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Chinese Migrant Workers: Rights Attainment Deficits, Rights Consciousness and Personal Strategies*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 January 2012

Linda Wong
Linda Wong
Affiliation:
City University of Hong Kong. Email: linda.wong@cityu.edu.hk
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Abstract

Dagong 打工 as a way of life gives rise to many abuses and rights violations against China's 200 million migrant workers. This article analyses the intricate issues of rights deprivation, rights consciousness and personal strategies of Chinese migrant workers with the research findings from a large sample survey completed at the end of 2005. The data confirm the occurrence of many types of rights abuses, significant levels of rights consciousness, and preference for legal and institutionalized means for rights defence besides the use of private resources. Furthermore, the findings reveal that the experience of discrimination, consciousness of rights and choice of personal strategies are affected by personal backgrounds like age, gender, education and occupational status before migration, which carry implications for policy. Finally, the article comments on the ongoing debate about “rights consciousness” versus “rules consciousness” in contentious Chinese politics.

Keywords

migrant workers' rightsrights consciousnessrights deficitspersonal strategiesgenerational differences
Type
Articles
Information
The China Quarterly , Volume 208 , December 2011 , pp. 870 - 892
Copyright
Copyright © The China Quarterly 2011

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References

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29 The research was entitled “Social Protection for Chinese Peasant Workers: Plugging a Policy Vacuum” funded by a Competitive Earmarked Research Grant from the Research Grants Council of the Hong Kong SAR Government. The research team was led by Linda Wong of City University of Hong Kong and Zheng Gongcheng of Renmin University. The findings of the survey and a collection of papers on migrant workers are released as a two-volume publication, Gongcheng, Zheng and Ruolian, Huang Li (eds.), Rural-Urban Migrant Workers in China: Issue and Protection (Beijing: Renmin chubanshe, 2007) (in Chinese, 759 pp.)Google Scholar.

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45 Representative works include Lee's Against the Law, and O'Brien and Li's Rightful Resistance in Rural China.

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