Migrant workers and informal employment

• Published in: Social sciences in China 2008-08, Vol.29 (3), p.187-200
• Main Author: Wan, Xiangdong
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Accumulation; China; Employment; Hidden economy; informal employment; Informal sector; Internal migration; Labor Market; Labor Movements; Labour migration; Labour mobility; Market Economy; Markets; Migrant Workers; Questionnaires; segmentation of the labor market; Self Employment; split-flow of the labor market; 农民工; 劳动力市场分割; 劳动力市场分流; 非正式就业
• ISSN: 0252-9203; 1940-5952
• DOI: 10.1080/02529200802288583

本文通过对广州市从事非正式就业的农民工以及珠江三角洲地区在企业工作的农民工问卷调 查资料的初步统计分析， 认为：第一， 农民工在总体上处于一个分割并被相对隔离的、低水平的 劳动市场中， 但该市场内部又基本上是按照自由放任原则实现其供求平衡的。第二， 这一市场进 一步分化为"企业"内外的正式和非正式就业两个部分；后者又可区分为自雇与受雇就业两种类 型。第三， 由于企业内的正式就业者处于较为艰难的生存状态并且再生产着这种状态， 农民工在 正式和非正式就业的分流中， 更倾向于流向非正式就业。第四， 在非正式就业者中， 受雇用的农 民工的工作只能是一种勉强生存的手段， 而自雇用的农民工则可能逐渐实现积累和向上流动， 有 希望获得一定的发展。 1. This paper was first published under the title of "Conditions and Effects of Informal Employment for the Peasant Worker" in Management World (管理世界), 2008, no. 1. Its research was supported by The Chinese National Fund for Philosophy and Social Sciences (05&ZD034) and Sun Yat-sen University's Social Sciences Innovation Center on Public Administration and Social Development as a part of the national 985 project On the basis of an analysis of data collected through questionnaire surveys of migrant workers informally employed in Guangzhou or working in enterprises in the Pearl River Delta, the present paper suggests that: firstly, migrant workers as a whole are found in a low-level labor market that is segmented and relatively segregated; its internal balance between demand and supply is realized, however, by following a principle of laissez-faire. Secondly, that market has further evolved into formal employment inside formal enterprises and informal employment outside of it, with the latter covering the two types of self-employment and employment. Thirdly, owing to the rather difficult state of existence of those formally employed in enterprises, as well as to the ongoing reproduction of that kind of state of existence, migrant workers tend to join the informal branch in the split between formal and informal employment. Fourthly, while the work of those migrant workers in informal employment can only serve to eke out a miserable survival, those who are self-employed have a chance for gradual accumulation and upward movement, and so the hope for a certain development.