Economic Status and Social Attitudes of Migrant Workers in China

Migrant workers, meaning those who used to be farmers but have left rural areas and found jobs in cities as a result of economic reform and rapid development in China, have made a significant contribution to the burgeoning labor market and played an important role in speeding up the transition from a planned to a market economy. This present paper considers the economic status and social attitudes of migrant workers. It is based on the analysis of a large-scale survey in 2006, which was conducted using questionnaires and covered 28 provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions throughout the country. It was found that the income status of migrant workers depends heavily on the education and technical skills that they have developed, rather than on identity-based discrimination. Surprisingly, it was also found that those on less income and of lower economic and social status show more positive attitudes to society than those who are affluent and considered of higher social status. It is concluded that the decisive factor in attitude and behavior of migrant workers is historic rather than economic.

不同迁移模式下农民工的经济地位与社会地位差异研究——基于沈阳市农民工的实证调查

随着经济的发展,农民工群体日益分化成长期稳定定居在城市的群体和仍然处于频繁流动中的群体两部分。采用五个变量将农民工分为暂时迁移和永久迁移两种迁移模式,并选取不同的变量解释其经济地位和社会地位,采用似不相关回归法对暂时迁移和永久迁移农民工的经济地位和社会地位的差异进行计量分析。结果表明,暂时迁移与永久迁移群体在经济地位与社会地位的某些方面存在显著差异,永久迁移者的消费水平高于暂时迁移者,其职业声望显著高于暂时迁移者,且在居住方式上显著优于暂时迁移农民工。