only play out in relation to employers but are also dependent on the role of the state and its apparatus.

The cruel optimism of digital dating: heart-breaking mobile romance among rural migrant workers in South China

ABSTRACT Based upon thirteen months of ethnographic fieldwork in South China, this study employs Lauren Berlant’s concept of cruel optimism to examine how Chinese rural migrant workers – an economically and culturally disadvantaged group – use digital dating services and select dates. It juxtaposes the rural migrant workers’ encouraged engagement with digital dating with interview accounts which reveal that digital dating presents a large sum of obstacles to the fulfilment of sexual and romantic desire. Our research shows that these obstacles (both ‘virtual' and ‘real') are highly gendered, which is partly related to a cultural shift towards materialism in the Chinese society. Specifically, rural migrant men have described themselves as being harshly excluded or exploited on the dating scene, whereas rural migrant women have reported that they have unwittingly dated men with deceptive profiles or developed romantic relationships that were dashed by economic turmoil. Hence, the study empirically extends the literature on digital dating beyond its traditional focus on Western contexts. It also clearly demonstrates that, while digital dating ignites a sense of possibility and desire, particularly among individuals of lower socioeconomic status, it fails to support these users in tackling the structural inequalities obstructing realization of their desire.

Title: Who are the “grassroots”? On the ambivalent class orientation of online wordplay in China

ABSTRACT Chinese cyberspace is vibrant with new expressions created and disseminated by Internet users. Generally light in tone, they have been viewed by numerous media scholars as constituting a playful and satirical form of speech which exemplifies “grassroots” netizens’ carnivalesque resistance against the authoritarian party-state. Adopting a critical sociolinguistic perspective, the article focuses on the textual constructions of two online buzzwords diaosi and shamate to illustrate the ambivalent class orientation of Chinese Internet discourse. It argues that while the diaosi wordplay appears to signify an underprivileged or grassroots identity, its discursive construction is in effect characterized by an intermediate position which oscillates between identifying with the economically dominant and recognizing the truly subordinate social groups in contemporary China – such as rural migrant workers. The social stratification and hierarchy of Internet users, as well as the simultaneous cooption of digital culture by institutional forces must be taken into account so as to fully evaluate the political implications of playful online practices in China and beyond.

The Labor Contract Law and the economic integration of rural migrants in urban China

This study examines the income determinants of rural migrants versus urban residents in the urban labor market of China during the 2008 Labor Contract Law era. We focus on the effects of employment contracts, enterprise ownership and social networks on income using data from the 2009 Rural-Urban Migration in China survey and applying ordinary least squares regression and propensity score matching analyses. The results showed that urban residents were more advantaged with guaranteed respectable job earnings, stable employment contracts and involvement in state-owned enterprises and public organizations compared to rural migrants. Rural migrants earned much less than their urban counterparts across ownership sectors. Although rural migrants benefited from urban networks, social exclusion impeded their accumulation of urban ties. Despite the Chinese Government’s call in recent years to fully support the citizenization of rural migrants by revising the Labor Contract Law and reforming the household registration ( hukou) system, the study showed that the integration of rural migrant workers in urban China has a long way to go.

Symbolic violence in embodying customer service work across the urban/rural divide

AbstractDrawing on a Bourdieuian theoretical framework, this article examines how the urban/rural divide informs the embodiment of customer service work at retail counters in shopping malls in India. Based on an analysis of extensive interviews as well as on‐site observations during 4 years of fieldwork, I document the cross‐class interactions between urban middle‐class customers and rural migrant lower‐class retail workers. I found that rural migrant workers engage in bodywork to embody service work in line with urban cultural “protocols” for customer interactions. Despite their efforts to acquire this valued embodied cultural capital, urban middle‐class customers continuously othered rural migrant workers. The study extends the service work literature on embodiment by pointing to the urban/rural divide in contexts of sustained rural/urban migration, such as India, and more broadly, the Global South. Second, it shows the symbolic violence in customer–worker dynamics reproducing class domination along the urban/rural divide.

Identifying and Understanding Distinctive Political Attitudes of Chinese Migrant Workers: A Research Note

ObjectiveThe objectives are to (1) determine the extent to which problem priorities of migrant workers differ from attitudes of both nonmigrating rural peasants and urban workers and (2) attempt to explain those differences as resulting from either relative deprivation or relative awareness.MethodsUsing data from a nationwide representative survey of Chinese adults, analyses include both cross‐tabulation and multiple regression.ResultsRural migrants are indeed significantly more likely than at‐home peasants to give high priority to solving several “economic” problems as well as environmental pollution and crime.ConclusionThe problem identifications of hundreds of millions of rural migrant workers have plausibly been altered by their experience as rural‐to‐urban migrants. Of broader theoretical significance, the findings of this study suggest not only that citizens’ attitudes can be shaped significantly by their environment, but that change in a citizen's attitudes may result when a citizen experiences a dramatic change in environment.

Towards a broader understanding of workplace inequality and exclusion in China: a review of discrimination based on social class, gender and physical ability

Research on equality, diversity and inclusion in the Chinese context is insufficient. This paper fills part of the research gap by examining the role of the institutional actors in shaping the equality and inclusion discourse, policy and reality in contemporary China. In particular, it highlights the crucial role of the state, and the emergence and maintenance of privileged social groups. This is because the construction of public discourse on inequality and inclusion is necessarily a political and social process, with social policy implications. Public discourse not only reflects the political ideals and moral standards of the nation at a given time, but also impacts the vested interests of different social groups, and their acquisition and maintenance of power. This paper reveals the entrenched, disadvantaged positions of rural migrant workers and other lower social groups, and of women and persons of disability at workplaces, and calls for policy and management intervention.

Unequal Occupational Mobilities Between Rural Migrant and Urban Resident Workers in Urban China.

The current scholarship on inequality of occupational attainment between rural migrant workers (RMW) and urban resident workers (URW) is largely dominated by evidence suggesting a landscape of occupational segregation, whilst there is a lack of studies researching the equality of occupational mobility. To fill this gap, this study compares the occupational mobilities between RMW and URW in China's urban labor market. Three heatmaps are used to visualize the differences between these two groups in the outflow distributions of occupational mobility. The results show a marked disadvantage of RMW's mobility into white-collar occupations and a relatively high tendency for them to move to or to stay in the manual and agricultural occupations.

Consumer behavior of rural migrant workers in urban China

In Chinese cities, rural migrant workers are usually considered consumers with the lowest purchasing power. Nevertheless, the younger generation of rural migrants, who are considerably better educated and higher paid than their predecessors, form a growing group of able consumers. The increased consumption demand and capacity of rural migrants have started to transform the commercial landscape of Chinese cities, potentially contributing to the country's transition towards a consumption-driven economy. Based on a 2012 survey in Jiangsu Province, this paper identifies four distinct consumer types among young rural migrant workers: conservative, balanced, frustrated and adventurous. Their different consumption behaviors are shaped not only by their financial capacities, but also by their family responsibilities and acculturation attitudes in the city. Despite the similar constraints faced by all young rural migrant workers, some are more eager to develop an urban lifestyle and identity through imitating the consumer behavior of urban natives, while others largely retain rural customs and habits, which are shared by older generation migrant workers. The findings point to the impact of social and institutional barriers on rural migrants' consumption in light of increased social inequality amid China's urban transition.

Epidemiological and clinical characteristics of COVID-19 patients in Hengyang, Hunan Province, China.

BACKGROUNDIn December 2019, an ongoing outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) was first identified in Wuhan, China. The characteristics of COVID-19 patients treated in local hospitals in Wuhan are not fully representative of patients outside Wuhan. Therefore, it is highly essential to analyze the epidemiological and clinical characteristics of COVID-19 in areas outside Wuhan or Hubei Province. To date, a limited number of studies have concentrated on the epidemiological and clinical characteristics of COVID-19 patients with different genders, clinical classification, and with or without basic diseases.AIMTo study the epidemiological and clinical characteristics of COVID-19 patients in Hengyang (China) and provide a reliable reference for the prevention and control of COVID-19.METHODSFrom January 16 to March 2, 2020, a total of 48 confirmed cases of COVID-19 were reported in Hengyang, and those cases were included in this study. The diagnostic criteria, clinical classification, and discharge standard related to COVID-19 were in line with the Diagnosis and Treatment Protocol for Novel Coronavirus Pneumonia (Trial Version 7) released by National Health Commission and National Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine. The presence of SARS-CoV-2 in pharyngeal swab specimens was detected by quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction. All the data were imported into the excel worksheet and statistically analyzed by using SPSS 25.0 software.RESULTSA total of 48 cases of COVID-19 were collected, of which 1 was mild, 38 were moderate, and 9 were severe. It was unveiled that there were 31 (64.6%) male patients and 17 (35.4%) female patients, with a female-to-male ratio of 1.82:1. The range of age of patients with COVID-19 was dominantly 30-49 years old [25 (52.1%) of 48], followed by those aged over 60 years old [11 (22.9%)]. Besides, 29.2% (14 of 48) of patients had basic diseases, and 57.2% (8 of 14) of patients with basic diseases were aged over 60 years old. The occupations of 48 COVID-19 patients were mainly farmers working in agricultural production [15 (31.5%) of 48], rural migrant workers from Hengyang to Wuhan [15 (31.5%)], and service workers operating in the service sector [8 (16.7%)]. The mean latent period was 6.86 ± 3.57 d, and the median was 7 [interquartile range (IQR): 4-9] d. The mean time from onset of symptoms to the first physician visit was 3.38 ± 2.98 (95%CI: 2.58-9.18) d, with a median of 2 (IQR: 1-5) d, and the mean time from hospital admission to confirmed diagnosis was 2.29 ± 2.11 (95%CI: 1.18-6.42) d, with a median of 2 (IQR: 1-3) d. The main symptoms were fever [43 (89.6%) of 48], cough and expectoration [41 (85.4%)], fatigue [22 (45.8%)], and chills [22 (45.8%)]. Other symptoms included poor appetite [13 (27.1%)], sore throat [9 (18.8%)], dyspnea [9 (18.8%)], diarrhea [7 (14.6%)], dizziness [5 (10.4%)], headache [5 (10.4%)], muscle pain [5 (10.4%)], nausea and vomiting [4 (8.3%)], hemoptysis [4 (8.3%)], and runny nose [1 (2.1%)]. The numbers of peripheral blood leukocytes, lymphocytes, and eosinophils were significantly reduced in the majority of the patients. The levels of C-reactive protein, fibrinogen, blood glucose, lactate dehydrogenase, D-dimer, alanine aminotransferase (ALT), aspartate aminotransferase (AST), gamma-glutamyl transferase (γ-GT), myoglobin (MB), and creatine kinase (CK) were increased in 64.6%, 44.7%, 43.2%, 37.0%, 29.5%, 22.9%,20.8%, 21.6%, 13.6%, and 12.8% of patients, respectively. The incidence of ALT elevation in male patients was remarkably higher than that in females (P < 0.01), while the incidences of AST, CK, and blood glucose elevations in severe patients were remarkably higher than those in moderate patients (P < 0.05, respectively). Except for the mild patients, chest computed tomography showed characteristic pulmonary lesions. All the patients received antiviral drugs, 38 (79.2%) accepted traditional Chinese medicine, and 2 (4.2%) received treatment of human umbilical-cord mesenchymal stem cells. On March 2, 2020, 48 patients with COVID-19 were all cured and discharged.CONCLUSIONBased on our results, patients with COVID-19 often have multiple organ dysfunction or damage. The incidences of ALT elevation in males, and AST, CK, and blood glucose elevations in severe patients are remarkably higher.

Human capital development

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to examine the regulation of human capital of rural migrant workers considering how they develop and mobilize their (SC) and how this interacts with strategies to increase productivity implemented by managers.Design/methodology/approachEthnographic research was carried out in ten petrol stations located in Zhejiang Province, Southeast China, which are part of one of China’s state owned oil conglomerates. Semi-structured interviews took place alongside background information questionnaires, observations and participant observations at forecourts.FindingsThe results suggest that migrant workers do not view their HC as being valued by the company. Therefore, to maximize pay and minimalize penalties, they work with the system by meeting performance targets and against it by restricting work effort developing SC that challenges management .Practical implicationsSimilar qualitative research can be usefully undertaken in different work environments and the relationship between HC and SC examined in the growing service industry in China focusing on the negative effects as well as the positivist framework in which it is usually considered.Originality/valueThis paper has an original approach by considering HC and SC in terms of tensions and counteracting forces as opposed to a the more typical positive framework in which they are considered in terms of contributions to profits.