Chinese Migrant Workers: Rights Attainment Deficits, Rights Consciousness and Personal Strategies

Abstract

Dagong 打工 as a way of life gives rise to many abuses and rights violations against China's 200 million migrant workers. This article analyses the intricate issues of rights deprivation, rights consciousness and personal strategies of Chinese migrant workers with the research findings from a large sample survey completed at the end of 2005. The data confirm the occurrence of many types of rights abuses, significant levels of rights consciousness, and preference for legal and institutionalized means for rights defence besides the use of private resources. Furthermore, the findings reveal that the experience of discrimination, consciousness of rights and choice of personal strategies are affected by personal backgrounds like age, gender, education and occupational status before migration, which carry implications for policy. Finally, the article comments on the ongoing debate about “rights consciousness” versus “rules consciousness” in contentious Chinese politics.

From Being a Problem to Having Problems: Discourse, Governmentality and Chinese Migrant Workers

“…However, leaving the poverty and hardship of the countryside, migrant workers are far from embarking on an easy road to prosperity. Labor conflicts occur across the country daily as migrant workers face rights infringements and discrimination [57]. Occasionally, these conflicts receive national and global attention, which was the case in 2010 when a series of suicides at the Taiwanese electronics company Foxconn [9] and an unprecedented wave of strikes [3,8] made the headlines.…”

Environmental governance and public participation in rural China

“…42 In some regions, there are environmental groups that are influential in national or urban areas. 45 Rural issues are given even less attention. 43 These organizations possess more resources to generate influence, mobilize public opinion, and start media campaigns.…”

Livelihood Strategies in Shaxi, Southwest China: Conceptualizing Mountain–Valley Interactions as a Human–Environment System

“…Migrant labor of mountain inhabitants relies largely on cheap and unskilled labor, which does not depend on school education. Both livelihood strategies, exploiting forest resources and migrant labor, provide a good short-term livelihood outcome, but are at the same time highly vulnerable and not sustainable: migrant labor has been shown to be unsecure [32]; forest resources, such as medicinal plants, are prone to overharvesting [13], and timber harvesting is illegal. Edible mushroom prices are subject to fluctuations in international markets as well as to annually varying weather conditions [13].…”