ILPC 2026

Development, Industrial Transformation and Internal Circular Migration of Labour

 -The Transforming of Migrant Workers and Working-Class Consciousness in China

Abstract

It is generally agreed that migrant workers have made a significant contribution to China’s fast economic growth. Also, decades of rural-urban migration has greatly influenced the socio-economic transformation since 1978. One of the key institutional factors of the formation of so-called ‘rural migrant workers’ is hukou (household registration system) which divided residents into two categories entitled with clear distinguishing rights and welfare. The rural to urban migration has not significantly narrowed the urban-rural gap down, but somehow has strengthened the barriers between urban and rural areas and the barriers between urban residents and rural residents in the urban labour markets. The hukou system is de facto internal passport system that creates borders and boundaries for rural migrant workers to enter into formal and decent labour markets. The boarder forcefully shapes the formation of migrant working class and their working-class consciousness in urban areas.

During the past decades, the main direction of internal migration in China, especially in the aspects of employment, is from rural areas to urban areas, from agricultural department to a manufacturing industry or tertiary industry. However, after decades of high-speed economic development, China now is standing at a turning point. As Chinese government states, China has entered a moderate-speed economic growth period, facing complex challenges. Therefore, industrial restructuring comes to the top priority. In addition, Chinese government encourages to cultivate and develop new economic growth points. Therefore, recently there is a new tendency that increasing number of migrant workers returning to their hometown or cities/towns nearby their hometowns. There are some possible factors driven migrant workers back to their hometowns. The global economic recession depressed the export-driven economy and brought huge pressures on China’s industrial re-structure and relocation. It leads to the precipitation of large numbers of manufacturing industry workers. These workers either enter into fast-growing tertiary industry, or go back to factories near their hometown, or return to the agricultural department in new forms. Especially in recent years, the raising of ‘entrepreneurial social atmosphere’ spills over to rural areas in China. The study of ‘entrepreneurs of return migrant workers’ comes to the fore in the academic field. The real employment status of return migrant workers and the influences of return migration on labour markets are submerged by the tide of entrepreneurship.

Additionally, although ‘the return of migrant workers’ and ‘entrepreneurs of return migrant workers ‘are hyped in media. In reality, the internal circular migration is more accurate to describe the living status of these migrant workers than returning migrant workers. Because the socio-economic development in their hometowns does not create enough good opportunities for these migrant workers. They move back-and-forth to find best options for themselves and their families. The spatial switching faced by circular migrant workers does not only mean the shifting of living and working location but also mean the transforming of production and reproduction process. During such process, they need to make great efforts to different atmospheres (rural society, pre-industrial society, industrialized society and post-industrial society,etc.), which in turn shapes the formation of their consciousness.

Therefore, this article will focus on the employment status of return migrant workers. And it will try to discuss the consequences of such return migration on social structure and labour market. More importantly, this article will try to answer several questions: What impacts of such internal circular migration have on the formation of migrant working class and the shaping of working-class consciousness? What is the strategy of migrant workers returning from urban areas to adapt new living and working environment?   

Keywords: Circular Migrant Workers, Urban-Rural Division, Spatial Shift and Class Conciousness, Labour Market