Inside China's Cities: Institutional Barriers and Opportunities for Urban Migrants ⑧ Feng Wang; Xuejin Zuo The American Economic Review, Vol. 89, No. 2, Papers and Proceedings of the One Hundred Eleventh Annual Meeting of the American Economic Association (May, 1999), 276-280 Stable URL: http: //links. jstor.org/sici?sici=0002-8282%28199905%2989%3A2%3C276%3AICCIBA%3E2.0.CO%3B2-0 The American Economic Review is currently published by American Economic Association. Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use, available at http://www.jstor.org/about/terms.html. jstor's terms and Conditions of Use provides, in part, that unless you have obtained prior permission, you may not download an entire issue of a journal or multiple copies of articles, and you may use content in the JSTOR archive only for your personal, non-commercial use. Please contact the publisher regarding any further use of this work. Publisher contact information may be obtained at http://www.jstor. org/journals/aea. html. Each copy of any part of a JSTOR transmission must contain the same copyright notice that appears on the screen or printed page of such transmission. JSTOR is an independent not-for-profit organization dedicated to creating and preserving a digital archive of scholarly journals. For more information regarding JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org. http://www.jstor.org/ Sat May2212:11:322004
HISTORY'S LARGEST LABOR FLOW: UNDERSTANDING CHINAS RURAL MIGRATION Inside China's Cities: Institutional Barriers and Opportunities for Urban migrants By FENG WANG AND XUEJIN ZUo* One of the most glaring legacies of 20th- than 5 percent in the early 1980,s to 21.7 pe century Chinese socialism is a sharp and wid- cent in 1993( Changming Sun, 1997). In Bei ened divide between China's urban and rural jing, the number of migrants was 3. 29 million areas. Chinas widened urban-rural divide in 1994, compared to a locally registered pop- arose from a socialist industrialization process, ulation of 10.63 million for the whole munic which created a hastened heavy-industrial ipality, and 6 million for its city districts base at the expense of its rural population. (Dangsheng Ji et al, 1996 p 95 China s vast rural population not only endured tricts, one out of every three persons in Beijing a standard of living far below that in the urban is a temporary migrant from elsewhere. Most sector, they were also denied access to many of these recorded migrants are also genuine social welfare benefits and social-mobility op- migrants, not short-term visitors: more than 60 ortunities(Martin King Whyte, 1996). This percent had stayed for more than half of a year, urban-rural gap in social and economic well- and only 17 percent had been in Beijing for being, together with a massive reservoir of less than one month. Three-quarters of all the rural surplus labor and an acute shortage of surveyed migrant population listed business or consumer goods, formed the driving forces for employment as their purpose of stay (Ji et al Chinas change of migration-control policy 1996 pp 96-97) and for the rapid increase of rural migrants in Rural migrants account for over three Chinese cities quarters of all migrants in large Chinese cities Though the exact number of migrants is still In Shanghai, for instance, a survey in 1995 hard to ascertain, due to both a lack of con found that 88. 1 percent of all migrants had sensus in the definition of migrant and the ab- their place of household registration in the sence of an authoritative national survey, countryside (Wang and Zuo, 1997). Simi- migrants prominent presence in Chinese cities larly, in Beijing, where one expects to see a is hardly disputable. In Chinas largest cities, higher circulation of urban to urban migrants for instance, it is often quoted that at least one close to 80 percent of migrants surveyed in late out of every five persons is a migrant, and most 1994 were peasants before moving into Bei likely a migrant from rural areas In Shanghai, jing(Xiuhua Liu, 1996 p 112) the number of migrants rose tenfold in one de- cade: from 0.26 million in 1981 to 2.81 million in 1993. The percentage of local residents who L. Rural Migrants in Cities were migrants correspondingly rose from less These large streams of rural-to-urban mi gration have undoubtedly by and large bene Loren Brandt, University of Toron. fited both migrants and the sendir receiving areas. The survey in Shanghai, for instance, reveals that rural migrants on average 3151 Social Science Plaza, Irvine, CA 92612 at least double their income by their move hai Academy of Sciences, 622/7 Huaihai Wang and Zuo, 1997). However, a large and Shanghai, 200020 China consistent gap persists between rural migrants 276
CHINA S RURAL MIGRATION 277 and urban residents. We can identify at least What distinguishes the Chinese disparity five reasons for these differences etween rural migrants and urban employees from that observed in other societies is not the 1. Segregated Labor Market and Occupa- wage difference, but the difference in state tionS.-Most rural migrants arrive in cities to subsidized benefits. In addition to the hidden take up marginal jobs that are characterized by and indirect subsidies through urban infra long hours, poor working conditions, low and structure mostly enjoyed by urban residents, unstable pay, and no benefits-jobs which are urban employees also receive welfare benefits unattractive to urban residents. Rural migrants associated with their employment. Whereas and local urban residents consequently partic- only about 10 percent of rural migrants report ipate in two different labor markets. A com- having any kind of medical insurance cover- parison between rural migrants and local age and less than 5 percent have retirement in white-collar occupations, as professionals, have retirement pensions. Even with erosion technical staff, leaders of government organi- in the disparity in recent years, this urban ad zations and enterprises, and office clerical vantage still holds. According to surveys con staff. Only about 3 percent of rural migrants ducted in Shanghai among those hired during work in such occupations. The proportion of the last ten years, 47 percent of urban new migrants who work as commerce and service hires have medical insurance, and 60 percent workers or workers in manufacturing indu have pension coverage tries is much higher. Such an occupational ratification is consistent with that at the na 3. Temporary Housing and residential tional level, as revealed by an analysis of the Segregation. -The single most important ur 1990 census data. Nationally, only 3 percent ban benefit, however, is housing Even urban of all long-term temporary migrant employees residents in the most densely populated me- are in professional/cadre/clerical positions, tropolis, Shanghai, still manage to enjoy a per compared with 24 percent for urban permanent capita living space(measured by construction residents( Quanhe Yang and fei guo, 1996 space)of 15.7 square meters in 1995. By com- Such a sharp difference, moreover, is not all parison, over half of all rural migrant workers due to the lack of education and the different in Shanghai live in dormitories(27 percent) age and sex composition of the migrants. Even shelters at the work site(7 percent), the work fter controlling for these factors, there re- shop itself(16 percent), and other temporary mains a threefold difference in the predicted facilities(2 percent ). The other half rent(46 probability of being in a high-level occupation percent)or report"own"housing(2.3 per- between urban permanent residents and mi- cent ). Among renters, per capita housing grants (Yang and Guo, 1996) space is about half of that of local residents 8. 2 square meters. But for what they get(only 2. Low income and Poor Benefits.-l about half of the living space of urban resi- migrants income and benefits also dents)they also pay much more than do urban hose of local urban residents by a wide local residents. The mean monthly rent for ur- gin. Excluding various in-kind incomes en- ban local renters is only 22. 5 yuan, about 3 joyed by urban residents, such as heavily percent of one employee's monthly income. subsidized housing, food provided at the workplace, childcare, transportation, and en tertainment, urban employees' cash incomes still far exceed those of rural migrants (in hired ten years Shanghai the mean difference is about 40 per- for these benefits is almo cent). This is the case even though rural mi- ployees. More than 80 percent have medical cover grants work on average 25-percent longer per more than 90 1 week(54 versus 43 hours)(Wang and zuo 2 Only half of all residents with local urban hukou(t of household registration)report renting from public ho ing. Of the other half, most have bought public housing
AEA PAPERS AND PROCEEDINGS MAY 1999 The mean rent paid by migrant renters is 130 households"(jitihu ). Even among those who yuan, almost six times that of urban resident live in a family household, the mean house renters and 22.5 percent of a rural migrant la- hold size among migrants is still smaller than borer's monthly income. Not only do rural mi- that of local residents: 2.9 versus 3.2(Pang grants pay much more for much less space, 1996 p 129). One study estimates that, among what they get is often also inferior housing. migrants in Haidian district of Beijing, a dis Whereas over 60 percent of local-resident trict with the highest proportion of migrants, renters have their own kitchen and over 50 only 20 percent have brought their families to percent have a toilet within the housing unit, Beijing among rural-migrant renters, only 12 percent and 6 percent have these facilities 5. Absence of social migrants are also socially separated from local 4. Individual Instead of Familial Migra- urban residents. The stereotype of rural mi tion -Because of such difficulties in obtain- grants is that they are uneducated, ignorant, ing housing and other benefits in cities, rural dirty, and also have high propensities to be migrants mostly move as temporary migrants, criminals. It is therefore no surprise that many without their families. Among those who mi- surveys have reported that rural migrants fine rated to Shanghai, for instance, most are ei- the following issues to be of great concern ther single or else married but living in legal housing, legal protection of personal Shanghai alone, without the company of safety, protection from arbitrary fees and spouse and family: 35 percent are never- charges, and following ever-changing proce- arried, and out of the 64 percent who are dures. As a result, most migrants sense little urrently married, only one out of every five chance to stay on. Their attitude is mostly has a spouse also in Shanghai. The average "wait and see. In a survey conducted in household size among migrants is only half Shanghai in 1995, when asked whether they that of city residents( Wang and Zuo, 1997 7). are likely to stay, most migrants responded Migrants in Beijing exhibit a similar de- that they are not thinking of staying PS ps rna mographic profile, Close to a third of the mi- nently. Only about a third of all migra grant population aged 15 and above are pressed an intention to stay, if possible. Al never-married,according to a 1994 survey, equal proportion said that they intend to return double that of Beijing local residents, which is home after a few years. Close to another third itself a late-marriage population. A main rea- of all respondents reported that they want to son for such an unusually high proportion of wait for their spouses to make a decision about singles is the presence of a large number of joining them; the remaining 5 percent re unmarried female maids in Beijing. In a soci- sponded that they were"unsure ety where almost all females are expected to marry before age 30, the Beijing survey re- I. Urban Institutional Barriers veals that more female than male migrants are unmarried: 37 percent versus 33 percent a key question regarding the fate of rural (Jiangqian Pang, 1996 p 128 ). Nearly half of migrants in urban China is whether their ex all migrants(45 percent) live in"collective perience is unique. One can argue that, be- cause of migrants'rural back ground and their latecomer status, it is inevitable that they are almost always initially situated in a disadvan- (27 percent)or own private tageous position. One can further ter, as reported by re- such a plight faced by migrants and the ine- ommercial housing qualities manifested are the necessary and un- the neighborhood, Such converts to roughly a avoidable evils in the process of economic of 45,000 yuan per apartment( with mean total growth and social development, and that they rea of 34 square meters and price of 1, 305 yuan per will eventually diminish or disappear percent extreme The monthly cost to renters, there A number of recent stu fore, is only 0 of the asset val suggested that the Chinese socialist legacy of
VOL 89 NO. 2 CHINAS RURAL MIGRATION a dualistic society may make the Chinese rural hai about 40 percent of those who found jobs migrants'experience different from that of during the last ten years ) These jobs are ne other developing societies(Kam Wing Chan, doubt generally in better occupations with 1997; Dorothy J. Solinger, 1999). The old di- higher pay and better benefits. Even for the visions that separated rural and urban Chinese increasingly larger number of urban residents geographically in the past are now replaced by who find their own jobs or who rely on friends barriers that segregate them economically and or relatives for finding a job( who account fo socially within cities. These include two types over a third of new hires in Shanghai now) of hukou(type of household registration) the advantage over rural migrants in getting tatus, different labor-market entry processes better jobs has not diminished. This is so not which are partly based on one's residential only because urban job-seekers are better ed- cupations, housing, medical care, and pension ated within the urban social and cultural benefits contexts. Urban youth do not look lik e coun- The dual hukou system, which underwent try bumpkins, and more importantly, the so- some drastic changes in the past decade, has cial networks they rely on to get jobs are not lost its importance in Chinese cities. a distinctively different from those of rural mi- nonagricultural hukou was made available for grants. In addition, in light of the current un- certain rural populations, but it was mostly employment levels for urban workers, various only available in small towns, not cities city governments have also started to formu- ( Wang, 1997). In more desirable places such late and to implement explicit regulations that as medium and large cities, open sale of hukou prevent migrants from taking certain jobs. In was generally not allowed. Under a few cir- Beijing, according to a report from the Beijing cumstances where it is possible to obtain an Daily (10 April 1997), at the same time when urban hukou in a large city, the price is often certain professions have been opened to mi exorbitantly high. In Shanghai, for instance, grants, the Labor Bureau of one of its city dis- the" blue-sealed''hukou(official Shanghai tricts also stipulated that at least 35 types of carries a price tag of 200,000 U.S. dollars for ployers are also required to pay a per capita foreign investors, or 1 million yuan for do- fee for each migrant they hire, to be used as mestic investors. Such a number is well be- an unemployment fund for urban workers yond the reach of most rural migrants, as this At the same time that they are welcomed as price is equivalent to 150 times an ordinary laborers, rural migrants simply have not been rural migrant's annual income. Moreover, given a legal living space in cities. ith a few with no chance of sharing the existing free extreme exceptions, they can neither build nor public housing and employment benefits, buy. Their housing is therefore mostly primi- those who obtained urban hukou soon realize tive and temporary. Consequently, rural mi that what they have paid for is largely a piece grants see little possibility of normal family of useless paper. Having an urban hukou alone life in cities. Not only do rural migros hey is not of much use. In order to live and work have a legitimate permanent living space, in cities and to have all the urban benefits of also do not have any claim to basic services current residents one needs other resources as such as health care and education for their hildren A significant proportion of urban residents Most rural migrants, therefore, ride the still get some assistance from government in- waves of circular migration, reminiscent of itutions to enter the labor market(in Shang- that from developing to developed countries Indeed, Chinese labor migration has been compared squarely with undocumented Me Wuding Wang et al. (1995) for the regulati ican migration to the United States. As sum marized by Kenneth D. Roberts(1997), the mean annual income for rural migrants in Shang- two processes are highly similar in five re- 995 is only about 6, 600 yuan. pects: the process is predominantly circular
EA PAPERS AND PROCEEDINGS MAY 999 not permanent; there is a very large gap in Zhongguo Renkou Chubanshe, 1996, pp wages and standard of living between sending and receiving areas; there are restrictions, Roberts, Kenneth D. Chinas Tidal Waveof ranging from complex systems of work and Migrant Labor: What Can We Learn from residence permits to outright illegality, to pr Mexican Undocumented Migration to the ent settlement of labor migrants; sending and United States? "International Migration Re receiving areas are in relatively close prox view, Summer 1997, 31(2), pp. 249-93 mity; and recent developments in rural areas thy J Contesting citizenship that create surplus labor in agriculture while Peasant migrants, the state, and the logic of maintaining migrants'links to the land. To the market in urban China. Berkeley: Ur gether these forces continue to assure a steady versity of California Press, 1999 labor flow from rural to urban China, while at Sun, Changming. ""Floating Population in he same time assuring that rural migrants do Shanghai: A Perspective on Social Trans not settle permanently in cities formation in China, 'in Thomas Scharping ed, Floating population and migration in REFERENCES China: The impact of economic reforms Hamburg, Germany: Institute of Asian Beijing Daily. "Shi Laodongju Guiding Benshi Studies, 1997, pp 201-15. Yunxu He Xianzhi Shiyong Waidi Renyuan Wang, Feng. The Breakdown of a Great Wall de Hangye Gongzhong"["Municipal La- Recent Changes in Household Registration bor Bureau Stipulates Job Types for Mi- System in China, 'in Thomas Scharping, Workers'. 10 April 1997, p. 1 ed, Floating population and migration in Chan, Kam Wing. Post-Mao China: A China: The impact of economic reforms Two-Class Urban Society in the Making. In- Hamburg, Germany: Institute of Asian ternational Journal of Urban and Regional Studies, 1997, pp. 149-65 Research,1997,20(1),pp.134-50. Wang, Feng and Zuo, Xuejin. "Socialist dual Ji, Dangsheng; Yanyou, Zhang; Yinchuan, Lu and ism and the Migration Process in Shanghai Min, Zhu. Beijing Shi Liudong Renkou The Case of Shanghai. Unpublished Yanjiu'[""Research on Floating Popul manuscript presented at the workshop on tion in Beijing"], in Lanchun Zou, ed, Bei Migration and Rural Labor in China, Ur jing de liudong renkou Floating population vine, 26 April 1997 of Beijing ]. Beijing: Zhongguo Renkou Wang, Wuding: Zhongwei, Le; Xuejin, Zuo Chubanshe, 1996, pp 95-111 Anan, Shen and Huancong, Ye, eds. Jiush Liu, Xiuhua. "Beijing Shi Liudong Renkou niandai Shanghai liudong renkou Floating de zhuyao Dedian'[Main Characteris tics of Migrants in Beijing''], in Lanchun Shanghai: Huadong Shifan Daxue Chuban Zuo, ed, Beijing de liudong renkou She, 1995 Floating population of Beijing ] Beijing: Whyte, Martin King. ""City versus Countryside Zhongguo Renkou Chubanshe, 1996, pp in Chinas Development. Problems of Post-Communism, January-February 1996, Pang, Jiangqian. "Beijing Shi Liudong Renkou pp.9-22 de Hunyin Jiating Zhuangkuang''[''A Ba- Yang, Quanhe and Guo, Fei. Occupational At sic Profile of Marriage and Family Status tainment of Rural to Urban Temporary Eco among Migrants in Beijing''I, in Lanchun nomic Migrants in China, 1985-1990 Zou, ed, Beijing de liudong renkou Float- International Migration Review, Fall 1996, ing population of Beijing]. Beijing 30(3),pp.771-87