Unequal pain: a sketch of the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on migrants’ employment in China

ABSTRACT

This article examines the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the employment of migrant workers in China. Our research has estimated that nationally, at least 30–50 million migrants lost their jobs in late March, far more than the local urban workers. An online survey also indicates that the rural-hukou population have borne the brunt of the outbreak. More than 90% rural-hukou migrant workers could not find work as of late February, compared to 42% for urban-hukou migrant workers. Those who are less educated and low skilled had also a higher rate of unemployment. At the same time, there is a serious mismatch between workers covered by the social safety net and those who really need it. Both across the Chinese population at large and within the migrant population itself, the pandemic has exacerbated the preexisting inequalities along the household registration system line. We call for a more substantive reform of the system so that migrant workers can be integrated into the national social safety net and be protected in the next crisis.

KEYWORDS:

• China
• migrant labor
• unemployment
• COVID-19
• hukou

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. “Migrant workers” in China conventionally refer to “rural migrant labor” (nongmingong). More specifically, they refer to “waichu nongmingong,” rural-hukou non-farm workers outside of their local areas (Chan and Yang 2020). Following recent hukou reforms, from the perspective of accessing social welfare in the destination, it is whether a person who holds local hukou or not that matters more (Chan 2019a). A significant number of urban-hukou holders (mostly from small and medium cities) now also work outside of their local areas as migrants in major cities (Li and Wang 2020). Many of the disparities in social and economic opportunities between rural and urban-hukou holders among migrants, however, largely remain.

2. Initially, these were doctor’s letters certifying good health of the holders. Later, digital QR codes on cell phones were used (Gan and Culver 2020).

3. This was part of a larger research project entitled “The New Urbanization and Sustainable Development Team” undertaken by Xi’an Jiaotong University. The first and second authors took part in the project.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Major Program of National Fund of Philosophy and Social Science of China [19ARK005].