Social Insurance for Rural-Urban Migrant Workers in China: Regional Disparities

Research on rural-urban migrant workers and regional disparities in China has attracted many scholars since the economic reform in the 1980s. After the 2000s, the state began to rethink and readjust the relationship between economic growth (efficiency) and social justice (equity). Problems arising from the economic transition, especially the social protection for rural-urban migrant workers, have become the new policy priorities of the state. This thesis combines these three topics, and explores the regional disparities of social insurance programmes for rural-urban migrant workers in China. It first discusses the provincial differences of social insurance systems for rural-urban migrant workers, by reviewing an extensive number of official documents issued by both central and local governments. Then it develops the possibility of welfare regimes in China, based on different typologies of welfare states in the Western and East Asian countries. Last it explores the experiences of rural-urban migrant workers and their opinions on social insurance system, through in-depth interviews.