跨国农业女工:流动规律、劳动状况及其农政变迁意涵

Southeast Asian Female Agricultural Workers in China:Migration Patterns,Labor Regimes,and Implications for Agrarian Change

从21世纪初开始,跨国农业工人特别是跨国农业女工大量涌入中国甘蔗产业。基于在广西、云南两地的田野调查,本文发现,来华的跨国农业工人呈现出“女性多、男性少,节前多、节后少”的规律和特点。低效率的机械化收获水平、密植型的甘蔗种植方式使生产者更偏好雇用女工,但分工的不同使迁移中收入增长的红利更多地被男性获得。中国甘蔗产业的农政变迁呈现出“低成本劳动力依赖”的特征。由于生产与劳动力再生产在地理上的隔离与区分,很大一部分跨国农业工人无法在春节或泼水节后来华,甘蔗产业对廉价劳动力的结构性需求不能被完全满足。这些发现表明,理解中国的农村发展和变迁、谋划乡村振兴战略的具体方案应在全球人口迁移的背景下进行,并需要将性别维度纳入审视的范围。

A large number of agricultural workers,particularly females have been coming from Vietnam and Myanmar to southern China to work in sugarcane plantations since the 2000 s.Based on field work in Guangxi and Yunnan,this study finds that the number of southeast Asian female agricultural workers is higher than that of males’,and also higher before the Spring Festival(and the Water-Sprinkling Festival)than after the festivals.Due to inefficiency in mechanized harvesting and densely planted fields,sugarcane producers prefer hiring female workers.However,the different division of labor allows men to obtain a higher share of the dividends of income growth in migration.The overall agrarian reform in relation to sugarcane industry in China is largely “low-wage labor dependent”.Moreover,due to geographical and temporal segregation and distinction between production and labor reproduction,a large proportion of female migrant workers are unable to come to China after the Spring Festival or Water-Sprinkling Festival.The structural demand for cheap labor in the sugarcane industry cannot be fully met.The above findings have indicated that agrarian reforms in China and the design of rural vitalization strategy are best to be conducted in the context of global migration and from a gender perspective.