QWL and Related Factors for Migrant Workers Survey in Guangdong Province, China

Abstract

The quality of work and life (abbreviated as QWL) of migrant workers in China is related to urbanization and social development and reflects subjective well-being. This study examined migrant workers’ quality of work and life and constructed an index system to evaluate overall quality. Survey data from 3,375 participants in Guangdong, China, were analyzed using ordinary least square regression. The results showed that migrant workers’ quality of work and life is low. Quality of life is lower than quality of work, indicating that social services provision was rated lower than employment situation. Quality of work and life is influenced both by objective institutional factors and subjective human capital factors, particularly training, social security, public services, and social institutional factors. Subjective quality of work and life is based on evaluation of objective situations. This study proposes several reforms in training, employment, the household registration system, enterprise management, rights protection, social inclusion, and the rural land transfer system. Future research should address the relationship between quality of work and life and related factors using longitudinal survey data, interaction of indexes and individual factors, and differences in quality of work and life of migrant workers under different institutional systems. International comparative research should also be conducted.

Keywords:

• Migrant workers
• quality of work and life
• subjective well-being
• household registration system

Notes

Acknowledgments

I thank the anonymous reviewers of JSSR for their suggestions for manuscript revision. The author is responsible for all errors in this article.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1 A likely explanation for this finding is the circular nature of migration in China. When migrant workers find it too difficult to cope in the cities, most can return to their homes in the provinces. This option provides an external buffer to minimize the inherent challenges of life, which would otherwise impinge on life satisfaction (Nielsen, Smyth, & Zhai, 2010). This shows that measures of migrant workers’ QWL in China cannot be simply adapted from scales used for farmers or other residents.

2 The survey was conducted by the author from January to March 2014, and distributed by students in South China Normal University. It covered all 21 cities in Guangdong province, with selected representative samples. The design of the questionnaire and sampling frame was completed by experts in China and other countries with the support of South China Normal University.

3 China’s “opening” to the outside world originated in Guangdong province. A large number of foreign investments meant that the labor-intensive “three capital” enterprises and township enterprises developed rapidly, creating a large number of jobs. Between the reform and opening and the present, Guangdong has attracted a national labor force; it also has a flow of labor from the countryside to the cities. Therefore, Guangdong contains the highest number of migrant workers in China. The investigation of the QWL of migrant workers in Guangdong could inform the examination of similar problems in China and other countries.

4 The strategic purpose of “citizenship transformation” (Jakimów, 2017) of migrant workers does not ultimately center on political rights, but on economic rights, and originates from the motives and circular nature of migration.

5 As one study (Li, Stoeckl, King, & Gyuris, 2018) has revealed, coal mining has a positive impact on the improvement of housing conditions but a negative impact on water safety, inflation, the price of essential goods, and income disparity.

6 Liu & Zheng (2016) proposed that international scholars should pay more attention to the experience of migrant workers in China when they conduct research on QWL. With China’s further reform and opening up to the outside world, the QWL of rural migrant workers will gradually expand to incorporate political, legal, and moral issues as well as the original economic and social issues. When conducting international comparison studies, it is necessary to consider differences in scenarios.