Understanding labour migration in China: a multi-generational study of migrant experiences

This study investigates how institutional changes have affected the work and life choices of internal migrants in China. The study focuses on the experiences of two generations of migrants to a Tier 2 city to help provide an understanding of how the changes to key institutions (the hukou, danwei, and cadre systems) have and continue to shape migrant experiences. Previous research has tended to concentrate on old-generation migrants (born before 1980) who encountered institutional obstacles during their migration and early career stages, with particular attention on the hukou system. These studies have also tended to focus on Tier 1 destination cities (Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen). But more recently the state has encouraged additional migration to other cities in response to the overcrowding issues occurring in Tier 1 destinations and, in the emergence of a more market-oriented economic system, made significant changes to the institutions that framed those earlier periods of migration. By including both ‘old’ and more recent ‘new’ generation internal migrants that have moved to in a Tier 2 destination city in China, the study reveals how these changing socio-economic environments have had an impact on migrant experiences of work and life choices. As a result, this study adds to the body of research by examining the continuing impacts of key social and economic institutions. This study draws on theories of migration and social stratification to give insight into the lives of internal migrants by using semi-structured interviews informed by life history approaches, adding empirically to the understanding of the changing dynamics of power in employment relationships, the centrality of education for social mobility and the changing patterns of working orientation across the two generations studied. The study’s theoretical contribution focuses on the underestimated difficulties faced by more recent migrants in an apparently ‘freer’ migration landscape, facing fewer formal restrictions and the changed dynamics of push-pull factors between destination cities and their place of origin.