China's Floating Population

China's Floating Population

by Yao Lu

The conventional term for internal migrants in China is “floating population,” a phrase that describes unprecedented migrant flows, moving from inland villages in the underdeveloped central and western regions to China’s costal cities, searching for work. According to recent estimates, the total number of migrant workers is more than 150 million, perhaps the largest movement of labor in human history. The floating population is a major force fueling the country’s rapid economic growth. Having made China one of the largest export economies in the world, migrant workers have also become visible to those outside China.

This mass migration has taken place in little more than 25 years. Since the 1950s, China has had an internal passport (hukou) system to control geographic mobility and, in particular, to limit rural-to-urban migration. As a result of economic reforms in the late 1970s, demand for manufacturing and service labor rapidly increased and legal restrictions on migration were relaxed, allowing workers to move from villages to cities. Despite this relaxation, the hukou system has remained intact, preventing migrants from fully integrating into urban China.

Because of the hukou system, the legal status of China’s internal migrants more closely resembles that of undocumented immigrants to developed countries rather than other internal migrant populations. While their presence in cities is legal, China’s internal passport system does not allow most migrants to gain local residential status in the cities where they work. As a result, migrants hold disproportionate numbers of low-paying, low-skilled jobs distasteful to urban residents and are also excluded from many urban welfare provisions including housing, healthcare, and education for their children.

A considerable number of studies have sought to understand the effects of migration on workers, but representative data has been difficult to obtain. Problems collecting accurate data on migrant populations in China are similar to issues collecting data on undocumented immigrants or homeless populations in the United States. Many migrants reside in non-standard housing, largely at their places of employment, such as construction sites, workshops, or rooms added to factory buildings, and because they are not urban residents, they do not appear on the registration lists that are commonly used to collect survey data.

These difficulties have not deterred researchers but have instead urged them to adopt alternative research designs and data collection methods. A group of researchers in the US and China have begun an unprecedented effort to obtain more accurate records of migrants’ lives, in the Internal Migration and Health in China study. The project involves obtaining a  complete census of randomly selected small geographical areas  that cover residential areas as well as alternative living accommodations that may house migrants; and drawing random samples of households from the census list compiled in the previous step within each small area. The project has collected substantial information on migration histories and other life experiences, as well as provided data about health and well being. An extension of this study to collect longitudinal data, where surveyed individuals and families are tracked and interviewed over time, is currently being planned.

This new empirical evidence has confirmed some hypotheses about the migrant experience while rejecting others. The migrants’ most important gains are economic. Compared to rural villagers, workers in cities are much better off financially, but in contrast to permanent urban residents, migrants continue to be discriminated against. Despite their growing numbers, migrants are still relegated to informal and blue-collar jobs. Low levels of education in rural China mean migrants are less likely to secure high-wage employment in a modern marketplace that increasingly values human capital. The problem is often compounded as the financial incentives of migration lures rural young people out of school. 

Once in the cities, migrant workers continue to be exploited, working long hours with little employment security or social welfare benefits. Among the floating population, internal stratification has also intensified. The majority of migrants have low-status jobs but a small number have become successful entrepreneurs in their own right. Despite successes, many migrant laborers turned entrepreneurs still face discrimination in the urban marketplace.

Living in more developed regions and earning higher incomes has not resulted in better health for migrants. Limited access to health care, and exposure to severe occupational hazards, heightened stress, absence of social support, and discrimination, means migrants are vulnerable to many health conditions. The migrant population’s biggest challenge is their extremely limited access to health services, especially when they suffer occupational injuries. Many migrants work in hazardous manual-labor occupations that often result in work-place injuries and can force a return to rural villages. Depression and excessive stress are also common due to separation from family, poor working conditions, and other difficulties of urban life. The fact that migrants are disproportionately young people who begin with exceptionally good health disguises some of the detrimental health consequences of the migration experience; consequently the health costs of migration are likely to go unobserved unless longitudinal data becomes available.

Migrants themselves are not the only group touched by geographic movement. To circumvent the costs and uncertainties of migration and, more importantly, to retain land rights, rural families often send young adults to work in cities while others stay to tend the fields. Geographic separation divides families, removing labor from local production, and empting villages of young people. The remaining family members, often the elderly, are forced to perform many of the tasks traditionally undertaken by others, including tending farms and raising children. However, not all of migration’s effects are negative. The most obvious way that migration affects families and communities is by bringing financial capital back to the agricultural communities through wages and savings sent home. When workers return home, temporarily or permanently, the financial gain is often accompanied by skills and knowledge acquired in cities, and has led to improved living standards. In many regions, this has also promoted local economic development.

The recent global economic crisis has undoubtedly affected the lives of many migrant workers and their families. Widespread layoffs and factory closings, especially in coastal areas predominately dependent on manufacturing exports, have left some 10-20 million migrants jobless. While the migration flow from rural to urban areas has slowed, it has not ceased, and more importantly, a massive return migration has not occurred. Migrants have shown remarkable resilience; many are holding on in cities or moving to other urban areas to find employment in less export-driven industries. Some migrants have returned to their home villages with the hope of migrating back to cities once the downturn has eased. Even before the impact of the economic crisis is fully understood, we may witness a revived flow of migrant workers, signaling the beginning of China’s economic recovery.