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

Abstract

This article analyzes the political effects of the new discourse on Chinese migrant workers that emerged in the 2000s, and how this discourse is contested by an alternative discourse. The article demonstrates how the new discourse has facilitated socialist-liberal governance by transforming migrant workers into self-governing individuals. Moreover, the article argues that socialist-liberal governmentality is based on a post-political understanding that promotes a society without structural differences and reformulates social problems as individual deficiencies. Based on a discourse analysis of Chinese newspaper coverage, the article analyzes how this post-political myth is contested by an alternative understanding of society that repoliticizes migrant workers and their problems. In conclusion, the analysis points to how media discourses can contest governmental projects.

The Rural–Urban Fringes in the Local Limelight: Urban Village Redevelopment in Yinchuan, Ningxia

“…Journalists assume the role of advocates for the villagers (who themselves only get a few words to say), and their shows act as a tool to pressure lower levels of government into action, while at the same time upholding an image of a service-based administration that listens to the situation on the ground. This ties in with the findings by Gleiss (2016: 45, 53), who finds a shift away from the suzhi -based discourse on migrants as “being a problem” to a “more problem-oriented media discourse” through the means of investigative journalism which acknowledges migrants as “having a problem.” Gleiss argues that this is an alternative discourse challenging the prevailing discourse on individual responsibility: it repoliticises previously depoliticised issues by bringing the responsibility of the state back into play, thus giving the state the opportunity of reaffirming its role as the only legitimate actor responsible for governing “disadvantaged groups” (Gleiss, 2016 : 53, 50). By focusing in such detail on the toilet situation in Yingnancun, the state is willing to show some deficiencies in governance as being the responsibility of the (local) government, but reaffirming its role as the only legitimate actor to be able to solve these issues – though the fact that the Jinfeng government ended up outsourcing the problem to a private company might somewhat undermine this logic.…”

Migrants on exhibition: The emergence of migrant worker museums in China as a neoliberal experiment on governance

“…In 2009, Chinese migrant workers featured as a runner-up in Time magazine's selection of Person of the Year, which in turn fed into the discursive change already taking place within China. Gleiss (2016) takes note of the emergence of these new discourses on migrants, which glorifies migration and encourages migrants to be entrepreneurial, self-governing, and self-responsible. The tenets of new discourses include (a) improvement of migrants' suzhi so that they can realize selfpotential; (b) success and prosperity as a personal endeavor and responsibility; and (c) a harmonious vision of the city where no structural differences exist and diligent work always leads to happy endings.…”

Legitimate but “not for me”: The role of validation in migrant entrepreneur understanding of COVID‐19 business support policies in Shanghai

“…In particular, participants believe such policies are legitimate but not for me because I am getihu by myself . We maintain this understanding is a legacy of hukou and is confirmed through the theory of validation: recognition through agreement with significant others including other entrepreneurs and family; corroboration with life experiences in Shanghai; and resonance of their migration story as self‐sufficient entrepreneurs surviving with their own capabilities (Gleiss, 2016; Qian & Guo, 2019). They have a degree of certainty their understanding is fact because it has been repeatedly validated through life experiences of a migrant lacking hukou in Shanghai.…”