The Increasing Precariousness of Young Migrant Workers in China: Developments and Challenges

Political, Economic and Social Dimensions of Labour Markets, pp. 347-368 (2022) No AccessChapter 17: The Increasing Precariousness of Young Migrant Workers in China: Developments and ChallengesHui XUHui XUhttps://doi.org/10.1142/9789811238871_0017Cited by:0 PreviousNext AboutSectionsPDF/EPUB ToolsAdd to favoritesDownload CitationsTrack CitationsRecommend to Library ShareShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditEmail Abstract: Since the 1970s, the world of labour is increasingly ensnared in a situation of precariousness, due to the incremental deregulation of government, the declining density of trade unions and the flexibilisation of the labour market. China is inevitably facing problematic issues of precarious work along with the market reform in the late 1970s. In the name of improving efficiency, state-owned enterprise (SOEs) began to introduce a labour force dualism, so that the previously permanent workers were laid off by SOEs and forced to enter into the free labour market, most of whom finally had to embark on informal jobs as a result. On the other hand, the blooming export-oriented and labour-intensive manufacturing industries, especially after China's entry into the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 2001, have resulted in peasant workers from the countryside becoming the biggest group of precarious workers. Plenty of empirical evidence shows that student interns, as well as the dispatched migrant workers, are the two major forces for enterprise to promote labour dualism. In this study, the author focusses on the work of three different groups of migrant workers in order to better illustrate and analyse the precarious situation of the new generation of migrant workers in China. These include (1) assembly line workers of student interns, (2) takeaway riders in platform economy and (3) the so-called 'Sanhe Masters' or day labourers. The study argues that more must be done to ensure that legal protection for migrant workers extend to newly emerging jobs and flexible employment relations. FiguresReferencesRelatedDetails Political, Economic and Social Dimensions of Labour MarketsMetrics History PDF download