Economic restructuring and migrant workers’ coping strategies in China’s Pearl River Delta

Abstract

To tackle internal and external challenges, the Chinese government has made great efforts to promote economic upgrading, but little scholarly attention has been paid to its social consequences. Previous studies have found that economic restructuring is often associated with economic shock and industry shift, noting that social upgrading does not automatically follow economic upgrading, and workers can become economic victims. Given China’s individual rights-based labour regulatory framework, it is necessary to explore workers’ individual strategies to tackle economic restructuring. In light of this, this study analyses how migrant workers in the Pearl River Delta cope with economic restructuring. Interviews were conducted with 72 participants, including migrant workers, scholars, employers and officials. The interviews revealed that to deal with the pushing-out effect of economic restructuring, migrant workers often use strategies of individual resistance, re-employment, skill upgrading, reducing living costs, migrating to other cities, and returning to farming. Policy recommendations are proposed accordingly.

Keywords:

• Economic restructuring
• economic upgrading
• social upgrading
• migrant workers
• China
• Pearl River Delta

Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful to the two reviewers for their constructive comments.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Xu Wang

Xu Wang is a senior staff member in the Department of Natural Resources of Sichuan Province. He obtained his PhD in urban studies from the University of Hong Kong and MS and BA degrees in urban planning from Huazhong University of Science and Technology, China. His research interests include economic upgrading and restructuring and social upgrading.

Chris King-Chi Chan

Chris King-chi Chan is an Associate Professor at the Department of Sociology, and the Director of Social Innovation Studies, at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. He obtained his first degree from the University of Hong Kong, and MA and PhD degrees from University of Warwick. His research interests include labour, civil society and social development. He is the author of The Challenge of Labour in China: Strikes and the Changing Labour Regime in Global Factories (Routledge, 2010) and has published numerous papers in journals such as China Quarterly, the Journal of Contemporary Asia, Globalizations, Development and Change and the Community Development Journal.

Linchuan Yang

Linchuan Yang is a Professor in the Department of Urban and Rural Planning, School of Architecture and Design, Southwest Jiaotong University. He obtained a PhD in real estate economics studies and an MPhil in transportation studies from the University of Hong Kong, and a BE degree in urban planning and a BS degree in mathematics from Xiamen University, China. His research interests include urban economics, urban transportation and urban planning. He has published a great many papers in journals such as Transportation Research Part A/D, Sustainable Cities and Society, the Journal of Transport Geography, the Journal of Destination Marketing & Management, Cities and Habitat International.