acknowledgement is made, and that it has not been previously included in a thesis, ..... the one hand, floating population is more concentrated in these areas. According to ..... However, the sex ratio may show quite a different situation within different ...... rural migrants is one of the fields that need more intensive explorations.
Title
Author(s)
Migration experience of floating population in China : a case study of women migrant domestic workers in Beijing
Guo, Man; 郭漫
Citation
Issue Date
URL
Rights
2006
http://hdl.handle.net/10722/28936
unrestricted
University of Hong Kong Faculty of Social Sciences Department of Social Work and Social Administration
Migration Experience of Floating Population in China: A Case Study of Women Migrant Domestic Workers in Beijing
By Guo Man
A thesis submitted in fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Philosophy at the University of Hong Kong February, 2006
ABSTRACT Abstract of thesis entitled
“Migration Experience of Floating Population in China: A Case Study of Women Migrant Domestic Workers in Beijing”
Submitted by:
GUO, Man
for the degree of Master of Philosophy at The University of Hong Kong in February, 2006
One of the most significant social phenomena in contemporary China is its large-scale internal migration. Millions of people, known as the ‘floating population’, have imposed immense influence on all aspects of the Chinese society and their migrations received extensive attention from both researchers and policy makers. Despite the proliferation of literature on the floating population, few empirical studies have been conducted to explore their migration experience, particularly that of the female migrants.
To fill the research gap, this study aims to explore the migration experience of a particular group of the floating population – women migrant domestic workers. An integrative three-stage-migration framework and two variable clusters are developed to help understand the whole migration process and its influential factors. This study relies on the qualitative research methods of case study and semi-structured, in-depth interviews, in order to obtain the migrant worker’s self account of their migration experience. 24 domestic workers working in Beijing were interviewed during the 2
summer in 2004.
Narratives from the informants indicate that although the migration experience for individual domestic worker varies, like most of the floating population, they commonly encounter the problems of unfair treatment in the work sphere and unfavorable living conditions. They are also excluded from various welfare supports in their destinations. As household servants, domestic workers are subject to more pervasive and sometimes severer exploitation over their labours. Although they benefit from the migration experience through the increased access to money and knowledge, as well as their chances to upward mobility, their institutional inferiority leaves them with few options for economic betterment and upgrade of social status.
By providing invaluable qualitative accounts on the individual migrant’s experience, this study helps suggest process-oriented and problem-coping strategies to facilitate the migration process of the floating population. It also aims to reveal the necessities to introduce regulations to improve the working and living conditions of the migrant workers in general and domestic workers in particular. Finally, the three-migration-stage framework and background variables lead the way to future research on the floating population that also fits the Chinese situation. (341 words).
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DECLARATION
I hereby declare that this thesis represents my own work, except where the acknowledgement is made, and that it has not been previously included in a thesis, dissertation or report submitted to this University or to any other institution for a degree, diploma or other qualifications.
Guo Man
Signed February, 2006
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The list of people to whom I am indebted is a long one. I regard the writing of my dissertation as having been a journey on which many people have accompanied and supported me, so that fortunately I did not have to take this journey alone.
I should first of all extend my greatest gratitude to my supervisor Professor Chow. I feel greatly honored to have studied under his supervision during my stay in Hong Kong. I benefit a lot from his careful supervision. His wisdom and patience make my whole process of thesis writing smooth. No matter we communicate by emails or have a face-to-face talk, his encouraging words gave me confidence and made me believe that I can do it well.
I would also like to thank the interviewees for taking the time to talk to me, for not minding my probing questions or my presence in their daily life, and for sharing with me the bitterness and happiness of their lives. My debts to them are irredeemable.
Thanks also go to the staff members in the domestic service companies that I have interviewed. They helped me to get into touch with informants and they provided me with invaluable support throughout my interviews.
Last but not least, I should thank my dear parents and my sister for their everlasting love and support. Their love, concern and blessing surround me all the time wherever I am. They are the source of strength in my striving for my dreams.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ i Declaration ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 6 Acknowledgements --------------------------------------------------------------------------- 6 Table of Contents ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 6 List of Figures -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 6 List of Tables --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 6
Chapter One: Introduction ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 1
Chapter Two: Literature Review ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 9
Chapter Three: A Summary of Migration Policy in China ------------------------------------------ 42
Chapter Four: Theoretical Framework ---------------------------------------------------------------- 63
Chapter Five: Research Methodology ---------------------------------------------------------------- 87
Chapter Six: Pre-Migration: Make A Decision to Move ---------------------------------------- 106
Chapter Seven: Transit Process: From Home Village to Beijing ---------------------------------- 137
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Chapter Eight: Post-Migration: Sweet-bitter Stories ------------------------------------------------161 Chapter Nine: Conclusion: Time for a Policy on Migrant Workers ------------------------- 208
References ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 221
Appendix 1: Interview Guideline (English Version) ---------------------------------------- 238
Appendix 2: Interview Guideline (Chinese Version) --------------------------------------- 241
Appendix 3: The Profile of 24 Informants --------------------------------------------------- 243
Appendix 4: Informant’s Reasons for Migration -------------------------------------------- 245
Appendix 5: Informants’ Means of Locating the First Job --------------------------------- 246
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Chapter One Introduction Background Information Ever since early 1980s when a series of economic reform took effect, massive population movement and labour transfer occurred in China from rural to urban areas, from agriculture to industry and from the traditional to the modern sectors. The movement, indicated by its name of ‘tidal wave of rural migrant labour’ or ‘peasant labour flood’ (min gong chao), is dominated by rural labours rushing to cities for temporary jobs. Most of the rural labours involved keep ‘temporary’ and ‘pendulum’ movement between their rural origin places and cities, and have formed a particular group of ‘floating population’ detaching from both social systems (Li, 2001; Murphy, 2002, Zhou, 2001). Such a large and unprecedented flow of population has imposed tremendous influence on all aspects of China’s society, and has received extensive attention from both researchers and policy makers throughout the world. In recent years, there has been an upsurge of interest in the study of living status of floating population in the destination places. This literature has unfailingly pointed out a visible segmentation in both labour market and local communities in the destination places and it is found that floating population are at a considerable disadvantage by comparison with urban residents – with regard to job opportunity, income, housing, health care, etc. (Lei, 2001; Li, Sun & Yang, 2003; Shen & Huang, 2003; Solinger, 1999; Wu, 2002). Despite the proliferation of research mentioned above, very few empirical studies have been conducted to explore further from floating population’s own perspectives about their migration experiences throughout the movement. Why do they take the action of movement and how do they move? What are their lives like in cities? What are the major difficulties that they encounter in their daily lives? How do they subjectively experience and feel their so-called disadvantaged status and 8
lives? These questions remain unclear in the existing literature. In particular, women migrant as a whole is understudied in the literature of floating population. While women comprise a significant proportion of rural labour migrants in the large cities of China and one of the new trends among internal migration in China is the growing share of female migrants (Li, 2003), very few studies have drawn a detailed picture of the movement and living conditions of female migrants. Theoretically, different approaches have been adopted to examine the migration process from mainly economic and sometimes institutional stands (e.g. Cai, 2002; Fan, 2002; Lei, 2001). However, they cannot fully capture the dynamic characteristics of the migration process and the complex influential factors due to their single perspectives. In this sense, a more holistic and integrative model should be developed to explore the whole migration process of floating population.
Categorization and Definition within China’s Context Before moving to the research question, some clarifications in regard to the major terms in this study are made.
Categorization of Internal Migration in China The internal migration in this vast country takes different forms and people involved are of distinct socioeconomic features. For example, some move from rural to urban areas; some move in a reverse direction. Some move within the boundary of a province; some take the form of intra-provincial movement. Some move to cities to look for jobs; some move for the purpose of tour or visiting family. Among those who intend to obtain employment in urban areas, some settle down with official household registration (hukou) location changed to cities; some move without transferring hukou location. Some stay in cities for comparatively long time, some stay just for a couple of months and return to rural areas frequently. This diverse and dissimilar nature of China’s rural-to-urban migrants makes the categorization and 9
depiction of the internal migration at the national level extremely difficult, yet quite important. The legal conceptualization of migration has been of key importance in China. The official and commonly used criterion for categorizing internal migration in China is based on household registration (hukou) transfer. According to the standard of Public Security Bureau, those who move with changed hukou location is classified as ‘permanent migrant’, while the ‘temporary migrant’ refers to all those residing away from the locations of their official household registration. It is interesting to notice that, dislike the definition of temporary migration in other countries, where length of residence and intention or return are more usually the criteria, China’s categorization depends on the official transfer of hukou system. In fact, many of the temporary migrants in China would undoubtedly be considered permanent migrants if such a status were dependent on duration of residence, rather than on holding urban registration. Partly due to the strict control over one’s hukou transfer, the majority of rural-to-urban population mobility assumes the form of temporary movement, and it is reported that the permanent and temporary migrants differ from each other to a great extent with respect to their demographic characteristics, their occupational attainment, and their socioeconomic features (Goldstein & Goldstein, 1994; Yang & Guo, 1996; Fan, 2002). ‘Permanent migrant’ and ‘temporary migrant’ are also distinguished as “migrant” (qianyi renkou) and ‘floating population’ (liudong renkou) (Cai, 2002). This classification implies the legal status of the migrants beyond its verbal meaning. Accordingly, only the movement which is accompanied by the transfer of hukou with permission of the household registration authorities at either the place of origin and the place or destination or both is regarded as the ordinary, formal, and fully legal form of migration. In the contrast, ‘floating population’ covers all those whose current residential place is different from their household registration place, and it often implies to the population movement of an informal and abnormal state.
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Definition of ‘Floating Population’ Although technically, the ‘floating population’ encompasses all those residing away from the location of their official hukou, the meaning of ‘floating population’ in both public media and academic studies is always more specific and complex than its official definition. Several points are mentioned here to provide a clearer description of the floating population as a whole. First of all, in regard to the direction of movement, although temporary migration in China takes place at all directions (including both rural-to-urban, rural-to-rural and sometimes, urban-to-rural migration), majority of the temporary migration assumes the form of rural-to-urban migration, and it is reported that the rural-urban population movement constitutes the main stream of internal migration in contemporary China (Banister, 1997). Researchers have also found that there was indeed little inter- and intra-urban, as well as the agriculture-agriculture migration in China (Banister, 1997; Wan, 1995). In particular, referring to its destination place, although the floating population is heading for all urban areas including cities, county seats, and urban towns, most of the researches and discussions concerning China’s floating population are focused on the floaters in rather big cities and coastal areas like Beijing, Shanghai, and Pearl River Delta. Such an emphasis on floating population in big cities is of reasons. On the one hand, floating population is more concentrated in these areas. According to the 2000’s national census, the share of in-flows into the six economically-developed areas (Guangdong, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Fujian, Shanghai and Beijing) accounted for over two-thirds of the total floating population (The National Statistic Bureau of China, 2001). On the other hand, engaging in various occupations and being blamed for causing various urban problems, floating population in big cities is able to offer a more comprehensive picture of the life of rural-urban migrants in China. As to the nature and purpose of movement, although technically the floating populations include both short-term travelers, visitors who have left their homes temporarily as well as rural labours that spend comparatively longer time working in
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the cities, it is commonly acknowledged that the latter group serves as the basis of the image of floaters (Goodkind & West, 2002). In fact, almost all internal migrants are essentially labourers, as the tails of the age distribution of floating population are quite thin compared with many other less developed countries and undoubtedly much thinner than those of developed countries (Banister, 1997). This reflects another significant nature of China’s internal migration, that almost all temporary migrants are essentially labourers. To sum up, considering its moving direction, the major destination places, the nature and the purpose of the movement, we can find that the dominance of floating population are rural-to-urban, agricultural-to-non-agricultural labour flows that are mainly concentrated in economically-developed coastal areas and cities. Therefore, to the common usage, the terms ‘labour migration’ and ‘rural-urban migration’ are often used interchangeable to describe China’s internal migration flow. In addition, such terms as ‘nonming gong (peasant worker)’, ‘rural-urban migrant’ and ‘rural migrant labour’, etc. can also be found in various researches on internal migration in China, all of which, to its essence, describe the same target population as so-called ‘floating population’ – the main body of China’s internal migration. The following Table 1.1 lists some terms used interchangeable in describing the internal migration and the floating population phenomena in contemporary China.
Table 1.1 Different Terms Used in The Literature of Floating Population in China
Key Term
Substitute
Sources Bai, 1999; Du, 1999; Hare & Zhao, 1999; Murphy, 2004
Labour Migration Internal Migration
Rural-urban migration
Floating
Rural labour flow Nonming gong (peasant worker)
Chan & Zhang, 1999; Davin, 1996; Fan, 2003
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West & Zhao (1999) In most of the Chinese literature
Seeborg, Jin & Zhu, 1998; Knight, Song & Jia, 1996; Yang & Guo, 1996, etc.
Rural-urban migrant Rural (labour) migrant Migrant labour Peasant migrant Rural migrant worker
Fen, Zuo & Ruan, 2002; Fan & Wang, 2002; Knight & Jia, 1999 Solinger, 1999 Lei, 2001 Ahn, 2003
Above all, the word ‘floating population’ instead of other terms is used in this study for two reasons. Firstly, this term exactly depicts the temporary and circular nature of the massive internal migration in China. More importantly, the term is socially constructed and it has insinuating meaning beyond its verbal interpretation of spatial movement. As Zhang (2001) pinpointed, the term floating (liudong) itself expresses a disagreeable feeling of instability, disorderliness and even destruction. In popular usage and city people’s stereotype, ‘floating population’ is connected with negative image of uncivilized peasants who wander around city corners for unfavorable work. They tend to wear old-fashion and ragged clothes, to speak with strong and distinctive accent, to behave in an awkward and ‘strange’ way, and they are more likely to engage in less desirable jobs, to cluster in overcrowded shacks, and to commit a crime. As so, it’s not surprising to notice that many city people consider themselves as well-educated, better-off, and even mentally superior than their rural counterparts, in particular floating population. Thus, as a special group of people labeled with ‘inferior’ and ‘second-class’, members of the floating population will be inevitably influenced by the negative image associated with the term itself. This is also a field that needs particular attention in this study.
Research Questions Based on all the issues stated above, we see that in present academia, there is very limited empirical study that has systematically addressed the issue of personal experience of floating population from their own perspective, and this research is conducted to fill up this gap. In particular, this study focuses on a specific group of 13
floating population – women migrant domestic workers in Beijing. It also attempts to identify the socio-structural, cultural and personal factors that influence individual’s migration process. By understanding individual migrant’s migration experience in general and their difficulties in particular, this study ultimately hopes to provide some problem-oriented suggestions for policy makers to meliorate migration policy regarding floating population and to make their migration process more favorable. To fill this research objective, an integrative three-stage-migration framework for the understanding of migration process and its influential factors will be developed in this study. A case study research method was adopted and 24 informants were recruited to provide a diverse and comprehensive picture of individual’s migration experience. Lastly, semi-structured, in-depth interviews were conducted during a two-month’s fieldwork in Beijing in 2004. The main research questions raised in this study are as follows: 1) What are the migration experiences of women migrant domestic workers in Beijing? 2) What difficulties do they encounter in the whole migration process? 3) What are the possible factors that influence the migration process and how do they function? 4) What can government do to facilitate the migration process and favor the migration experience of floating population?
Organization of the Thesis The following Chapter 2 reviews the existing literature on the floating population in China, points out the deficiencies of previous research and raises the general questions in order to fill these research gaps. Particular explanations are given on why domestic worker in Beijing is chosen as the target population in this study. Since the migration policy is an important factor in this study, Chapter 3 provides in details the current migration policy system in contemporary China and its potential influence on floating population as a whole.
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In the Chapter 4, a three-migration stage framework and its background variables are developed to facilitate the understanding of dynamic migration process and its possible influential factors. After that, Chapter 5 provides a detailed picture of the research methodology of this study, which includes the choice of case study inquiry, data collection, data analysis, and the trustworthiness of this study. In the end of the Chapter 5, the profile of 24 informants is provided. The following three chapters report the major findings of this study, which emerged from the data analysis of 24 interview scripts. Chapter 6, 7 and 8 discussed the migration experience of domestic workers in the Pre-migration, Transit and Post-migration stage respectively. Particular attention has been given to the difficulties they have encountered in the whole migration process, as well as the possible influential factors that affect each migration stage. Finally, the concluding chapter 9 outlines the implication of this study in terms of theoretical framework, policy and practice. Some suggestions for government to favor the migration process of floating population are also listed.
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Chapter Two Literature Review The first intense discussion of the internal migration and floating population in China took place between 1987 and 1988 (Zhang, 2001). Ever since then, the topic remains to be one of the most heated official and urban public discourses in China, and it unfailingly provides a fertile field for discussions from economists, theoreticians and policy makers. However vast the literature on floating population is, it primary focuses on the following interrelated aspects: 1) the features of the floating population as a whole: its volume, spatial distribution, mobility, and the demographic characteristics, etc; 2) the causation and the motivation for the large-scale population movement; 3) the implication of the floating population on the society; and 4) floating population’s lives in the destination places. In this chapter, the review of the existing literature on floating population in terms of these four aspects is firstly provided. After that, the discussions are followed and the insufficiencies of the previous studies are pointed out. In the end of this chapter, the research subject is identified to fill the research gaps found.
Features of The Floating Population The existing literature has given a rather comprehensive picture of the floating population from all perspectives of its magnitude, the geographic distribution and its characteristics in terms of individual, household and community.
How Many People Migrate Existing literature indicates that the volume of the floating population has kept growing ever since the late 1980s. The following Figure 2.1 shows the estimation and projection of the number of floating population in China from early 1980s to
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2010 (Ministry of Public Security, cited in Goodkind & West, 2002).
Figure 2.1 Estimates and Projection of China’s Floating Population Source: Ministry of Public Security (Cited in Goodkind & West, 2002) Note: the figures for 2005 and 2010 are projected. According to the figure, in the year 1997, the total number of floating population has reached 100 million and it is expected to grow to 160 million in the coming 2010. In addition to the data provided by the Ministry of Public Security, another major source of the estimates on floating population comes from the national census, which is conducted by the National Statistic Bureau once ten years. To list some numbers in recent years: the 1990’s fourth national census reported that the number of the floating population was 34.12 million then (Cai, 2002); the one percent sample census conducted in 1995 showed that the total amount of the floating population has reached 54.80 million in 1995 (Jia, Li and Ye, 2000); the latest report from the 2000’s fifth national census indicates that there were 121.1 million floating population in China in the year 2000 (The National Statistic Bureau of China, 2001). As one may notice, leave alone the difference that may be caused by the different timing the surveys were conducted, there is a discrepancy between the above data offered by the Ministry of Public Security and the State Statistic Bureau. In fact, in addition to the official reports, one can further find that the estimates of floating population’s magnitude are also in dispute in academic papers. For example, 17
Shen and Huang (2003) gave quite a modest estimation of 37.27 million in 1997. Another figure showed that since 1990 China’s annual rural-to-urban migrant labour flow has been between 50 and 60 million people (Wu & Zhou, 1996). The inconsistence in previous works on floating population’s volume demonstrates that the knowledge about the volume of this particular population group remains incomplete and fragmentary for most of the time. By far, the most exhaustive discussion of the data concerning floating population’s volume is offered by Goodkind and West (2002). They provided a useful discussion of the recent estimates, in which they pointed out the limitation of the measurement on floating population as the result of lacking of consistent definition of the term “floating population” itself. By reviewing major data sources which included population census, public security registration system and regional surveys at various levels, they concluded that different interests of observers always lead to different dimensions adopted for measuring, which will further affect the volume of floating population obtained in surveys. In a word, the lack of agreement on the definition of “floating population”, the varied objectives of investigations and the problems of methodology, sampling and timing jointly make it extremely difficult to produce a meaningful figure of China’s floating population. However different the estimate may appear to be, Goodkind and West (2002) referred to the number of 100 million, which is offered by the Ministry of Public Security in 1997 as the magnitude of the floating population that is likely to be used by urban planners in China. Based on their estimation, floating population constitutes roughly a quarter of China’s urban population and nearly 8 percent of the whole. While such a share of the floating population can be impressive enough, one can expect even a larger scale of population on move because many rural residents move without registering at the labour receiving areas and it is extremely difficult for local governments to keep an accurate record on this highly mobile population.
Geographic Distribution 18
As one can expect, the majority of the floating population move from rural to urban areas. Based on 2000’s national census, approximately 73 percent of the floating populations are originated from rural areas; less than 27 percent flow from cities and towns of various levels. As for the place of destination, 74.4 percent of the floating population is heading for cities and towns, and others move to countryside for various reasons. Examining the regional distribution of the floating population, one can find that that majority of the internal population movement (65 percent) is within the boundary of province. Compared with the figure of 46 percent obtained in 1995’s one percent sample population survey, we can see an increasing trend of inter-provincial movement. As a province in China is sometimes as large as a medium-sized country in the world, the scale of the inter-provincial migration is globally significant. The data from the fifth national census also shows that the most intensive labour-sending areas are Sichuan, Anhui and Hunan provinces, where the industry and economy is less developed and the ratio of labour to land is comparatively high. Rural residents from these three provinces constitute respectively 16.4, 10.2 and 10.2 percent of the total population on move, and the share of the people origin from these three provinces makes up more than one third (36.8 percent) of the entire internal migration. The most attractive destination places for internal migration are provinces and municipalities who enjoy higher speed of economic growth and industrialization development and who hold an increasingly demand on cheap labours. These places include Guangdong, Zhejiang, Shanghai, Jiangsu, Beijing and Fujian, which respectively receives 35.5, 8.7, 7.4, 6.0, 5.8 and 5.1 percent of the total rural migrants from all over the China. These six areas have accepted more than two thirds of the entire rural migrants. To summarize, all the information listed above shows that the mainstream of the floating population is from the less developed hinterland and poor rural areas to the comparatively developed areas of coastal regions and big cities.
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Individual Features At the individual level, data indicates that the floating population in China is more likely to be young, male dominated and better-educated rural labours. First of all, like migrants elsewhere, China’s floating population has the highest rate among young adults and the lowest among infants and the elderly. Published data from the 1990 census did not report the age of rural migrants, however, Zhejiang province used the 1990 census data to calculate the age distribution of long-term out-going migrants. According to its calculation, migrants were concentrated in the age of 15 to 59, which accounted for the 71 percent of the total migrants covered in this survey. Evidence from recent surveys in Beijing, Shanghai, Dalian and Wuhan also supported that the young economically active migrants aged between 15 and 59 continued to dominate the migration trend (Banister, 1997; Zhang, 2001; Zuo and Zhou, 2000, etc.). The year 1995’s one percent sample survey reported that rural residents aged between 20 and 24 have the largest possibility to migrate (Jia, et al., 2000). The 2000 census reported that the proportion of economically active people who are aged between 15 and 49 formed 69.9 percent of the total floating population, which rate is much higher than that of urban and rural permanent residents. Secondly, the floating population is male dominated. The fifth national census reported that the male accounted for the 57.64 percent of the floating population, while the female made up the rest 42.36 percent (The National Statistic Bureau of China, 2001). However, the sex ratio may show quite a different situation within different age groups and industries. For instance, Du (1997), using rural household data from Sichuan and Anhui provinces, reported that in the age group of 18 and under, women constituted respectively 68.5 and 55.5 percent of the migrant labour force in Sichuan and Anhui, making up the majority of the migrants of that age group. Another factor affecting the sex ratio is the occupation types that the migrant workers are involved. A sample survey of floating population conducted in Chengdu recorded that in the construction industry, the male workers were strongly represented in migrants (95 percent) and the female represented a distinctive percent of 83.7 in the
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family service sector (Scharping, 1997). Thirdly, the education level of the floating population tends to be higher than their rural counterparts, yet still lower than permanent residents of labour-receiving area. Banister (1997) and Davin (1999a) shared the same viewpoint that in labour sending areas, the best educated young adults had a much higher propensity to migrate than less educated young, which was true for both male and female. The research of Wei, Shen and Tao (2000) supported the positive association between the education and the possibility of migration. However, Li and Zahniser (2002) argued that the least-educated and most-educated members of rural society are less likely to migrate. Song’s research (1999) also discovered that the household with more-educated workers was more likely to engage in agricultural activities, rather than sending labour to urban areas to participate nonagricultural activities. While situation differs in specific areas, in scope of the nation, we would expect a higher educational level of floating population than that of the average population in their origin places. When it comes to the comparison between floating population and the urban permanent residents, the 1995’s sample survey and the 2000 national census both reported that the former group’s educational attainment is lower than that of the latter group (Hu, 2002; Jia, 2000). Exceptions are also found in some localities, Tan’s research on female migrants in the Pearl River Delta found that after controlling for age, female migrants in the area have a higher level of education than the local female rural population (Tan, 2000). Wei et al. (2000) examined the floating population in several middle-sized and big cities such as Beiing, Shanghai and Chengdu, and they recorded that the proportion of those whose educational level is junior high school and above is higher among floating population in these cities than the average level of city dwellers throughout the whole country, yet permanent city residents maintain a higher rate in the advanced educational level such as high school and college. The educational ranking where floating population are better off than rural residents and lower than permanent urban residents is in accordance with floating 21
population’s selectiveness of young and male adults: young people are often the best educated age group in China’s countryside, and the males of all ages tend to obtain higher educational attainment than females. As such, it is no wonder that the floating population is usually made up of the “elite” of rural residents. The lower educational ranking of floating population than permanent city residents also implies that rural migrants are more likely to involve in labour-intensive jobs rather than the most desirable jobs which have higher requirement on employee’s educational attainments and skills.
Household Characters Besides a large number of researches on the demographic characters of floating population at individual level, there are also some studies, though much less, approaching the question of “who migrate” within the setting of household. These studies investigate into the question of what kind of household is most likely to send migrant out. Such a household approach is essential to understand the floating population as a whole, for the household is the basic social unit in rural China and most of the migration decision is made in the household setting. In Davin’s study, the land-labour ratio of a household was regarded as the most important factor of the migration’s decision-making (Davin, 1999a). She pointed that the households who are land-short and cannot keep all their available labours busy are more likely to send out migrants than the ones who farm more land. This factor of surplus labour in limited land is generally true except for some cases in which the poorest household may find it impossible to migrate due to the lack of even one fare, though the surplus labour does exist. In other cases, households with enough land or less labour may still choose to migrate by leasing or subcontracting their land to others, as long as the benefits from the migration outnumber the cost of the movement. Mallee (1999), however, argued that although the surplus labour would form an incentive for migration, itself alone is an insufficient explanation for migration.
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Based on a survey covering more than 2800 rural households in 1993, he found that the migration decision depends on the specific labour situation of the household, household with grown unmarried children or complex household with multiple married couples residing together are more likely to migrate. He explained that it is usually these children, who are less tied to the agriculture activities, take the mobility option that has become “available” because of the greater labour supply. Located in three counties in Jiangxi province, Murphy’s study (2002) also gave a brief analysis on the relationship of household composition and migration strategy. She argued that migration strategies are shaped by the demographic composition of the household, which changes over its development cycles, and the migration decision is influenced not only by the number of the household, the quality of labour resource also matters, in her survey, she found that households with more labourers aged 15-55 tend to have more migrant members. She also noticed that about half of the households with migrants in her survey consisted of married couples with children, she gave the explanation that the economic pressure of raising children propelled the longer-term migration of one or both young parents. Furthermore, the unwillingness of leaving their children partly accounted for the floating population’s seasonal migration, and in some households, the adult labourers may feel too burdened with caring for children and elderly to migrate.
Community Background Previous works also studied the influence of the labour sending communities on floating population’s migration actions. Yang and Guo (1999) pointed that the peasants in the developed provinces of China tend to be more mobile and economically active than those in less developed regions. In Hare and Zhao’s sample survey in Henan province (1999), they similarly found that the features of the township affect rural labourers’ behavior of migration. However, in contrast, their study suggested that people in the local communities which have a high level of economic prosperity and which could offer its members economic opportunities is
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less likely to involve in migration, vice versa. Disagreeing with the absolute relations between the migration and the economic development of local community, Du (1999) found an inverted U-shape relationship between the income levels of the community and the number of migrants it sends out, with the highest migration ratio occurring among middle-income counties. He attributed this U-shape relation to the “regional difference” among different counties, which includes factors of transportation, communication facilities, cultural background and policy environment. Here Du’s finding shares with Davin’s research at the household level, in that they unanimously suggested that both the very poor communities and households are less likely to participate in the migration due to the lack of resources to start moving.
Causation of the Internal Migration The cause of this large-scale population movement has kept being a subject of a considerable amount of academic studies by both Chinese and non-Chinese scholars. While researchers brought forward their analysis from various perspectives, studies on this issue can be roughly sorted into two kinds according to different approaches adopted. The first approach is the explanations on the macro-level. Researches of this sort examined the incentive and influential factors of internal migration within the setting of China’s economic reforms that was implemented since the late 1970s. Researchers in this group explored the influence of nationally and regionally socioeconomic development in both urban and rural areas that have induced rural people to move. Particular attention and intensive discussion were given to the household registration system and its effects on migration. In contrast, the second approach – the micro-level approach discussed the emergence of the massive floating population on the basis of individual and household unit, explaining individual’s responses to economic incentives and their decision-making process of migration.
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Although these two approaches are always interrelated with each other and admittedly, there are few studies in which both approaches are adopted (Devin, 1999a, for example), to make the reviews of these studies more organized, the following section is still divided into two parts of the macro and micro explanations.
Macro Perspective Previous studies from the macro perspective always started the analysis by tracing China’s economic development strategies before the commencement of economic reform in 1978. In these studies, researchers indicated that government’s economic strategy of giving priority to developing industry required agriculture to serve as a source of accumulation and support for the financing industrial growth. This “agriculture support industry” strategy called on a low wage and high investment in industry, which could be realized through channeling agricultural surplus resources to industry. As a result, a series of regulations in both urban and rural areas were put into practice in order to control urban industrial population and fully utilize rural labour as a resource supporting industrialization. Owning to such an economic development strategy, rural population was tightly restricted in countryside, and disparity in economic development between regions were widened. During the economic reform time, the improvement of productivity in rural areas resulted in an increasing surplus labour in agriculture; the breakdown of effective control of the household registration also made the population movement from rural to urban areas possible, which finally formed and continuously accelerated the “tide of rural labourers” floating into urban areas (Cai, 2002; Davin, 1999a; Du, 1999; Robert, 1999; Scharping, 1997, etc.). In addition to the above explanations, the enumeration of push-pull factors of migration was another commonly used macro approach to explain the formation of China’s internal migration. In the push-pull model, a series of economic, social and political characteristics, at both origin places and potential destinations, were conceptualized for simplicity as “push” or “pull” factors. Features of labour sending
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areas always functioned as negative factors that pushed labour to move; characteristics of labour receiving areas were generally those positive factors facilitating migration as pull forces. According to the researches of this type, push factors in China’s internal migration include: the high population-to-land ratio; overtly underemployment arising from technical innovation and economic reform; failure of township- and village-run enterprises (TVEs) to keep absorbing surplus rural labourers; increasing in the costs of farm inputs and the following comparatively lower earning from agricultural production, etc. Pull factors can be: increasing demand of rural labour force in China’s process of industrialization; the existence of different economic growth rate and great inequalities between rural and urban areas; the higher wages, better facilities and educational opportunities, more varied entertainment and greater availability of consumer food in cities; and finally, the release on the control over city hukou (Huang, 1997; Mackenzie, 2002, Murphy, 2002; Wei, 2000; etc.). Although the push-pull perspective is able to offer a rather complete and elaborate explanation by analyzing factors from both places of origin and destination, it is insufficient in that not all the incentives can be simply categorized as a bifurcated pull or push factor, and sometimes it is not easy to distinguish the pushing from the pulling forces. For example, the importance of the social network and chain migration was always neglected in such analysis. Give another example, the improvement of local infrastructure such as road construction can be both push and pull factors as it may push further migration because of the convenience of movement it brings; or it may encourage villagers to utilize easy access to transportation to improve local economy, thus preventing them from the migration. Still taking the approach of macro perspective, there are also a number of researches delved into the institutional influence on the formation of China’s internal migration. Particular concern was given to the household registration system, in which field abundant work can be found. (Fan, 2002; Lei, 2001; Liu, 2000; Mackenzie, 2002; Shen & Huang, 2003; etc.).
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Fan (2002) examined the three established migration theories: the neoclassical, the behavioral and the labour market segmentation theories, all of which are mainly based on capitalist market economies. She pointed out their insufficiency in explaining China’s migration process due to the inadequacy of non-institutional approach. In contrast, she argued that the investigation of China’s internal migration should begin by examining the nature and consequences of the institutions within China’s broad background of “socialist market economy”. In her research she claimed that the household registration system, in particular, was interwoven with the distribution of services and job opportunities in migration process. Liu’s study on rural-urban migration (2000) shared the same opinion that the household registration system was the key factor of institutional control over population movement in China’s planning economy days. In transitional time of economic reform, he argued, the government’s strict control pattern was gradually replaced by an interest-driven pattern under which the migration took the form of individual/ household voluntary movement. Lei’s work (2001) traced the historical institutional conditions of the migration, which included the household registration system, the planning and “unified allocation” of labour power, and the rationing grain system. He argued that these three interlocking mechanisms of control were highly effective in preventing large-scale rural-to-urban migration in the 1960s and 1970s; the breakdown of the old institutions during the economic reform induced the population movement from rural to urban areas. However, disagreeing with Liu’s opinion of “voluntary population movement”, by way of examining the rise of “orderly migration” in recent years, the author indicated that Chinese state was still greatly involved in the migration process.
Micro Perspective In contrast to the macro approach, another category of the research on migration’s causation falls broadly within the micro cluster in that they focus more
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on how individual and household respond to socioeconomic changes and what their motivation and determinant to migrate are, rather than on the macroscopical and institutional factors. Briefly speaking, scholars in this category think that migration is an adjustment strategies used by individual and household for pursuing goals that are formed through continuous socialization and life-experience. At the individual level, migration is regarded as an investment in human capital and a passport to a better life. Researchers in this cluster claimed that the migration was undertaken on the basis of rational calculation of costs and returns, and the formation of the migration was a process of constructing rational decision-making. Furthermore, they pointed out that the economic reform in China brought in dramatic changes in rural and urban areas, decreasing the cost of individual’s movement while increasing the returns of the investment at the same time, thus inducing massive internal migration from rural to the urban (Hare and Zhao, 1999; Murphy, 2002; Robert, 1999). Determinants of migration at individual level were also evaluated in the setting of labour market, where the decision of rural-urban migration was supposed to depend on the rural-urban income differentials (Seeborg, Jin & Zhu, 2000). Drawing the central idea of Todaro’s model of internal migration, yet fixing into China’s context of institutional economy, Seeborg et al’s research argued that the potential migrants took into account the probability of obtaining employment as well as the expected wage rate in urban segmented labour market. The authors pointed out that the reforms in rural and urban areas, especially the changes in urban labour market, decreased the opportunity cost of leaving rural areas and enhanced the expected employment possibility and wage rate in urban areas. As a result, rural people were encouraged by the economic incentives and took the action of migration as a response to economic stimuli. While such a focus on the labour market sheds lights on one of the most basic motivations of migration, which is to seek for employment, it still invites further improvement. This is because migration does not purely function as the labour market allocation, and individual’s migration decision is always influenced by other 28
factors rather than human capital deployment and economic considerations. Incentives also include the advantage of social network and curiosity about the world outside. Another weakness of such an explanation is that it underestimates the restriction of institutional factors over labour mobility and over the migrant’s access to employment opportunities and job information, which will inevitably affect people’s decision of migration. Some articles have showed the similar scrutiny over the economic-rationality theories and they provided different explanations of migration from other aspects. For example, an early study of Wan (1995) found that the distance of travel displayed a positive association with the volume of migration in general, implying that the decision-making process of migration is more complex than the simple explanation of economic rationality and capital investment. The survey of Knight, Song and Jia (1999) in four cities demonstrated that the motivation of movement included non-economic factors such as to gain more life experience, which in fact was found to be as important as economic factors. In addition to the above research from individual perspective, more research at the micro level has been done from the household perspective. As Du (1999) and Bai (1999) have rightly pointed out, that within China’s cultural background, the consideration of migration is by and large connected with the pursuit of household maximum interest rather than individual economic rationality. Li and Zahniser (2002) found that while an increase in household’s income reduced the probability of it’s member’s migration, the amount of land controlled by the household did not have a significant effect in most of the provinces. Other scholars viewed the migration as a strategy of household livelihood diversification (Song, 1999; Liu, 2000, etc.). They explained that local nonagricultural and earning opportunities always appeared to be limited resource to most of the rural dwellers duo to the fact that these off-farm activities were always connected with patronage networks and social relationship of the home areas. As so, the opportunity of diversifying income resource is unavailable within local communities and once the household realizes that it could participate in several economic activities 29
simultaneously, it is more likely to diversify the household’s income portfolio by allocating labour between the farm and the city and to participate in the migration. Action of migration was also regarded as a reasonable measure of labour force deployment: to allocate its monetary resources and deploy its own labour force, household made the decision about who will work where, which members of family will work on land and which will work outside, and how much time will be spent on each type of work, etc (Cai, 2002). It is further pointed out that the economic reforms allowed households to allocate their resources more freely, and provided more chances for livelihood diversification at the same time. Finally, the gradually loosed control over entry into urban labour markets enables any rural households with sufficient adult labours to participate in migration.
Limitation of The One-fold Explanation The macro and micro approaches have yielded valuable insights into the causation of China’s internal migration. However, the weakness of such approaches also exists due to simplifying and separating analysis into the restrictive macro and micro factors. The macro approach, regarding the migration as a phenomenon determined predominantly by economic stimuli, focuses its explorations on the relationship between migration pattern and macro-level shifts in political economy, in which individuals and household are regarded only as carriers and embodiments of all kinds of social relations and social structure. In fact, individuals do not react passively to state domination, rather they try to obtain their goals and realize their dreams through the process of migration. In addition, the internal migration in China is not a once-for-all process. As the migrants keep pendulum movement between rural and urban areas, they make sense of their own experiences in each movement and adjust their expectation and behavior to fit changes throughout the progress. Individuals and households also actively form and pursue goals by using resources gained in migration. In a word, the formation of migration is not external to the influence of
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individuals and households; rather, migrants both create and respond to economic and social changes. Therefore, the macro perspective neglects the initiative of individuals and offers only a partial explanation. In contrast, the micro approach interprets the formation of migration as a result of individual’s rationally adaptive action to economic changes, and it contends that contemporary China’s massive internal migration is a congregation of individual’s movement. However, this interest-driven interpretation missed two points: for one thing, any decision of households and individuals is meaningful only if it is interpreted within a wider socio-economic context. This is particularly true in China’s “socialist economy” background, and the formation of individual’s goal and the deployment of household’s resources should be positioned within a broader institutional and structural setting. For another thing, the non-economic dimensions of the migration process have also been overlooked in micro-level researches. Factors such as cultural, social and ideological characteristics in the community of origin and destination places are seldom mentioned in previous studies, yet actually all of which impose enormous influence on migration decision-making process.
Impact of The Internal Migration and The Floating Population The possible impact and implication of the internal migration in China are enormous and complex. Researchers have also contributed a large number of literature in this field. The influence of the rural-urban population movement has been investigated in terms of labour-sending areas, labour-receiving areas and the rural migrants themselves.
Impact on Labour-sending Areas The positive effects of migration on rural areas are obvious: migration tends to alleviate the employment pressure in rural areas; it raises the productivity of migrants by shifting them to higher-productivity urban jobs; moreover, money, information 31
and new ideas are sent back, increasing the economic viability of rural households. Migrants also help transmit useful market information, disseminate technologies and bring both physical and human capital into the countryside, all of which are rather lacking but vital to the development of rural economy (Cai, 1997; Huang, 1997; Wei, 2003, etc.). Despite the benefits that the out-migration have brought to the labour-sending areas, some scholars also showed their concerns over the potential negative influence of out-labour flows. One of such concern is from the rural authorities and policy-makers: they are sensitive to the detrimental effects of migration, which include the possible result of abandonment of arable land and the threat to output of grain and other major agricultural products. Wei (2003) has similarly pointed that the massive flow of economically-active labours, especially the family migration to urban areas tended to increase uncultivated farmland. However, empirical study of Bai (1999) indicated that generally speaking, migrant labour did not inevitably lead to an increase or decrease in agricultural production. Davin (1999a) also claimed that in land-short China, it was unlikely that the land, on which a worthwhile return is possible, will be untilled. Moreover, she argued that probably the most marginal and least productive plot are returned to the wild during the process of rural-urban migration, which occurred as a positive outcome of the flow of labour from rural areas. In addition, scholars expressed their concerns over the ‘Brain Drain’ phenomenon accompanied with the rural-urban migration. They argued that since the migration is a highly selective process, where the majority of those who leave the villages are better-educated young men, it tends to remove the youngest, most enterprising and best educated from the rural areas. As a result, the young adults who remain behind are the less educated and less likely to engage in new initiatives, and the population of the labour sending areas becomes unbalanced with disproportionate numbers of female, elderly people and children (Du, 1999; Mallee, 1999). The negative effect of the ‘Brain Drain’ phenomenon is that the economic development within the sending areas may be inhibited and stagnant. Furthermore, out-flow of 32
young males and changing composition of demographic feature in labour sending areas can also bring problems such as accelerated aging process and the insufficiency of provision for the aged in rural areas (Davin, 1999a; Huang, 1997). Remittance from migrants as well as its potential effect is another hot topic for scholars examining migration’s impact on rural areas. It is found that the majority of migrant labourers send money home or bring it back during their visiting (Knight, 1999), and it is well recognized that the remittance is of considerable importance to both rural households and the local economy. However, questions have been raised about whether the remittance effectively promotes agricultural production. Huang’s work (1997) revealed that at the household level, regular receipt of remittance could transform the life of the family, however it had little to do with the maintenance or the development of agricultural production and agricultural service provided by village or higher-level communities (Huang, 1997). Some articles also indicated that most of the remittance was directed aside for “nonproductive” goals such as building a house, buying commodities, wedding, raising children or education, rather than reinvesting in agriculture (Murphy, 2004; Robert, 1999, etc.). An empirical study conducted in Henan province also demonstrated a negative correlation between migration and income-earning activities (Mallee, 1999). The author speculated that in communities where non-agriculture opportunities were already within the household’s reach, the income earned from migration would not be used to undertaken new activities, therefore no effort being made to improve agricultural technology and production by remittance.
Impact on Labour-receiving Areas In regard to the impact of internal migration on labour receiving areas, there are many studies on the beneficial effects of floating population on urban areas; however, much more concerns are given to the chaos and mismanagement that the migrant population have brought to cities.
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To start the review with the positive influence of rural-urban migrants on their destination places, numerous studies have unanimously pointed out that the coming rural labours undoubtedly served as an enormous stimulation for urban economic growth. Migrant workers are important to urban enterprises because their labours are cheap and they can bear hardship yet easily manageable. Furthermore, since they are more likely to engage in informal service sectors, most of which are distained by urbanities, their arrival meets the daily demand of urban residents; their low cost also restrains the rising costs in the informal sectors. Migrant workers also have far-reaching influence on urban economic development for they contribute to the readjustment of industrial and employment structure in cities (Cai, 1997; Lei, 2001; Sun, 1997; etc.). However, scholars also admitted that the huge number of floating population moving to cities also causes various problems. Rural labours have been long blamed for giving rise to all levels of social and economic problems throughout the cities. The problems they make generally include increasing pressures on urban infrastructure, housing, sanitation and public transportation, etc (Cai & Du, 2003). Excessive birth caused by female migrants and its negative effect on family planning policy are also sensitive issues attracting much attention from both local government and academic researchers (Xu, 2000). In addition, the media always associates increasing crime rate, overcrowding, worsening urban environment and city’s out-appearance with rural migrants (Davin, 1999b). Furthermore, the very existence of the large, mobile, and unmanageable population is even more disturbing to top leaders and city officials. According to Lei (2001), for Chinese government who used to put firm control over both urban and rural areas with relatively stable population fixed in space, the emergence of disordered ‘blind flow’ of rural migrants has formed a potentially unstable factor to the society. In addition, migrants’ communal living on the fringes of cities raises the specter of uncontrollability and a state power vacuum that can easily become fertile ground for the growth of social vices and non-state political forces (Zhang, 2001).
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Looking closely at the criticism on the floating population, one can find that some analysis has its biased basis. For instance, many concerns have been given to the seemingly high crime rate associated with rural migrants, however, the comparison is made without, or seldom taking into accounts, the differential of age composition and gender rate between rural migrants and permanent urban residents. In fact, such comparisons between a highly selective group of rural labours and city people can be rather misleading. Another problem of the criticism over floating population is that some conclusions are arbitrarily made without sufficient evidence nor the pertinent data. Rural labourers are supposed to account for any problems arising wherever they show their appearance, however, two points are missed. For one thing, holding the biased stereotype of rural migrants, urban residents are more likely to notice and emphasize the unpleasant thing and its negative effect associated with rural migrants, while at the same time neglecting the relatively invisible contributions that they have made. For another thing, the examination of urban problems tends to attribute all the problems to rural migrants, underestimating other possible factors and changes that are induced by the urbanization and industrialization process itself, rather than the emergence of migration. Give the complaint on the increasing unemployment rate among urbanities for example: the relationship between rural labour’s cramming into urban market and the increasing unemployment phenomenon among urban permanent residents is cursorily built up without the scrutiny carefully made to check the influence of economic reforms and market development. To avoid such mistake, all the concerns on the negative effect of floating population should be studied cautiously based upon empirical investigations before a definite conclusion could be made.
Impact on Individual Migrants Above all the discussion mentioned above, previous studies have also demonstrated that migration and remittance promote change not only by reducing
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rural unemployment and infusing cash into the countryside, but also by transforming the shared values and life attitude of the migrants involved. Most directly, members of the rural migrants are able to study and acquire knowledge and production skills through employment in the urban economy, and they have more access to market information and modern management. It is reported that some Shanghai enterprises that employ in-floating labour force have set up special training programs for them, and some textile factories even establish special schools for floating population (Sun, 1997). As such, we may expect the rural-urban migration to function as a channel to human resource investment and to further study and training opportunities for rural labours involved. What’s more, migrants to the urban areas experience urban culture and living pattern, and their views of consumption as well as their traditional opinions on life change gradually in the process. Firstly, urban popular culture to which migrants are exposed to tends to cater for fantasies and to promote consumerism (Davin, 1999a). Secondly, it is found that the migration also generates new life goals among rural migrants (Huang, 1997; Davin, 1999a; Murphy, 2002, etc). Such changes appear to have both positive and negative impacts on individual migrants. On the one hand, migration becomes the means for obtaining resources required for attaining personal goals. This is important for Chinese rural population who have been restricted from pursuing personal goals due to various institutional barriers: working in cities functions as a valve for dissatisfaction and to maintain self-respect. On the other hand, however, experience in urban areas may lead to a higher-level of dissatisfaction feeling. Observing urban model of life that is often characterized by more physical comfort and more entertainment, migrants experience difficulties and disappointment returning to their villages and accepting the life without many amenities. One of the most likely conflicts is marriage. Criteria for judging an eligible mate are changed, and long period separation within family may mean that while one partner has been stuck on a small plot of land, the other has been exposed to many changes, and the dissatisfaction with rural partner may raise (Murphy, 2002)
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Finally, researchers found that through the process of rural-urban migration, the number of people who showed their unwillingness to involve in agriculture production grew in both developed rural areas and poor remote areas (Cai, 2000 and Huang, 1997). It was also noticed that the strongest urban influences were absorbed by young rural labour who thought poorly of agriculture and showed even a feeling of disgust to agriculture production.
Living in Cities In recent years, the popular media and scholarly journal have increasingly been examining issues associated with the lives of rural labour flows in their places of destination. This gradually changed focus towards floating population themselves also echoes to the growing concern over the living status of migrants in cities.
Labour Market Segmentation A visible segmented labour market is found in urban areas, in particular in big cities of China. It comes as little surprise that the migrants are at a considerable disadvantage in the urban labour market by comparison with urban residents – with regard to job opportunities, skill acquisition, wages, and employer-provided benefits such as housing, health care and pensions (Fan, 2002; Yang & Guo, 1996, etc.). Fist of all, rural migrants are facing rigorous rule of entry in to the urban labour market. As mentioned by many articles, some city governments have introduced tight regulations to restrict migrants’ access to some attractive occupations (Shen and Huang, 2003). Secondly, peasant migrant are at the bottom of the urban labour market strata (Guo, 2002; Jia, Li and Ye, 2000, etc.). The researches pointed out that the overwhelming majority of rural migrants entered cities to work in the secondary and tertiary sectors. While the male migrants are more likely to engage in occupations such as construction workers, loaders, porters and guards, the females are highly concentrated in a few occupations including textile workers, garment processors, housemaids, restaurant waiters or so. Sizable proportion of migrants, 37
both male and female, is also engaged in self-employed jobs like private vendors, petty entrepreneurs, etc. No matter what jobs are taken by rural migrants, they are similar in nature in sense that most of the jobs are labour-intensive, low-skill required, low-paid, unstable and sometimes potentially hazardous, which urban people are unwilling or unable to fill. Besides these commonly-held occupations by migrant labours, a comparatively small proportion of migrants are engaged in agricultural production, most of whom grow cash crops and raise domestic animals or poultry where there are free markets for their products in cities (Yang & Guo, 1996). Only very little migrants, such like Wenzhou migrants, have social network and other means to accumulate more wealth and become better off than other migrants and even local residents (Lei, 2001; Zhang, 2001). Furthermore, the inferior position of rural migrants in the labour market results in a widespread exploitation of their labours (Solinger, 1999). One of such concern is about migrants’ health. It is reported that migrant workers, especially those in foreign-funded firms, often work in disagreeable working environment where necessary protective facilities and labour injury insurance are seldom provided (Guo, 2002; Ma, 2000; Tan, 2000). The poor working conditions can be demonstrated by numerous reports on body injury and occupational disease among migrant workers. Another problem that migrant workers encounter in the labour market is that urban employers are often behind in their payment (or in arrears), or underpay their workers. Several reports on migrants’ strike and procession infused by the employee’s failure of payment can be found in media. However, the strikes and processions are often quenched down with the involvement of public security, and the event is more often depicted as an incident of disturbance to public order by “nonlocal people” rather than a legitimate action for the rights of migrant workers (Ma, 1999). Other poor treatments to migrant labours range from sixteen-hour per day’s work without the toilet breaks, to kicking, locking-in migrant workers and even to penning up workers in a dog cage (Deng and Fan, 2002; Guo, 2002; Solinger, 1999). Finally, 38
there is increasing concern over the problem of insufficient insurance measures provided for migrant workers. The migrant workers are reported to have been excluded from a number of insurance schemes such as employment injury benefits, unemployment insurance and health care, etc. (Li, 2001; Liu, 2003; Lu, 2004, etc.), the details of which will be gone through in the next chapter.
Housing In addition to the labour market segmentation and the unfair treatment to rural migrants, proper and decent accommodation turn out to be another major concern of the floating population. Wu (2002), using the data from citywide housing surveys and interviews conducted in Shanghai and Beijing, as well as the results from official surveys, provided a most exhaustive exploitation on the housing conditions of rural migrants in urban China so far. Wu’s study showed that rural migrants were largely excluded from the mainstream housing distribution system and the recent reforms in urban housing provision seemed to largely overlook the need of this population. Also, quite different housing choices for floating population and local residents were noticed: while most of the permanent residents had their own apartments, renting private housing was reported to be a particularly popular option among floating population; the institutionally provided dormitories were another key housing choice for the temporary migrants. Wu’s finding was echoed by that of Shen and Huang (2003), who argued that the housing conditions of the floating population were precarious and temporary in nature. In addition to the limited access to formal housing recourses, housing condition for floating population were also found to be not favorable when it compared to those of urbanities and permanent residents: floating population occupied far less space and endured poorer conditions. However, given the overall inadequate and poor housing conditions, floating population nonetheless expressed less dissatisfaction with their current housing situation (Wu, 2002).
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Education Problem of Migrant Children For a number of migration that involves the moving of all family, the education problem of migrant children arises as a rather new issue where more and more concerns have been given to. It is found that most of the migrant children in their destination places are excluded from the local education system (Li, Sun & Yang, 2003; Zhu, 2001). Scholars have also pointed out that the major reason for this phenomenon could be explained by their parents’ temporary residents status in the cities: that without the permanent residents’ hukou, migrant children were not allowed or were required to pay a large sum of ‘supporting fee’ to enter the local school. While the supporting fees were always beyond the reach of most floating population, their children were actually excluded from the urban education system (Cui, 2003). Furthermore, researches argued that even if floating population could afford the extremely high education fee, their children still faced great challenge of overcoming the sense of inferiority wrought by their second-class status (Irwin, 2000). Due to various reasons mentioned above, majority of the migrant children in cities are attending their own private schools that are always set up by migrant residents themselves, and these schools are reported to have suffered from lack of supplies, poor conditions and untrained teachers (Han, 2003; Li, et al., 2003).
Migrant’s Citizenship and Social Status By examining migrant’s relationship with local residents and the government at various levels, some articles dived into the question of migrants’ living conditions through the perspective of the citizenship and social status. Solinger’s research (1999) was based on a comparison of foreign workers in Germany, Japan and rural migrants in China. The author revealed that China shared with Germany and Japan a discriminatory, even xenophobic attitude toward its ”foreign workers” (in China’s case, its own peasants). In addition, he pointed out that in several ways, the foreign workers in Japan and Germany, which by no means 40
welcomed outsiders, received significantly better treatment and stand in possessions of more rights than do migrant labour of China. Robert (1999) compared China’s rural migrants in cities and the undocumented Mexican migrants in the United State. He disclosed various difficulties that rural migrants met in urban labour market as well as in local community, indicating the low socioeconomic status of floating population. Davin (1999a), Ma (1999) and Li (2002) discussed the discrimination toward peasant workers and the formation of two separate classes of “insiders” and “outsiders’ in urban areas. They attributed the formation of two classes to the household registration system with its urban biases on the one hand, and the reliance on kinship ties among rural migrants on the other hand. Local government and the host community were also blamed for their unfair regulations which formally underpinned the discrimination and effectively excluded migrants from enjoying a number of rights that their urban fellow-citizens have. The studies of Zhang (2001) and Mackenzie (2002) echoed the viewpoints of two classes in cities that were made up of rural migrants and urban dwellers. They unanimously pointed out the identity of rural migrants as “strangers” in their places of destination, and the small possibility for them to be assimilated into the host community.
Research Gaps of The Existing Literature Previous sections have reviewed and discussed the major findings in the field of internal migration and floating population in contemporary China. The existing literature has discussed 1) the volume, the pattern of the internal migration, and the characteristics of the people involved; 2) the causation of the movement in terms of the socio-economic context at the macro level and the response of individual and household at the micro level; 3) the positive and negative influence of the internal migration on both society and individual floaters; 4) floating population’s lives in the destination place. While all these works together successfully offer us a rather comprehensive picture of China’s rural-urban migration and the floating population
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at large, a close look at the previous research reveals that there are some major insufficiencies in the existing literature. The first insufficiency of the previous work is the tendency of ignoring large differences among different types of floating populations. It should be noticed that the floating population in China covers a wide range of mobile people with quite diverse background: they originate from different places; engage in jobs with quite dissimilar natures; occupy different economic and social status, and have different levels of self-estimate as well as self-identity. As such, we may expect big differentials among migrant entrepreneurs, petty vendors, contracted wage earners and household maids, etc., and yet, all these migrants can be called ‘floating population’ as a whole. The distinction between different groups is so huge that it is reasonable to say that rural migrants under different categories may not regard each other as homogeneous people that have the same social strata. However, these occupational and class differences among rural migrants are often overlooked in formal and informal documents. Most researchers studying the floating population in cities have viewed them as an undifferentiated group of category, and the social differences within a group of rural migrants who stem from a particular socio-cultural situation have rarely been considered. It is necessary and helpful to discuss rural migrants’ living situation within the specific socioeconomic setting that they belong to. Secondly, women migrants have been significantly under-represented in the literature on china’s rural-urban migration. In previous studies, we see a dangerous tendency in which women migrant’s characteristics merged with those of males to form a composite, mostly male, migrant population. In fact, women comprise a significant proportion of rural labour migrants in the large cities of China, and one of the new trends among internal migration in China is the growing share of female migrants (Li, 2003). Researchers have also found that the migration in developing countries is a gendered process, which is determined not only by socially-defined roles for men and women that configure household strategies of production and reproduction in origin areas, but also by segmented labour markets in destination 42
areas (Robert, 2002). Despite all these, women migration has not been sufficiently incorporated into the literature on Chinese migration. What we know about them is often anecdotal that at most focus upon the most visible segment of this population – young, unmarried factory workers. As a result, more work needs to be conducted on the women migrants in China Another shortcoming of the previous works is their insufficient attention on family and individual migrants. Although the existing literature does contain a number of studies on individual migrants, most of them are concentrated on the determinants of prospective migrant’s decision of movement. The description of the living situation of the floating population available from previous academic papers has been limited to, not until recently, nothing more than records on labour market segmentation in cities and the discrimination towards migrant population as a general, and a few economic and demographic studies have attempted to trace a bit more closely at individual and household migrants. However, floating populations are not just the number in the formal and informal documents, they are lively people with their dreams, desires, intentions; they are someone’s child, someone’s father and someone’s wife; they are people with their own stories behind them. While many quantitative works have been carried out to show the poor treatment that migrant population have received in cities, understanding of individual and household migrant’s life still remain meager and incomplete; references in this field are also scattered. To overcome such insufficiency further study from individual and family perspective need to be made and it can shed light on real life of floating population and contribute to the knowledge base. Finally, comparatively less work has been done in the field of floating population from the perspective of socio-cultural influence. As have mentioned in previous section, explanations on migration decision and migration process have been predominantly dominated by economic considerations. Admittedly, a framework of economic explanation sheds light on the motivation of population movement because most of the internal migration is triggered by economic 43
consideration. However, itself alone is not enough to capture the complex nature of the migration where other factors such as government’s enabling and deterring migration policies, as well as the socio-cultural influence on migration process (especially for women migration) also matter. As such, factors other than economic determinants in the migration invite further exploration.
Identification of Research Subject and Research Question To fill the research gaps mentioned above, the research subject and the general research question are identified. Specifically speaking, to overcome the insufficiencies of ignoring the diversity among floating population and the under-representative of women migrants, this study will focus on a specific group of female migrant worker: the domestic workers in Beijing. The reasons of choosing this particular group of floating population will be explained later. In addition, bearing in mind that the previous researches have shown very limited concern over individual migrants, this study will look into the personal migration experience of individual migrants. Finally, to provide a comprehensive explanation of migration other than the predominant economic concerns, I seek to examine the influence of both government’s policy and socio-cultural environment on individual migrant’s migration process. As so, here comes the general research question, which is: to explore the personal migration experience of domestic workers in the setting of migration policy and socio-cultural environment. The following Figure 2.2 illustrates how the research subject and the general research question are identified through the literature review. First of all, some insufficiencies of the existing literature are pointed out, which are shown by blue box. To overcome these insufficiencies and to add new knowledge to the understanding of floating population, several measures and new perspectives are adopted correspondingly in this study. These measures and new approach are shown by pink box. Finally, based on the new measures and perspectives, the target and the general question of this research are identified, which are represented by the white box.
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Figure 2.2
Identification of Research Subject and Research Question
1. Ignorance of the diversity among floating population
2. Insufficient attention on women migrants
Focus on a specific category of rural migrants
Focus on female migrant labourers
Migration policy’s influence
Adopt an Individual approach
Research Question: The personal migration experience of domestic workers in the setting of migration policy and socio-cultural environment
Socio-cultural considerations
4. Dominance of the economic framework in explaining migration process
Note:
Research Gaps
Measures Used to Fill the Research Gaps 1
Research Subject and Research Question
3. Lack of individual & family approach
Research Subject: women domestic workers
As the research subject of female domestic workers in Beijing has identified, questions naturally follow about why domestic worker is chosen as the target population and why in Beijing. The following section aims to answer these questions.
Why Domestic Workers as Target Population Because of the diversity of their employment and large difference between groups, it is extremely difficult to get a representative sample of floating population in China. In this study I am dealing with a specific migrant population of persons who are engaged in household services such as cleaning, babysitting and old-age caring, etc. There are several reasons for choosing domestic workers as the research target. Firstly, household service is a representative occupation where migrants undertake majority of jobs. Although the exact number of female migrants involving in household service is not clear due to the lack of relevant information, Yang and Guo (1996) indicated that the share of domestic workers in female migrants is comparatively higher than that of other occupations in service sector and the housemaid is one of the most distinctive professions where clear difference between rural and urban labours is showed. Secondly, rural women working as domestic workers in cities are expected to absorb the strongest urban influence and may have the strongest feeling of deprivation. This is because, living within an urban family rural domestic workers become aware of even the most intimate details of their employers’ lives: domestic arrangement, home furnishings and consumer durables are all things important to their lives; they also see a different model of marriage and family interactions, which inevitably influence their own ways of thinking and living. Such influence imposed by urban life on rural women migrants is exactly what I want to learn through this study. Furthermore, not like young industrial workers, quite a number of domestic workers are married women who leave their children and family behind in hometown.
One can expect that the traditional social standing of these women in their households and their relationship with families will be inevitably affected by their experience of living in cites. How these influences function and in what ways are also interesting questions that need further study. For a combination of reasons listed above, domestic workers are chosen as the research subject that best serve the research interests.
Why Beijing Beijing is one of the major magnets for rural-to-urban migration in China. As the capital city of China, Beijing’s unique position in China’s economy, politics and culture distinguishes itself from other large labour-receiving cities, and meanwhile, providing an interesting setting for the study of floating population. Examining Beijing’s special economic position, we find that at least two features potentially impose influence on migrant’s employment opportunity from two contradictory directions. One feature influencing rural migrants is Beijing’s continual labour demand from service sectors and construction industries. As an international metropolis, Beijing attracts visitors, businessmen from all over the world everyday, booming the local economy and the development of tertiary and construction industry. This positively affects the prospective migrants in Beijing because most of such jobs are undertaken by rural labours. However, on the other hand, we see that not like other intensive labour-receiving cities such as Shanghai, Shenzhen and Guangzhou, the state sector in Beijing is larger and hires more local residents as well as migrant workers (Wu, 2002). The number of job that the state sector offers has greatly shrunk following the economic reforms and the continual trend of reducing employee will inevitably cause more unemployment among local residents. Thus we can expect a more intense competition between urban residents and members of the floating population to find jobs in private sectors, especially those need little skills. This can be negative news for coming rural migrant workers. In addition to its interesting economic settings, Beijing also provides a unique 2
policy environment for the study of floating population. The extent of government’s intervention in migration process and management of floating population in Beijing tend to be higher than other cities. This feature is attributed to Beijing’s special political status, and may have both positive and negative influence on rural migrants’ lives. On the one hand, labeled as ‘window city’ for the whole nation, the municipal government’s management measures on floating population are more comprehensive and standardized, which suggest that floating population, especially contracted wage earners, are likely to receive better treatment as well as more protection. Despite these favorable consequences, there are also negative effects of Beijing government’s intensive involvement in the migration. To protect local resident’s employment and to maintain capital city’s stability, discriminative policy toward rural labours has long been put into practice for several years. For instance in 1998, Beijing’s municipal government issued regulations outlining 40 types of occupations that would be forbidden to hire migrants (Goodkind & West, 2002). In addition, Beijing is also notorious for ejecting migrant workers, especially just before major holidays in order to maintain capital’s outward appearance. As we have discussed so far, the municipal government’s intervention affects migrant’s lives in both positive and negative ways. How these forces reach a balance and how they affect floating population’s working and living in Beijing, these questions are interesting to look into in this study. To sum up, as the capital city, Beijing distinguishes from other rural labour-receiving cities for its unique economic, political and social features, which may impose both positive and negative effects on floating population’s lives. Beijing is also an ideal setting for studying social policy and its potential influence on individual migrants.
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Chapter Three A Summary of Migration Policy in China It is a very general proposition that we should always bear in mind the situation from which migration comes. One of such environmental factors is the migration policy. Policies established and used by government to influence migration can both constrain and enable the dynamic process of population movement, either by setting obstructions against movement or by providing incentives. Government’s intervention in migration process is particularly distinctive in China. A large number of studies have demonstrated the effectiveness of Chinese government’s control and influence over population movement from rural to urban areas (Fan, 2002; Hu, Wang & Zou, 2002; Lei, 2001; Mackenzie, 2002, etc.). So for any research on internal migration in China, it is almost impossible that the government policy over migration is not examined. According to Ahn (2003), government policies that influence migration can be divided into two major categories with regard to their direct or indirect effects over population movement. Direct policies are policies explicitly aimed at altering migration flows. They include bans on urban entrance, travel restrictions, resettlement and transmigration programs, and so on. In contrast, indirect policies are implemented for some other reasons than migration but are likely to have an impact on volume and patterns of migration. In this research of individual migrant’s personal experience, the migration policy also acts as an important factor that affects individual’s decision and behavior. To provide some background information of the policy environment from which the migrations take place, a brief summary of the migration policy in China is offered in this chapter. Although Ahn’s categorization of migration policy is somewhat simplified and some policies regarding migration population can not be readily sorted into either kind (such as employment restriction over rural migrant labourers),
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the following examination of China’s migration policy still follows the direct and indirect classification for clarity. In the end of this chapter, a conclusion on effect of these policies is also given.
Direct Migration Policies Direct migration policies in China include Household Registration System (hukou system), origin government’s brokerage action, host government’s certificate system and the repatriation regulation towards rural floating population.
Household Registration System As Yang (1993) correctly pointed out, a key to understanding individual migration behavior is to understand household registration and its function as the intermediary through which the government exercises its control over migration. In the year 1958, “Regulations on Household Registration” was implemented by the National People’s Congress, thereafter Chinese citizens are divided into two unequal tiers – the privileged urban and the underprivileged rural (Fan, 2002; Lei, 2001). According to the regulations, every Chinese is born with a household record which identities one’s 1) registration classification as either ‘nonagricultural’ or ‘agricultural’ category, and 2) registration location of either ‘urban’ or ‘rural’ (Fan, 2002; Lei, 2001; Mackenzie, 2002; Shen & Huang, 2003; Yang, 1993, etc.). Under the household registration regulations, changes in official residence across administrative boundaries are strictly controlled by local governments, especially if they involve a transformation from agricultural to nonagricultural household registration. Hukou system has functioned as an explicit social control over population movement. Accompanied by the commune system in rural China and unified urban employment policy and food rationing in cities, it met with remarkable success in the first two decades of its existence, and the voluntary population mobility in the pre-reform era was virtually confined to a very small number of cases (Lei, 2001; 5
Mackenzie, 2002). It is unmistaken to say that the hukou system is the most important obstacle against rural-urban migration before the economic reform time, and the government achieved its goal of controlling in- and out-migration throughout the 1960s and 1970s. Such a paramount policy over population movement, however, has been greatly undermined since 1978 when a profound economic reform and structural change began to take effect in both urban and rural China. In rural areas, commune system that used to constrain rural labourers in their own production units was disbanded in 1982; in the cities, government’s control over grain rations and employment are gradually done away. More relaxed employment practice and the legalization of private businesses allowed peasant to enter the commercial channels and obtain employment in urban areas (Ahn, 2003; Lei, 2001; Yang, 1993). These simultaneous developments reduced both the legal and market barriers for rural hukou holders to enter and live in cities, and the household registration began to lose its traditional regulating role. For the first time in China’s contemporary history, millions of rural people flooded into urban areas to seek for a better living. As the number of floating population ejected throughout the 1980s and 1990s, impossibility of fully enforcing the hukou system to control both permanent and temporary movement became clear, thus the hukou system underwent a serious of reforms in many places of China. Some major changes induced to the hukou system are listed as follow to illustrate how the system has been reformed in respond to the growing need of rural-urban migration. In 1984, as a huge step forward in loosening up the rural household registration restriction, the State Council allowed rural households to move to 60,000 market towns (below the level of county seat) and receive a non-agricultural household, so long as they find employment, manage their own food rations and maintain a stable residence (Lei, 2001; Wong & Huen, 1998). While this “self-supplied grain household” (zili kouliang hukou) might help people break with their non-agricultural hukou status, it was still restricted to the lowest level of the urban hierarchy. The market town may be quite rural in nature, and zili kou liang town-dwellers were not 6
entitled many entitlements accorded permanent households in the town. In July 1985, the Ministry of Public Security promulgated a regulation prescribing that all migrants over the age of 16 who move to an urban areas and live there for longer than three months must apply for a “temporary residence permit” (zanzhuzheng) (Chan & Zhang, 1999; Wong & Huen, 1998). The salience of this regulation is that it implied that people can live separately from their household registration place, and it also legalized the movement of floating population. However, it did not solve the problems of migrants’ accommodation allocation, relevant social services in the destination, and children of these migrants cannot enter urban schools. In the 1990s, the hukou system witnessed a more drastic modification. Many small towns and medium-sized cities, and later even large metropolis like Shanghai and Shenzhen, created a transitional category hukou – blue-sealed or blue-stamp hukou (lanyin hukou) – for select groups of investors, managers and skilled workers (Lei, 2001; Lu, 2003, etc.). Eligibility of obtaining such hukou varies according to the location and administrative level of permitting cities, it may include paying an urban construction fee (entry fee), a stable employment, income, and housing, etc. In some big cities like Shanghai, an amount of investment is also required. Since the standard for getting the blue-sealed hukou is quite high, the blue-sealed hukou system is most like a migration selection tool where majority of selected people are those well-off professionals and businessman with non-agricultural hukou. It is reported that the primary candidates for a blue-stamp hukou are three groups of migrants: investors, property buyers, and professional or skilled workers (Wu, 2002). Rural migrant are largely discriminated against by such hukou system, and as a result the introduction of blue-sealed system did not actually facilitate the rural-urban migration. After the implementation of blue-sealed hukou system, a series of reforms on hukou system have been continuously taken at various government levels. For example, in 1997, the central government launched a pilot program that allowed some towns and small cities to grant urban hukou to qualified rural hukou holders. 7
Some middle-sized cities also opened their doors to enabled migrants: Ningbo agreed to grant a residency permit to migrants if the have capital investment; Hainan, Guangdong Province, Wenzhou and Yanghzou city similarly stated that they would grant a urban hukou to migrants in case they have spent required time living in the same location and have permanent housing as well as a stable job (Goodkind & West, 2002; Yang, 2002). Despite all these changes introduced to the hukou system, it is still highly effective in permanent migration control, especially over permanent settlement in big cites. The most one can say about the attenuated role of hukou system is that it is gradually loosing strict control over temporary migration which involves no change in official hukou status. A number of researches have indicated a drastic increase of temporary migration after the economic reforms (Cai, 1997; Du, 1999; Li, 2003. etc.). Looking from another perspective, it may suggest that in an open market era, the restriction of hukou system and refusal of permanent settlement in urban areas jointly contribute to the formation of increasing temporary migration and millions of floating population involved. As scholars have pointed out: the acceleration of change in levels of temporary mobility in China in the 1980s is, in large part a response to state policies (Goldstein & Guo, 1992). Household registration is still a crucial factor influencing internal migration because the importance of the hukou system goes beyond one’s type of residence. It also determines one’s eligibility and access to various social service and other kinds of benefits in cities. In fact, one can move anywhere one wants in nowadays, the problem is that without government approval one can not register at the destination; without official household registration in the destination, the migrant is unlikely to find a stable job, to send their children to local schools or to claim most social services (Ahn, 2003; Yang, 1993). Therefore though people can move freely now, it would be very difficult, if not impossible, for them to settle down in the place of destination if the migration is not government approved. To sum up, the last two decades witnessed a gradual easing of household control over internal migration in China. Some policies have also made great effort to tackle 8
the problem of transient population. Admittedly, they contributed distinctively to the breakdown of traditionally clear-cut separation between peasants and urban dwellers, however, some most distinctive privileges tied up with urban hukou such as jobs, housing and social welfare are still withheld, and the hardships for rural hukou holders to settle in urban areas, especially big cities, remain unchanged in most part of China.
Origin Government: A Role of Intermediate and Brokerage Origin government is able to facilitate the migration process by organizing local labours’ exportation and acting as a connection between potential migrants and labour-receiving areas. Up till the mid-1980s, a majority of rural government was still relatively strict on emigrants; in the 1990s, however, more and more origin government became optimally supportive to their resident’s out-migration (Hu, Wang & Zou, 200). In many places, potential migrants enjoy full support from their local governments in various ways. Local governments may regulate incentive rules to encourage rural surplus labours to move out: in some cases, the local government allows migrants to keep the land for several years if they migrate; in other cases, the local government provides a lump sum compensation of up to 1,000 yuan if the peasants wants to give up his entitled contract of land responsibility and migrate (Wang, 1994, cited in Hu et al., 2002). In addition to setting up clear rules to encourage rural labours to seek job in cities, the origin government also promotes migration by providing information regarding the outside labour market. For example, in the research of Hu, Wang and Zou (2003), a town government in Jiangsu Province set up a ‘leading group in charge of export of labour service’, the leading group actively collected information concerning the demand for labour service in the markets. As soon as it has located potential employers, the government would organize and send service teams to the employers. In another case of a town in Sichuan Province, after receiving the labour
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demand information from a factory in Chengdu city, the county labour bureau released the information through the broadcasting station, and organized the potential employees for migration, helping them to sign the contract with the factory (Xu, 2002). In both cases mentioned above, the town governments also provided professional training for the selected migrants before they were sent out to destination place. Furthermore, it has been reported that some local governments established special office to trace their sent migrants and provide help when it is needed in the later migration process. The staffs from these offices accompanied emigrants on their way to the destination place and kept close contact with them after they arrived. These staffs may help as mediators when conflicts occur between migrants and their employers (Murphy, 2002a; Xu, 2002). Finally, to encourage out-migration, some origin government provided rewards to those who have collected useful market information and those who have brought in contracts for the villages (Hu et al., 2002). By using strategies mentioned above, rural governments have actively engaged in promoting the floating population from their origins. They play the role of intermediate and brokerage in the whole migration process by mobilizing potential migrants, encouraging them to move, and by reducing the opportunity cost of migration through organized movement. As we have seen, their influence on migration may also last throughout the later process of movement.
Receiving Government: Certificate System Receiving governments assert their management over migration process through a system of temporary registration and various certificates. According to the regulation, a number of permits from both places of origin and destination are required for intending migrants. The certificate and card system was initiated in 1985, when the Ministry of Public Security first introduced ‘Provisional Regulations on the Management of
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Population Living Temporarily in Cities’. The regulation requested anyone who was sixteen years old or above and who intended to stay somewhere other than his or her own hukou residence for more than three months to obtain a renewable temporary resident card (zanzhuzheng). In 1991, the State Council issued ‘Measures Regarding Floating Population’s Family Planning’, aiming at reinforcing the Family Planning system among Floating Population who are regarded as a potential threat to One-child Policy due to their high mobility. According to the measures, every floating population who is of child-bearing age is required to obtain ‘Certificate of Family Planning’ (jihua shengyu zhengming) testifying to his or her productive history and current contraceptive method. The certificate is essential for rural migrants to get temporary resident card and work permit in receiving areas. In 1994, the then Ministry of Labour and Social Security introduced the ‘Provisional Regulation on Intra-provincial Employment Management of Rural Labourers’, and set up the work permit (wugong xuke zheng) system over migrant labours. Accordingly, rural labour bureaus should register local peasants and issue ‘out- going labour employment registration card’ (waichu renyuan jiuye dengji ka); urban labour bureaus control ‘in- coming labourers work permit’ (wailai renyuan jiuye zheng), without which a migrant cannot legally hold a job in cities. The registration card in sending areas and the work permit in receiving areas together are named ‘floating work certificate’ (liudong jiuyezheng) or ‘work certificate’ (jiuyezheng), this is the legal certificate for migrant workers to work in urban areas. To reinforce government’s management over floating population and to nationalize ‘orderly migration’ arrangement, in September 1995, the first complete national stipulation over management of floating population was jointly enacted by the Central Office Bureau and the State Council. The stipulation called on a unified certificate system and a more ordered rural labour movement throughout China. Once again, it accentuated that employment of rural labours without required certificate and card is illegal. It also clarified the responsibility of each relevant authority in the management of rural migrants, among which were the Ministry of 11
Public Security in charge of issuing temporary residence card, the Labour Bureaus in charge of issuing work certificate, the Ministry of Civil Affairs in charge of the custody and repatriation of ‘wandering people’ in cities, and the Family Planning Authorities in charge of birth control among women migrants, etc. The stipulation, along with a variety of regional regulations on various aspects of rural migration and employment constitutes the documentary basis of the certificate system that is still evolving. Accompanied with the issuance of the cards and permits are various kinds of ‘service fees’ collected by each authority on rural migrants and sometimes on urban employers who hire rural labours. It was hoped that through the permit and temporary registration system, government is able to better obtain a demographic record of the floating population and better control the ‘rural labour flood’. However, for all practical purpose, the system seemed to have the purpose of generating revenue for relevant bureaus rather than restricting migration in cities, and the fees charged also became a ‘big cake’ competed among different authorities (Kight et al., 1999; Yang, 2002). It is reported that besides the fees charged for issuing cards, other fees such as public security fees, environment protection fees and city garbage disposal fees were also collected by some city management office (Guo, 2002; Zhou, 1994). While various fees obviously have become a big burden on coming rural migrants, it is no wonder that many rural-urban migrants choose not to register though unregistered migrants are officially considered illegal (Ahn, 2003). To improve the certificate system and to ease the burden on floating population, in the year 2001, the State Planning Commission and the Ministry of Finance jointly issued an announcement to abolish seven fees charged on rural migrant labours. However, researchers argued that the certificate system and fees charged still tended to be a heavy burden for migrant workers (Guo, 2002). In addition to the costly fees, the certificate system was also criticized for its inefficient and rather complex process. For example in Shenzhen, to get a temporary resident card one has to obtain 11 badges for approval from different authorities (Cao, 2002). The complex procedure of getting the required cards and certificates may further discourage rural 12
migrants from registering at destination places. In sum, a system of certificate and temporary registration, combined with various fees charged is adopted by receiving government to impose control over rural labourer’s migration and employment in cities. Each municipal government may choose to tighten or relax its control over floating population through the certificate system according to its own economic development and public security, and the floating population can also adjust their migration behaviors in accordance to these changes.
Inter-government Cooperation Besides the measures adopted by labour sending and receiving government separately, the 1990s saw an increasing government control over migration process through inter-government cooperation, and both central and provincial governments have consciously continued their guidance and administrative support or control over the rural migration (Hu et al., 2002). In 1991, for example, the then Ministry of Labour, the Ministry of Agriculture, and the Development Research Center of the State Council set up a pilot project, which covered 18 provinces, to facilitate rural population movement (Hu et al., 2002). They conducted studies of the market, disseminated information on demand and supply, cooperated on transportation for the floating population. In the same year, Guangdong Province took steps to organize the ‘South China Labour Service Partnership’ (laowu xiezuo) in order to coordinate rural recruitment from surrounding areas. In the year 1994, the Ministry of Labour issued a comprehensive national policy on regulating inter-provincial migration and employment of peasants in cities (Lei, 2001). Some provincial governments have also set up inter-provincial information and service network for the floating population. It is reported that stable labour partnership has been built up among some west under-developed provinces and some more developed provinces and cites in the south China (Lu, 2003). Through the
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organized labour importing and exporting programs among different areas, it is hoped that the migration flow can be more orderly and controlled.
Indirect Migration Polices Indirect migration polices are government policies that do not consider the impacts on migration to be a primary goal but having an impact on the volume and patterns of migration (Ahn, 2003). Indirect migration policies in China include: urban employment regulations, education policies regarding migration children, urban housing policies, social welfare measures and social services targeting for migration population.
Urban Employment Regulations Since the majority of rural migrants move to urban place aiming at seeking for a job, employment regulations in labour-receiving areas play an important role in enabling and influencing the migration process. In pre-reform China, labour allocation was highly centralized and tightly controlled by the state. As a result, job mobility was low, very little employment-driven movement occurred before the economic reforms (Fan, 2002). In early 1984, the Party’s Central Committee issued a document giving permission to farmers from rural areas to set up business in the service sector in urban areas, provided they take care of their own food and housing (Hu et al., 2002). Urban reforms since 1984 have granted more autonomy to state-owned enterprises, enabling them to hire rural hukou employees on contracts with fixed terms, although most of such jobs are temporary in nature. During the economic reform era, the number of private enterprises, foreign-funded firms and other non-state-controlled business has increased significantly. Services such as household work, hotels, restaurants, repair shops, and hair salons also have expanded greatly. The prosperity of these businesses provided thousands of employment opportunities for rural migrants, some of which might be 14
disdained by urbanities. At the same time, the changing employment policies that entitled enterprises more freedom to choose their own employees also helped migrant labours to find jobs and survive at the destinations even without official household registration. In short, now rural migrants are able to enter the commercial channels, working temporarily in urban places or even work as self-employed if they can meet their housing, food and employment needs (Yang, 1993). Ostensibly the urban employment policy allows rural migrants to work in cities, however, without a local hukou, rural migrant workers are excluded from the more prestigious and desirable jobs. Some governments in labour-importing areas demand that local firms give preference to urban residents or peasants from within the province in hiring decision. For example, in 1994, the then Ministry of Labour and Social Security laid strict limitations over the employment categories that the inter-provincial migrant labourers may take. Accordingly, labour bureaus were in charge of constructing a list of job categories or industries open to migrant workers and they certified firm’s need for migrant labours and supervised ‘job agencies’ as well as the labour market’s operation. Only in case when urban enterprise failed to recruit employees from local areas, migrant workers would be allowed to hire (Lei, 2001). Since 1995, major cities like Shanghai, Beijing and Shenzhe also have carried out some regulations to restrict labour migrants to some job categories and preclude them altogether from others (Lei, 2001; Guo, 2002). Such institutionalized discrimination against rural migrants within the urban market seems to be changed somewhat in the new century. For example, earlier in 2001, the State Planning Commission announced its intention to create an employment registration system, which would assign a social security number, a personal salary account and a security account to all Chinese citizens without the distinction between urban and rural residents (possible replacement of the hukou system) (Mackenzie, 2002; South China Morning Post, Aug 18, 2001). In 2003, the State Council abolished all discriminative restrictions over migration workers in urban labour market, and now qualified rural labourers are entitled same access to all kinds of jobs. The reforms mentioned above can be regarded as a great step towards 15
breaking down the long-existing segmented labour market and building up of a unified labour market in urban areas. Nevertheless, there is still a long way to go before the truly equal treatment to urban residents and rural migrant labours can be realized, in terms of both income and various work-related benefits. Before that one may still expect the dominance of different job categories by urbanities and rural migrant workers.
Housing Policy Housing is an important element of urban amenities, and the migration process is intricately related to the housing provisions in destination places. Many research agreed that accommodation is a major barrier for rural migrants to settle down in cities (Mackenzie, 2002; Shen & Huang, 2003, etc). A brief review of the urban housing policies indicates that the urban housing is still closely associated with hukou and remains difficult to attain for migrants. As a result, migrant labours are disadvantaged in both pubic subsidized housing and secondary housing market. In 1991, the practice of Housing Provident Fund was first introduced in Shanghai. This was a low- rent housing distribution program run by work units or municipal government. According to the regulations, both work units and employees were required to pay part of the salaries to the fund, and all contribution would become the property of employees and could only be used for housing-related purpose (Wu, 2002). In the year 1994, the practice was extended nationwide. However, majority of migrant workers who did not have work units or who engaged in temporary work in cities did not benefit from the practice. In 1995, a national Comfortable Housing Project (anju gongcheng) was launched in order to create private sector housing with government support for low-income urban families. Later, the project was revised and given a new name of Economic and Comfortable Housing (jingji shiyong fang), with the new emphasis on developing housing for low- and middle-income groups (Wu, 2002). Again, these subsidized housing was only provided to qualified urban residents at below market
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rent, having nothing to do with migrant workers. The end of 1999 was a turning point of China’s housing distribution system, when the provision of welfare pubic housing was terminated. Market mechanism began to gain its dominance in the housing distribution system, and commercial housing sold by real estate companies, as well as housing units’ changing in secondary housing market developed drastically (Wu & Wang, 2002). However, the preferential policies still favored urban residents only: a significant amount of so-called commercial housing were still purchased by work units and sold to employees at discounted price as redistribution good. Bank mortgages for commercial housing that is available now in many large cities, are also restricted to the locals. Furthermore, in the secondary housing market where older housing units change hands, a local household registration is often required for participation (Wu, 2002). As shown from the above review, rural migrants in cities have quite limited access to housing resources in both public and private market. Even in case that migrant labours have spent fairly long time in receiving areas with stable job and income, they are still disadvantaged and discriminated against in the housing distribution system. This partly accounts for migrant workers’ preference on renting houses, their illegal dwellings and the formation of large ‘migrant enclaves’ in peri-urban areas. To conclude, the housing policies act as the last bulwarks to prevent rural migrant from permanent settlement in cities. If they also serve to drive floating population further underground, there will be an even large number of migrants living in cities without access to other important social services such as health care, education, etc.
Education Policy Before 1998, when the Ministry of Education and Ministry of Public Security jointly initiated a regulation requiring labour-receiving governments to guarantee education for migrant children between the ages of 6 and 14, most of migrant
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children were excluded from local education system. This regulation aimed to cover migrant’s children in the education system in receiving areas, however, a sum of money for using local education resources and facilities weas charged, and some local schools also required the submission of exorbitant ‘supporting fees’, which were always beyond the reach of ordinary migrant workers. The regulation also allowed social organizations and individuals to build special schools for migrant children, and the requirement on such simplified schools were usually lowered than official schools accordingly. As a result, most cities handled this by opening separate schools for migrant children rather than allowing them to attend the same schools as the children of permanent residents (Goodkind & West, 2002). Some migrants even built their own schools for their children, and for a combination of reasons, these schools suffer from lack of supplies, poor condition, untrained teachers and low education qualities (Han, 2003; Irwin, 2000; Li, et al 2001). In April 2002 Beijing issued a pilot regulation regarding education for migrant children. The regulation was aimed at guaranteeing compulsory education for all migration children aged between 6 and 15. However, the extra fee for attending local schools were still required; various kinds of document and certificates required from both places of origin and local government also made the transferring process rather complex and time-consuming. Echoing to the growing concerns over migrant children’s education problem, in August 2002, several departments of China jointly held a national meeting discussing and exchanging ideas on education for migrant’s children. The meeting proposed that migrant’s children should be included in nine years’ compulsory education system, mainly through the public education systems. However, considering the feature of floating population, the meeting also emphasized that the socialized education for migrant children should be promoted as well, such as schools run by various social organizations. Furthermore, the meeting called on simplified enrolment procedure, lowered or remitted education fees; it also urged the receiving government to speed up formulating and promulgating relevant standards and regulations over simplified migration schools (Guo, 2002). 18
In response to the meeting, several city governments have taken action to improve the local education system for migrant children. Beijing, for example, reduced its extra education charge on migrant children by 50 percent during the year 2002 (Yang, 2002). However, in other big cities, the tuition fees and so-called ‘supporting fee’ still cost hundreds to ten thousands of dollars per year for migrant children (Han, 2003). It is reported, partly due to the limited access to formal education system, while virtually 100 percent of city-born children aged from 5 to 12 are attending school, roughly 10 percent of migrant children are still excluded from urban education system (Su, 2003).
Social Security Measures for Migrant Workers Schemes and funding for China’s social security system are tightly linked to official urban population level. Unregistered floating population and self-employed migrants without work units have little, if any, access to all kinds of social security measures. Only those fortunate enough to land jobs with state-owned enterprises (SOEs) as contracted workers are likely to have limited form of insurance (Mackenzie, 2002). Even in SOEs, temporary migrants are always denied the benefits to which permanent workers are entitled, such as pension, medical care, unemployment insurance, compensation for work-related injuries, etc. (Fan, 2002).
1) Work-related Injury Insurance: Many scholars agree that the work-related injury insurance is the most urgent insurance scheme that needs to be built up for migrant workers (Lu, 2004; Wang, 2003; Zheng, 2002b, etc.). In 1996, ‘Temporary Measures to Implement Work-Related Insurance for Enterprise Workers’ was issued by then Ministry of Labour (Chow, 2000). It was stipulated in the circular that all types of enterprises in China should contribute to their employee’s work-related injury insurance, however, whether rural migrant workers in urban enterprises were covered in such scheme remained unclear. In January 2003, the State Council for the first time stated that rural migrant workers should be covered in work-related injury
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insurance in its announcement on management and service of migrant workers. Later in the same year, in newly promulgated ‘Work-related Insurance Regulation’, the State Council emphasized again the importance of establishing the insurance for all employees; it also clarified that the ‘employees’ refers to all those with established working relation with employers regardless of the form and duration of the employment. According to these regulations, employed rural migrant workers, no matter by work unit or private employees, should be covered by the work-related injury insurance system; meanwhile, self-employed migrants were still excluded from the system. Since some of the key regulations are rather new, the coverage and effect of the work-related injury insurance for migrant workers is still unclear yet, however, both reports from academic research and public media suggest that due to the lack of compulsion and the reluctance of employees to contribute, very few number of rural migrants are covered by the system and even less can obtain compensation for injuries occurred in workplace (Savadove, 2004; Wei, 2003; Xiao and Yang, 2004; Yang, 2003).
2) Medical Insurance: Urban health care system continues to be associated with official urban residents only, and floating population lacks access to city’s hospital, doctors and pharmacies. In 1998, the State introduced the basic medical insurance system for urban employees. Even telling from the title of this regulation, one can know that the majority of floating population as temporary residents in cities were excluded from the system. The system required all urban enterprises to build up medical insurance for their workers, and the system was aimed at providing medical insurance for contract and formal employees in urban areas. While majority of the migrant labours hold temporary and informal occupations, they were not covered by the system. One research conducted in Beijing in 2000 found that more than half of the migrant workers interviewed (59 percent) chose not to see doctor when they were sick. The main reason was the high expenditure of medical care in cities and the lack 20
of medical insurance provision for rural migrants. In this research, migrant workers who had received medical treatment in city hospitals spent averagely 885 yuan on the medical care totally, in which the share of the contribution from work unit was only less than ten percent (72 yuan) averagely (Li, 2001). In addition to this research, the exact figure of the migrant labours covered in urban medical insurance scheme is not available, however, one could expect that the medical provisions for migrant labour regime as a whole would be far from enough in the destinations.
3) Unemployment Insurance: Migrant workers have much higher possibility of losing job than official urban residents, yet they had no access to unemployment compensation until late 1998 when the State Council issued ‘Unemployment Insurance Regulation’. This was the first time that migrant labour’s right of receiving unemployment insurance was officially entitled, although, still with conditions. The regulation laid down some restrictive conditions on both employers and rural employees in order to realize the unemployment compensation. For example, one year’s continuous employment under labour contract was required; employers were also asked to contribute before their rural employees could get the compensation in case of unemployment. These two requirements have practically excluded many temporary migrant labours from the insurance system. As a result, only a small number of migrants labours benefit from the unemployment insurance system. It was reported that when lost job, the majority of migrant labours depended on their own saving to survive in cities; some others tended to seek for help from relatives and friends, but almost none of them could get any form of compensation or help from their employers (Li, 2001; Luo & Xia, 2003).
4) Old Age Insurance: Although migrant workers are characterized by their dominance of young people, establishment of old age insurance for them is never too early to be put on government’s agenda. Twenty years have passed since the ‘rural migrant flood’ first emerged throughout China in early 1980s, and the first migration generation may have already faced the problem of provision for the aged. Further 21
more, since more and more migrants tend to live in cities while their official household registrations still remain in their hometowns, the provision of old age care for these rural-originated labours challenges the urban insurance system. In 1995, the State Council issued an ‘Announcement on Deepening the Reform of the Old Age Insurance for Enterprise Workers’ (Chow, 2000). The announcement stipulated that the coverage of old age insurance should be extended from workers of state-owned enterprises to all urban employees before the new century. In 1997, the State Council issued another decision on ‘Constructing a Unified Old Age Insurance System for Enterprise Workers’ (Chow, 2000). Once again the aim of establishing a unified old age insurance system for all urban employees were iterated and all employers in urban areas were asked to establish basic old age pension for their employees. However, whether rural migrant working in urban areas were accounted as ‘urban employees’ and whether they were entitled to old age insurance were not clearly stated in both two announcements. In 2001, the Ministry of Labour and Social Security jointly issued an announcement on perfecting the old age insurance system in urban areas (Zheng, 2002a). For the first time, the issue of old age insurance for rural migrant workers was officially brought forward in the announcement. Accordingly, all migrant contract workers (male aged 60 and above; female aged 55 and above) were entitled to basic old age insurance after 15 years’ contribution accumulatively. Those who contributed less than 15 years were able to get a lump sum payment from their individual accounts. The individual account of old age pension was portable and could be transferred to migrant labours’ new work units. In addition to the regulations promulgated by the central government, some cities have also made active attempt to set up separate old age insurance schemes for local residents and migrant workers. For example, in August 2001, Beijing municipal government introduced ‘Provisional Regulation on Old Age Insurance for Rural Migrant Workers’, and all the non-local workers in Beijing were required to participate the old age insurance system. Both employers and employees were asked to contribute and migrant workers were entitled to old age pension after reaching the 22
age required (Lu, 2004). Beijing’s attempt to establish the old age insurance for migrants was initiative, however, due to rural migrant’s high mobility and the comparatively high contribution rate for both employers and workers (19 and 7 percent of previous year’s minimum wage for city employers respectively), the implementation of the schemes was not satisfactory, and migrant workers were reported to prefer higher wage rather than submitting insurance fee and enjoying old age protection (Qu, 2004; Zheng, 2002b).
Conclusion Compared to the pre-reform period, the Chinese state no loner engages in an all-out exclusion towards rural migrants in cities, yet a series of migration policies are adopted to control ‘blind migration’ and facilitate ‘orderly migration’. These policies can be direct migration policies explicitly aimed at altering migration flows, such as household registration system, origin government’s organized out-migration, receiving government’s certificate system and inter-government cooperation between labour-sending and -receiving areas. Migration policies are also those indirect ones, which do not regard changing migration flow as their primary goals, yet having an impact on the volume and patterns of migration. Indirect migration policies in China include restrictive employment, housing and education regulations in urban areas, and discriminative urban social welfare schemes. Direct and indirect migration policies together provide a framework within which local government and labour bureaus play an important role in enabling, as well as in regulating and controlling rural migration. Such a framework is important for the understanding of individual migrant’s behavior as individual’s decisions and migration process are influenced not only by human capital and economic consideration but also by access to services and resources tied to this framework. The brief review of the migration policy in China indicates that nowadays rural migrants do not face the same barriers against employment, food and housing as before, but a series of migration policies, both direct and indirect ones, have merely provided them
23
a second-class form of urban citizenship, allowing them limited entitlement to housing, education and other resources in destination places.
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Chapter Four Theoretical Framework As noted in the literature review, migration experience of individual and family rural migrants is one of the fields that need more intensive explorations. In this research, a framework of stage-of-migration and a holistic approach that view migration as an on-going process are adopted to help understand individual floater’s motivation, migration process and settlement experience. In this chapter, an overview of the previous research on stage-of-migration is firstly provided to give a general picture of the stage concept developed in the West. Each review of the previous works is followed by a brief discussion that points out their limitations and their reference values for China’s migration study. Based on the review, I argue that: although these West-originated theories cannot be applied directly to China’s internal migration phenomenon without considering China’s specific conditions, they are still of great value for their comprehensive and applicable approach. As so, the stage framework is still adopted in this study, and the rationale for choosing such a framework in China’s migration study is presented. After that, a three-migration-stage framework and its two variable clusters tailored in China’s context of internal migration are constructed. Finally, sets of research questions are raised on the base of formulated framework.
A Stage-of-Migration Framework to Understand Migration Process Several researchers have contributed to the knowledge base of migration study by situating migration process into a recurring stage framework, in which the whole migration process is regarded as an on-going procedure consisting of a series of identifiable and readily understood stages and sub-stages (Cox, 1987; Drachman, Ahn, and Paulino, 1996; Rual, 1971; Schiller et al., 1992, etc.). 25
The underlying assumption of these studies is that even each act of movement and settlement is an unique combination of multiple factors, and although the nature, the form, the outcome of migration may differ enormously accordingly, people could always expect and detect some fundamentally similar steps in the whole migration process despite these obvious variations. Therefore, several stages of the migration are identified and they are marked by distinctive events that are always shared among different types of migration and each stage has a bearing on the ultimate outcomes of the process. The difference of various research of this kind lies in their different ways of demarcating and interpreting the stages, and in different critical events that are identified in each stage. One of the most influential frameworks of such kind was presented by Cox (1987). Cox saw migration and the following integration as essentially one process which proceeded through three stages of Pre-movement, Transition and Post-arrival. He further identified five sub-stages under the main three stages. These five stages were Pre-decision situation, Decision-making process, Transition, Reception and initial resettlement, and finally, Longer-term adjustment and integration. The first two sub-stages were components under the stage of Pre-movement while the last two were under the stage of Post-arrival. One significance of Cox’s work is his fairly comprehensive enumeration and explanation of variables affecting the migration-integration process. According to Cox, there are seven sets of variables that can be identified throughout the migration-integration process, and all the variables impose significant influences on specific stage. The seven variable clusters are 1) Background variables; 2) Migration decision-making and goals of migration; 3) Migration experiences and nature of program; 4) Reception and resettlement policies and experiences; 5) Host society variables; 6) Group interaction variables (Cox, 1987, p. 17). The first variable cluster refers to migrant’s social, economic, political and cultural background that exert tremendous influence on the options available to migrants and ultimately on the way that they will handle the total migration experience. The second cluster relates to the decision to migrate, such as the motivation for migration, the goal of individual 26
migrant, etc. The third cluster is the actual migration experience (is it easy or difficult, whether it provokes insecurity or is reassuring, and so on). The fourth cluster relates to the arrival and reception stage, where government’s migration policies impose influence on migration experiences of individual and groups. The fifth and sixth variable clusters relate to the integration stage, at which point a range of variables relating to the host society and to the type of relationship that form at various levels become significant. The last variable cluster is the person of the migration, his or her personality, strengths and weakness, level of education, and the like (Cox, 1987, pp.17-24). The most distinguished contribution of Cox’s work lies in his successful attempt to combine influential factors in both place of origin and destination, at both micro level and macro level, and also from both individual and governmental perspective throughout the migration process. This holistic approach fits the study of migration well in that migration is rather a complex process where various factors at different levels and places interweave and interact, and the ultimate outcome is a combination of diverse variables. Any single-perspective approach would not be enough to explain the complex nature of migration phenomenon. More important, by dividing the whole process of migration-integration into several identifiable stages and pointing out detectable variables in each stage, Cox’s work succeeded in setting up a clearly demarcated framework and identifying possible sets of factors among which one or more can be studied intensively according to research’s interest or the nature of migration type that is studied. In a word, Cox’s framework enables coming research to be highly practicable, and the framework is flexible where space for modification and improvement is available for coming researchers to fit into their own studies Despite its comprehensive approach, Cox’s framework still cannot be applied directly to China’s floating population study due to the specific characteristics of China’s internal migration. First of all, Cox’s research was concerned predominantly with international migration in the context of movement to and settlement in new countries. In China, however, the focus of migration study is mainly on internal 27
migration in which the transition occurs within the boundary of one country. Different nature of migration may imply quite different government policies toward migration population and a quite different process of migration and integration, as well as participant’s self-identity construction. Furthermore, Cox’s work covered a broader category of migrants – that both refugees and illegal migrants were also studied. While in the case of China, we see that the majority of floating population concerned are migrant workers. The dominance of labour migration in China suggests that most of the migrants are probably voluntarily originated, and majority of them tend to be motivated by economic considerations. Labour migrants in China are also supposed to face less restrictive regulations against their entrance into receiving areas. Therefore, the different nature of migration has its crucial influence on the expectation, the motivation and the self-evaluation of individual migrants, and this should always be borne in mind before applying the western theories into China’s case. Finally, as have mentioned before, China’s internal migration is characterized by its ‘pendulum movement’ (Zhou, 2001 etc.). Different from many developing countries, many rural migrants in China do not settle down in urban areas; instead, they become a group of ‘floating’ population drifting between urban areas and their rural hometowns: they seek and hold temporary jobs in destination places, and a sizable percentage of them only spend a couple of years or less continuously in cities, with occasional return to their origin places. For those who regard migration as merely a way of increasing income and for those who never decide to settle down permanently in an alien place such as big cities like Beijing, the sub-stage of ‘longer-term adjustment and integration’ described by Cox would never happen. To summarize, as demonstrated by the above analysis, for any attempt to apply Cox’s work into China’s migration study, particular cautions should be raised. In addition to Cox’s three-stage and five sub-stage framework on migration, some other scholars also used the stage framework to explain the migration and the integration process, although with different approaches that reflected different disciplines and distinctively individual stand. Dranchman, for example, drawing the 28
idea of stage-of-migration from the work of Cox and Keller, formulated her three stage framework which similarly divided the migration into three stages of Pre-migration and departure, Transit and Resettlement (Dranchman, 1992; Dranchman; Ahn & Paulino, 1996). In addition, she identified three sets of critical variables in each stage and she pointed out that although the framework is emphasized in the research, such variables as age, family composition, socioeconomic level, education, cultural, occupation, and belief system, etc. were all interacted with the whole process and influenced the individual or group experience. From the aspect of social worker, Dranchman’s work was service-oriented. Her research differed from Cox’s in that she deliberately separated variable clusters into two categories: in the first category were those variables directly related to the three migration stages; variables in the second category referred to external and environmental factors that influenced each migration stage, such as socioeconomic background, personal attributes, and belief system, etc. By doing so, Dranchman provided a context and a setting for understanding and helping immigrant families and individuals. Practitioners would also benefit from her framework by learning personal experience of migrants in the original, the intermediate and the destination country, as well as their cultural, socioeconomic background. Like Cox’s work, the research target of Dranchman was international immigrant. From a couple of studies in which she applied her framework into Dominican, Soviet and Korean migrants in America, we see that some of the critical events she mentioned such as “Refugee-camp or detention center stay” and “Awaiting a foreign country’s decision regarding final relocation” are not applicable to China’s internal migration. Also, many of Dranchman’s research targets faced the problem of cross-ethnic and cross-religion adjustment, which are rarely the concern of China’s floating population study. Once again, these differences remind us that any attempt of applying western theories into China should be accompanied by special carefulness. A quite different approach of conceptualizing the total migration process yet still falling into the broad category of stage-of-migration was study presented by Ruel (1971). What makes Ruel’s work distinguished from others is the psychological 29
dimension adopted. According to Reul, the migration-integration process consists of four stages: ‘Making a decision’, ‘Breaking with the past’, ‘A transitional period’, and ‘A period of adjustment’. The four-stage framework seems to be like those of Cox and Dranchman at the first sight; however, Ruel characterized his research by emphasizing the psychological dimension. For example, in regard to the phase of ‘Breaking with the past’, he explored the question such as ‘what can be understood in terms of guilt feeling, anxiety and pressure relating to those left behind?’ As for the Transitional phase, Ruel viewed it as a period of tentative evaluations, of cultural shock and nostalgia, and thus this phase was expected to be characterized by uncertainty, impulsive actions and premature evaluations. Although the psychological determinants and their influence on migration process are not the concentration of this research on floating population, we still see the necessity of tailoring Ruel’s work into China’s specific migration study due to the different cultural backgrounds from which the migration occurs. More specifically speaking, the migration process is embedded in cultural contexts and the rules or norms in Chinese culture are all the likely factors that influence migrant’s basic understanding and evaluation of migration experience. The psychological well being of migrants involved, therefore, is influenced by cultural factors and the migration study from the psychological perspective should also consider such difference. Besides the research mentioned above which studied the whole migration process starting from decision-making and ending with integration into host society, some writers were particularly interested in the later stage of migration, namely the integration process. A good example of such work is Gordon (1964). He suggested that seven phases can be identified through the process of integration: 1) Cultural assimilation; 2) Structural assimilation; 3) Marital assimilation; 4) Identification assimilation; 5) Attitude receptional assimilation; 6) Behaviour receptional assimilation and 7) Civic assimilation. Particular attention on the integration stage suggests the importance of this phase in the whole migration-integration process. However, like the work of Cox, these frameworks also may not be suitable for China’s migration study due to floating population’s circular movement and the lack 30
of permanent resettlement and the following integration and adjustment phase in the whole migration process. To summarize, by reviewing several stage-of-migration frameworks forwarded by western scholars, we have gained insightful reference value of approaching China’s internal migration study by identifying several stages and relevant critical variables in each stage. However, due to the diverse and complex nature of the migration population, as well as the particular characteristics of floating population in China, these stage frameworks cannot be applied to China’s phenomenon directly. Instead, a modified framework considering China’s particularities should be formulated to obtain a better understanding of individual’s migration experience.
Rationale for Choosing the Stage-of-Migration Framework Although the concept of stage-of-migration was developed in the West, and it may not be advisable to apply the theory directly to China’s context, it does not mean that we could not draw insights from them. Instead, by reviewing previous literature and giving critical appraisals, we learned from the richness of accumulated knowledge on this topic and gained reference value for China’s migration study. Therefore, though insufficiency of existing studies has been pointed out, the stage-of-migration is still chosen as the theoretical framework of this study. The reasons for choosing this framework are listed as follows: First of all, the adoption of stage-of-migration framework helps my research to overcome the easily made tendency of neglecting the diversity among floating population, and helps to focus on a particular migration group of domestic workers. As have noted earlier in the literature review, one of the shortcomings inherent in China’s migration studies is the ignorance of the highly variable nature of migrant population. While the previous works often overlooked the differences among various migration groups, it should always be remembered that no two situations of migration are identical and the reason, the process, the result of moving tend to vary greatly for different types of floating population. Taking such concerns into
31
consideration, the stage framework and its background variables facilitate the migration study on a specific migration group. As Dranchman (1992) correctly pointed out, the stage-of-migration framework ‘has generic and specific usefulness because it can be applied to all migrant groups, and to specific groups’, and it ‘can be also applied to the individual migrant’ (p. 68). The framework’s applicability to both specific migration group and individual migrant in spite of their different natures suits my research interest on domestic workers as a particular group of floating population. What’s more, the stage-of-migration framework is particularly suitable for the research on migration experience of individual migrant, which is the focus of this research. One strength of the framework is its capacity of obtaining detailed and in-depth information of needs, experiences, and circumstances of individual migrants by following their migration process and learning background through which they uproot. The framework also enables a use of “case vignettes” to analyze and illustrate how migration experiences are expressed in individual and family life (Dranchman et al., 1996, p. 162). As for China’s internal migration research, we find that comparatively less and insufficient research has been done on depicting individual or family migrant’s personal experience. Adopting such a framework, therefore, contributes to the knowledge building where such research is lacking. Finally, the holistic approach that the stage-of-migration framework selects breaks down the dichotomy of macro and micro approach of previous research, and gets over the restriction of explaining migration process through single perspective of economic, political or cultural factors. This is another reason for choosing this framework to China’s internal migration study, because we see that the research on floating population in China is dominated by classical theories on migration from an economic perspective, with few research from governmental intervention aspects and even less from perspective of socio-cultural background. Exploration of the external environment and the variables in each migration stage helps to set the research into a broader background, where such factors as socio-culture, policy implication and individual’s positive involvement can all be taken into consideration. This rather 32
comprehensive context facilitates the understanding of the complex migration process as well as each factor’s influence on individual migrant.
Constructing
A
Stage-of-Migration
Framework
with
Chinese Characteristics Drawing the basic ideas from the previous works on migration stage, considering the characteristics of internal migration and floating population in China, a modified three-stage-migration framework that fits into China’s specific situation is formulated to trace the personal experience of domestic workers in Beijing. The details of the framework are interpreted as below.
Pendulum Movement between Origin and Destination Place One distinctive feature of China’s internal migration is migrant’s circular movement between origin and destination places. To this sense, so-called ‘floating population’ is worthy of its name. However, the existing western-originated theories of migration-stage framework fail to capture the circular and temporary nature of contemporary China’s population movement. Some sub-stages in their theories such as ‘longer-term adjustment and integration’, ‘reception from the local community’ may never happen in China’s case. In addition, the single directional movement in the western frameworks cannot fully comprehend the subtle connections between movements and the influence of the previous migration experience on the coming ones. As a result, the existing migration-stage frameworks need to be modified for the research on floating population in China. To include the circular nature of floating population into this study, the new framework is established within a broader context of China’s internal migration trend, in which the movement is bi-directional and a returning flow from cities to migrant’s place of origin is also significant. The whole process of movement is illustrated in the following Figure 4.1.
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Figure 4.1 Pendulum Movement of China’s Internal Migration
Origin Place
Destination Place
Migration Process: Pre-Migration -- Transit Stage -Post-Migration As shown in the figure, the main stream of the population movement is from rural to urban areas (indicated by real lines). In this direction of movement, the migration process is similar to those that occur elsewhere in the world, which is consisted of Pre-Migration, Transit and Post-Migration stage, except for that the final stage of Post-Migration process in China could be much shorter than the others of the similar kind. What makes the new framework different is that the whole migration process also includes a reverse movement from the destinations to migrant’s origin places (indicated by broken lines), which shows the occasional returns of floating population to their hometowns during the harvest time, spring festivals, or for other reasons. The adding of the reverse movement in the framework is important and indispensable to understand internal migration process in China. This is because, for one thing, a reverse movement has been actually observed through daily life. One of the most obvious examples is the massive returning flow of rural migrants to their origin places during Chinese New Year. On the other hand, migration is a continuous and dynamic process, through which migrants keep adjusting and reconstructing their expectations and attitudes. In each movement, new knowledge is gained regarding the work and the host communities; new connections and relationships are built up at 34
various levels; new visions of life are also created. Thus, the formation of migration experience, like a process of crystallization, grows, changes and alters during the circular movement. The experience of one particular movement is based on experiences of the previous ones, and is influential to the following movement. In other words, each time’s movement is new, yet borne the imprint of past experience, and is indicative to coming ones. The reverse movement is also crucial for the understanding of women migrant’s migration behavior and experience. As one may expect (which is also supported by the findings of this research), women’s circular movement between hometown and destination place is closely related to the major events in their life courses, such as marriage, giving birth to a child and caring sick parents, etc. Under conditions mentioned above, women migrants are usually ‘forced’ to go back to home village to perform the socially assumed roles and responsibilities as good wife, respectable mother and filial daughter in the household. More specifically speaking, the centrality of marriage in rural women’s life requires them to get married at a ‘proper’ age. As a result, single women migrants of a marriageable age always suspend their migration process and return to home to ‘meet mate’ and get ready for marriage. After the marriage, women migrants may spend years in home village to give birth to and raise child, which are very important responsibilities inherent to the marriage itself in rural China. A couple of years may pass before a rural housewife could move again and some women may not be able to re-migrate
due
to
their
family
responsibilities.
This
marriage-
and
childbearing-related break from continuous migration process is the most significant reason for women migrants to leave city and return to home village. Even for women who can re-migrate after the marriage, they are still likely to be pulled back by further household responsibilities such as caring for sick and aged family members, because such contributions to the domestic private sphere are generally required from women, rather than men of a household. To summarize, the new framework of reciprocal movement deconstructs the traditional idea of one-directional migration process, and provides a deepened and 35
comprehensive picture to understand the internal migration phenomenon in China. The bidirectional movement shown by the framework indicates that the internal migration in China is a circular one; particularly, in regard to women migrants, the whole process of migration is closely related to their life circles. The framework also suggests that individual’s migration is not a once-for-all process, the formation of which is based on the experience and knowledge learned in previous ones.
Migration Stage and Critical Events In the center of this framework is individual migrant’s migration process. In this research, the whole migration process is divided into three stages according to the nature of the migration and the identifiable factors in each stage. These three stages are: Pre-migration Stage, Transit Stage and Post-migration Stage.
1) Pre-migration Stage This phase indicates the period before the actual physical departure takes place. In this stage, a series of economic, political and social factors in both labour-sending and -receiving areas impose push or pull forces on the prospective migrant, and the migrant makes a decision of moment as either a reaction or response to the changing external environment, or as a mean to pursue their own dreams. The decision of migration might be a rather complex and variable process where factors at macro and micro levels, both positive and negative, are all pondered over by potential migrants. Among all the influential factors, the characteristics of individual migrant such as his or her household structure, specific education level, developed skills and life experience, are assumed to be crucial for the decision-making. These factors are important because they compose individual’s situation, and affect migrant’s options and ability to handle the tasks associated with breaking away from old life and establishing new one. In addition, in this research on women migrants, societal values are supposed to exercise major influence on potential migrant’s decision-making. The cultural background from which a woman migrant uproots determines her prevailing values, 36
belief system and migration expectation, and may further affect her whole migration and settlement process. Furthermore, government’s migration policy in both origin and destination place also influences migrants’ decision-making by providing either incentives or disincentives to the migration. They may be effective in enabling, facilitating or constraining individual’s migration act, and the potential migrant reacts to these policies by taking advantage to migrate or being discouraged from moving. Based on consideration and comparison of all incentives and disincentives factors, a prospective migrant makes a decision of moving either by oneself or as a household strategy. This is the major experience of prospective migrants in this stage. Other critical events in this stage, before or after the decision-making, include: setting up goals and expectation of migration, contemplating migration process and possible consequence, obtaining required certificates in origin place, contacting the former migrants in destination place, etc. If the decision is made as a household strategy, who goes out and who leaves behind is determined; after-migration affairs in the household are also arranged.
2) Transit Stage Once a decision of migration is made, the individual migrant moves into the Transit Stage. This stage involves physical breaks of migrants with their families and origin places, and it lasts until the migrant finds an initial accommodation and some means of regular support such as employment in the place of destination. The length of this stage varies, it may be just a couple of days or it could last more than a month before a migrant can find a stable job in the receiving area. Social network established with the former migrants in the destination place is supposed to exert the strongest influence on individual’s migration experience in this phase. As preceding studies have mentioned, the help from town fellowship or relatives is a major resource for newly arrived migrant labours in the strange destination (Fan, 2001; Mallee, 1999; Qu, 2001, etc). For those who find a job through the connections with former migrants, the transit process can be very short
37
and the migrant may arrive the city with a job already arranged. However, for those who go to cities without established relationships and available supports from acquaintance, the transit process could be tough and last for months. In addition to the social network, the active involvement of job agencies and recruitment centers in the labour-receiving area can be another valuable recourse of employment for coming migrants. They may somewhat replace the role of informal network and help migrants smooth their process of initial settlement. Government’s migration policy, moreover, can also facilitate the process by offering brokerage support and leading organized migration between labour-exporting and -importing regions. However, they may also retard the process by setting various restrictive regulations on migrant’s entering cities or urban labour market. Critical events in the transit stage might include: the actual movement which involves leaving a familiar environment and departure from family and friends, finding an initial accommodation and obtaining requited certificate, and the most importantly, securing a job through various channels.
3) Post-migration Stage The final stage of migration is the Post-migration Stage. It indicates the period after initial settlement has made. This stage is where the most distinguished difference among individual migrants can be found and the actual termination of which is difficult to define. We see that the migration population covers quite a diverse group of people, and so does migration experience for individual migrants in this stage. For most of the temporary migrants, moving to cities seldom leads to a permanent settlement. Rather, it is more often viewed as a household strategy to distribute its labour and diverse its income between different locations and sectors. Especially for floating population with high mobility, their duration of stay in destination cities may just last for a couple of years or even shorter, accompanied by occasional returns to their home villages. Some migrants may end their migrations in the home village; some may
38
migrate again to a new place or return to the previous receiving areas, committing a new circle of migration. So for these temporary migrants with high mobility, the post-migration stage is comparatively short, mainly focusing on individual migrant’s reception by local work unit or relatives and friends, and on his or her adaptation to urban working and living environment. The highly mobile migrants do not face the problem of long-term adjustment and integration into local community, but the host government’s policy toward migrant population still matter for them in this stage because it influences migrant’s available access to various resources that may help them to settle down physically or psychologically. Meanwhile, attitudes of the host society are also important in that they set the situation into which the migrant enters. Besides the highly mobile migrants, some so-called ‘floating population’ may stay in the receiving community for fairly a long time, and may have already been regarded as ‘permanent residents’ if the official hukou transfer was not required. These migrants may work and live in city side by side with local residents for years, but due to the strict control over permanent transfer of hukou status from rural to urban one, they are still accounted as ‘temporary residents’. For these comparatively ‘stable’ migrants, the post-migration stage is a much longer process of realizing a more in-depth adaptation to urban community, and sometime involving integration with the local society, too. Once again, an individual approach should be emphasized to study the experience of different migrants in the post-migration stage, because the integration that a migrant desires and attains may vary greatly. As Cox correctly expressed, although the ‘integration’ is often defined in terms of some objective outcome, it is more preferable to define it in subject terms with no assumption of a common or static condition (Cox, 1987, p.10). No matter whether the post-migration stage has a short or long duration, some critical events in this process could be experienced by all the arrived migrants. These events are: resolving cumulative stress throughout the migration process, adapting to a new working and living environment, adjusting relationship with family members, constructing a new self-identity, committing upward mobility, reception by host 39
community and integration into place of destination (if applicable) and envisioning a picture of future. Finally, to summarize what have been discussed so far on individual migrant’s migration process, the following Table 4.1 illustrates the formulated three-migration stage and the possible critical events in each stage.
Table 4.1 Three Migration Stages & Possible Critical Variables in Each Stage Pre-Migration
Transit
Post-Migration
Set up goals and expectation for migration Weigh incentive & disincentive factors (economic, social, etc.) Establish connections with town-fellows or friends in the destination place Make decision of leaving (Both as individuals and household member) Obtain required certificates in origin place Arrange after-migration affairs Depart from family and friends Leave a familiar environment Obtain required certificates in destination place Register in a job agency in the place of destination Secure a job and an initial accommodation Resolve cumulative stress throughout the migration process Adapt to new working and living environment Adjust relationship with family members Construct new self-identity Commit upward mobility Reception from host community & integrate into place of destination Envision a picture of future (settle down, return to origin place or re-migrate etc.)
Background Variables Several researchers have contributed to the knowledge of migration study by enumerating a series of variables affecting the migration process (Cox, 1987; Dranchman, 1992; Dranchman et al., 1996, etc.). In this research, two sets of variables at different levels are extracted from both existing literature on floating population and the data collected in the fieldwork. The identification and
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construction of these variables is an explorative process, and the seven variables identified are supposed to be the key elements that impose considerable influence on individual migrant’s one or more migration process, by affecting his or her access to movement resources, way of transition and the possible adjustment and integration in the destinations. These background variables can be illustrated by the following Figure 4.2:
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Figure 4.2 Migration Process and Its Background Variables
Social Attitudes towards Women Migrants
Migration Policy Migration Process Pre-Migration Transit Post-Migration
Employer and Host Community
Personal Attributes
Job Agency: Household Service Company
Socioeconomic Background of Household and Origin Place Social Network
1
As shown by the Figure 4.2, background variables in this study are divided into two clusters according to their direct or indirect influence on the migration process and personal experience.
1) Direct Variables In the first variable cluster are those that closely relate to and directly affect the three migration stages. These factors are shown by the pink boxes in real lines. Variables in the first cluster include: ‘Personal Attributes of Individual Migrant’, ‘Socio-economic Background of Household and Origin Place’, ‘Social Network with Former Migrants’, ‘Job Agency’ and ‘Employer and Host Community’. More specifically speaking, the ‘Personal Attributes of Individual Migrant’ particularly refer to a migrant’s age, marital status, education level, developed skills, former migration experience and the division of household responsibilities within his or her family. The ‘Socio-economic Background of Household and Origin Place’ refers to socio-economic status of the migrant’s household in the local community and the characteristics of migrant’s hometown as a labour-sending area (e.g. its overall income level and the out-migration situation). The ‘Social Network with Former Migrants’ indicates a migrant’s established relationship with his or her relatives or town-fellows in the destination places; it also suggests the amount of informal social support that the migrants could draw help from throughout the migration process. The fourth variable ‘Job Agency’ is an important factor that could help a newly arrived migrant to locate a job at his or her first arrival, and help to coordinate the relationship between employer and the migrant worker in later term. In case of domestic workers, the job agency refers to domestic service companies. Finally, the ‘Employer and Host Community’ compose a setting in which the migrants experience his or her work and daily life in the destination place. Each variable in the first cluster imposes significant influences on one specific or more migration stage. The first two variables are assumed to exert tremendous influence on the options available to prospective migrants and ultimately on the way that they will handle the total migration experience. They also provide a basic setting 1
for understanding the motivation and causation of the migration from origin places. The variable ‘Social Network with Former Migrants’ is crucial throughout the whole migration process because it assists migrant to obtain access to employment, informal welfare provision and social support of various kinds. ‘Job Agency’ is a new concept introduced through the data collection process in this research. It acts as a connection between government and individual migrants. In regard to the domestic service industry, along with its development and advancement, domestic service companies will inevitably play a more and more important role in migrant worker’s daily life. Finally, the variable ‘Employer and Host Community’ tremendously influence migrant’s experiences in the last stage of Post-Migration.
2) Environmental Variables The second category of variables refers to external and environmental factors that indirectly influence the whole migration process. Variables in this cluster are ‘Migration policy’ and ‘Social Attitudes toward Women Migrants’. These variables are shown by the boxes in broken lines. As to the ‘Migration Policy’, the preceding chapter has elaborated kinds of migration policies in both labour-sending and –receiving areas. A combination of them provides a wider policy environment in which the trend of policy development regarding the migrant population and its intervention at the level of the individual could be explored. The connection of macro policy and micro individual helps to understand how the migration policy and relevant services are delivered and actually experienced, as well as the influential impact that the policies have on the lives of migrants. From another aspect, migration policy also affects migrant’s life by influencing various intermediate that are more closely related to individual migrants (such as through job agencies and other institutions). Thus, it is also interesting to know what and how the migration policy could do to enhance the well-being of migrants by influencing these relevant intermediates. In addition to government’s migration policy, the second environmental factor is ‘Social Attitudes towards Women Migrants’. The dynamic process of migration is 2
embedded in cultural contexts, and it is acknowledged that societal discourse on women and intra-household gender difference not only shape the pattern of female migration but also determine female migrant’s occupational attainment at the destination (Chant & Radcliffe, 1992, cited in Huang, 2001). Therefore, a more sensitive approach to the role of gender difference in migration is required to obtain a better understanding of women migrant’s behavior and experience. Admitting that the concept ‘social attitude towards women migrants’ is a rather broad and complex one, this study mainly focuses on the gendered expectation and responsibilities within a household, as well as their influence on women migrant’s migration process and experience. For one thing, one can expect that the different socially assumed responsibility within a household for men and women to impose influence on potential women migrant’s decision-making. The family responsibility on women may limit their physical, economic and social mobility, and a woman’s marital status and presence of children can play a more important role in her decision-making than those for a man. For another thing, even after having taken the action of migration, women migrants may still be generally at a disadvantage in the labour market because of their traditional roles in family and in the society (Fan & Huang, 1998; Huang, 2001). Nowadays, although the traditional view on men’s economic role (bread earner) and women’s familial role (care givers) has receded considerably, women’s less mobility in migration and the gender-specific employment in receiving society all reflect the strong influence of gendered role expectations of Chinese rural society and family on women migrants. Thus, it is advisable that these social values are to be borne in mind when the behavior of women migration is studied.
Summary To give a brief summary of the integrative framework that is formulated in this research, so far, we have explained the three major elements of this framework. Above all, this framework is set in a broader context of China’s massive internal
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migration, which is characterized by migrant’s pendulum and circular movement between rural origins and urban destinations. A reverse movement direction from destination place to migrant’s hometown, therefore, is added in the framework. Such a feature of the floating population is considered in the new framework to distinguish China’s case from those of other countries. In the center of this framework is individual migrant’s on-going three-stage migration process. The first stage is Pre-migration Stage, which indicates the period before the actual movement takes place. The second stage Transit Stage. It refers to the period starting from the physical break of migrants with their families and origin places, and this phase lasts until the migrants find an initial accommodation and some means of regular support such as employment in the place of destination. The final stage is the Post-migration Stage, it indicates the period after initial settlement has been made. In addition, each of the three stages is characterized by a cluster of critical events that are crucial for the understanding of migrant’s personal experience in each stage. To better understand individual migrant’s migration experience and its influential factors, in this framework, two variable clusters at all levels are extracted. The first variable cluster includes factors at both origin and destination place, covering the most distinguished elements in the migration process such as individual migrants, his or her family, job agency and employers, etc. The factors in the first cluster are ‘Personal Attributes of Individual Migrants’, ‘Socio-economic Background of Household and Origin Place’, ‘Social Network with Former Migrants’, ‘Job Agency’ and ‘Employer and Host Community’. These factors are expected to impose influence on one or more migration stages. The second variable cluster includes much broader factors that function as migration’s background information and that impose influence throughout the whole migration process. The factors in this cluster are ‘Migration Policy’ and Migrants’.
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‘Social Attitude towards Women
Research Question As stated in the Literature Review, I situate my study of a particular group of women migrants (domestic workers) in Beijing, and I try to explore the personal migration experience of these domestic workers. The theoretical framework elaborated above helps the paper to rest on the stage-of-migration theories where the migration is regarded as an on-going process composed of three stages: Pre-migration, Transit, and Post-migration. Attention is also granted to two sets of variables at different levels in both labour-sending and –receiving areas. The theoretical framework and the literature review facilitate the formulation of more concrete research questions that are particularly designed for three migration stages and background variables. I shall try to answer the following questions sets:
1) For the Pre-migration Stage: What motivate the rural women to migrate and work in Beijing? How do a potential women migrant’s personal and household attributes influence her decision-making? How do social network and migration policy function in the Pre-migration?
2) For the Transit Stage: How do women migrants feel the movement and the initial settlement in destination places? How do the social network, the job agency and the local government function in this stage?
3) For the Post-migration Stage: How do women migrants experience their work and lives in destination places? What difficulties do they have in the host community? How does migration policy influence the personal experience in this stage? What is the possible future for these women migrants?
It should be noticed that although the above research questions are focused on the critical events in each migration stage and the influence of key variables on
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personal experience, the data collection of this research is also open to other facets of the migration process as well as other variables that may impose influence on migration experience. By understanding the migration process itself and by answering these questions, I try to obtain an in-depth understanding of women migrants’ experience, which has been rarely studied in the present migration literature in China. Another purpose of this study is to identify the problems that women migrants meet in their migration process, and to offer some problem-coping suggestions for policy-makers to make appropriate preventive or remedial provisions, which can finally help to make a more smooth and favorable migration process for migrant labours.
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Chapter Five Research Methodology This chapter explains the research methodology employed in this study. Starting with the rationale for qualitative research, this chapter first presents reasons for choosing a qualitative rather than a quantitative methodology in this study. Subsequently, reasons for adopting a case study approach as the research strategy will be discussed. After that, the detailed research process of recruiting research participants, collecting and analyzing data will be described. Finally, the measures taken to enhance the trustworthiness of this research will be articulated.
Rationale for Qualitative Research The choice of research method is closely related to the purpose of the study and the contexts in which the study is conducted (Denzin & Lincoln, 2000). As have indicated in previous chapters, the purpose of this study is to explore the personal experience of individual domestic workers in their migration process, and the research is embedded in the external settings of migration policy and societal value system. The purpose of this study requires an involvement of individual approach; the complex and dynamic nature of the migration process and its influential factors also asks for an examination from a holist and in-depth perspective. Qualitative Research, as defined by Creswell (1998), is ‘an inquiry process of understanding based on distinct methodological traditions of inquiry that explore a social or human problem. The researcher builds a complex, holistic picture, analyze words, reports detailed views of informants, and conducts the study in a natural setting’. Accordingly, it has some features that distinguish itself from quantitative one, and the advantages of qualitative research help to fulfill the requirement of the purpose and context of this study. How the qualitative methodology justifies itself for this study are reasoned as follow, based on the examination of its definition and the 7
comparison with quantitative research methods. Firstly, as the word ‘qualitative’ implies, the emphasis of the qualitative research is on the qualities of entities and on process and meaning. It is an exploration of ‘social or human problem’ that attempt to capture the meaning people attach to things in their lives. The feeling, thought, value and beliefs of the population under study are the object of focus, and the qualitative research does not aim at experimentally examine or measure quantity, amount, intensity, or frequency. In contrast, quantitative studies emphasize the measurement and analysis of causal relationships between variables. It asks why and looks for a relationship between variables, with the intent of establishing an association, cause or effect. In regard to my study, it is an inquiry of migration experience of domestic workers and it tries to answer such questions as ‘what do they experience’; ‘how do they feel’; ‘what meaning do they make’, etc. Such a value-laden nature of inquiry stresses how personal experience is created and given meaning. Therefore, the qualitative methods are chosen because they are more sensitive to and adaptable to such questions involving feelings and values. Another strength of the qualitative research is its ability of capturing individual’s point of view. Compared with quantitative research, qualitative investigations can get closer to informant’s perspective through ‘distinct methodological traditions of inquiry’, such as detailed interviewing and observation, etc. By deploying a wide range of interconnected interpretive practices, qualitative research enables researchers to look from the individual’s perspective, to search their own feeling and evaluations. Therefore, qualitative researchers are always able to get a better understanding of the subject matter than quantitative researchers do. Since this study is an exploration on the personal experience of target population and it is concerned with how individuals think and act in their everyday lives, qualitative research is superior to quantitative research for its individual approach. Furthermore, different from the quantitative research, the qualitative research is able to provide a ‘complex, holistic picture’ of the research subject. The qualitative researchers look at settings and people holistically. People, setting, or groups are not 8
reduced to variables as quantitative researchers do; instead, they are viewed as a whole. In addition, the qualitative research could offer detailed views of informants: while quantitative researchers often work with a few variables and many cases, qualitative researchers tend to rely on a few cases and many variables (Creswell, 1998). This concentrated and rigorous narrative takes readers into the multiple dimensions of a problem or issue and displays it in all of its complexity. Such a multi-dimensional and in-depth approach is particularly suitable for the migration study like mine, because the migration is a complex and dynamic process where a series of factors interact and influence with one another. A holistic perspective enables researchers to study people in the context of their pasts, and situation in which they behave. Finally, the qualitative researchers conduct studies in a ‘natural setting’ to understand the experience and the meaning of informant’s life. The natural setting is distinguished from quantitative study’s experimental setting, and it stresses that the phenomena of study ‘take their meaning as much from their contexts as they do from themselves’ (Lincoln & Guba, 1985). In the natural setting, researcher is an instrument of data collection who gathers words or pictures, analyzes them inductively, focuses on the meaning of participants, and describes a process that is expressive and persuasive in language. Studying in a natural setting enables researchers to go out to the setting or field to study, to gain access, rapport and to gather materials. Through the personal, face-to-face, and immediate communication with informants, qualitative researchers would be able to obtain high-quality interpretive research findings (Creswell, 1998). To sum up, the qualitative research approach is chosen because the distinctions of the method can neatly fulfill the purpose of my research. The diverse nature of the floating population and the complex migration process is another reason for choosing the qualitative research. In a word, the qualitative research is tailored to this study.
Strategies of Inquiry: The Choice of Case Study 9
Strategies of inquiry function as a linkage between the macroscopical research method and specific approaches and methods for collecting and analyzing empirical materials. As Janesick (2000) pointed out, the strategies of inquiry ‘comprise the skills,
assumptions,
enactments,
and
material
practices
that
the
researcher-as-methodological-bricoleur uses in moving from a paradigm and a research design to the collection of empirical materials’. Research strategies locate researchers in specific empirical, material sites and in specific methodological practices. There are several strategies of inquiry in qualitative research. Some traditional and frequently used strategies include: Biography, Case Study, Phenomenological Study, Grounded Theory, Ethnography and Participant Observation, Analyzing Interpretive Practice, The Life History Method, Participatory Action Research, etc (Creswell, 1998; Janesick, 2000). Case study, as noted by its name, is a study making a case (or multiple cases) an object of the research. It is defined as “an exploration of a ‘bounded system’ or a case (or multiple cases) over time through detailed, in-depth data collection involving multiple sources of information rich in context” (Creswell, 1998, p. 61). The case study relies on interviewing, observation, and document analysis. The case study is preferred in my study because it has several advantages over other inquiry strategies. Above all, the case study looks for contextual material about the setting of the case. The setting can be a physical context or the social, historical and/ or economic ones. The emphasis on the setting of cases can provide researchers rich and detailed accounts of socio-cultural and policy contexts. This is requisite and essential for my research on the complex migration process. Secondly, regardless of the unit of analysis, a qualitative case study seeks to describe the unit in depth and in detail (Patton, 1990). Qualitative case study is characterized by researchers spending extended time on site, personally in contact with activities and operations of the case, reflecting, revising meanings of what is going on. By gathering extensive material from multiple sources of information, case study is able to provide an in-depth picture of the case. 10
Furthermore, case study can also be a disciplined force in public policy setting and reflection on human experience (Stake, 2000). Case materials, to some extent, parallel actual experience, feeding into the most fundamental process of awareness and understanding. From case reports, we are able to increase both prepositional and experiential knowledge, which are of value for refining theory and suggesting complexities for further investigation. Vicarious experience is also an important basis for refining policy designing and implementation. Therefore, it is supposed that through studying the case of migrant’s experience, more problem-focused and support-seeking migration policies could be stipulated. In my research, a study of multiple cases is used to identify both similarity and differences among participants. While a single or intrinsic case study may not be able to manifest some common characteristic of the informants, such a multiple case study will lead to better a understanding, perhaps better theorizing about a still large collection of cases (Stake, 2000). Furthermore, it is pointed that evidence from multiple case studies is more compelling and more robust; the results of the study can be compared and contrasted; and some tentative generalization can be made (Burton, 2000).
Data Collection Sampling There is a remarkable difference between the qualitative and quantitative research sampling. Within the quantitative field, the purpose of sampling is always to define a sample that is in some sense representative of a population to which it is desired to generalize. It is very different in qualitative study, however, that the consideration is mainly based on information, not the statistics, and the sampling purpose is to maximize information, not to facilitate generalizations (Lincoln & Guba, 1995). In this study, domestic workers as the target population share with other floating populations by their highly diverse nature and disperse living in the receiving 11
community. Migration experience of domestic workers, which is the objective of this research, also varies enormously for each individual migrant. Temporary household registration status of floating population further makes majority of them difficult to be approached by both authorities. These reasons mentioned above jointly explain the eschewal of a random or representative sampling and a preference of a combined strategy of convenient and snowball sampling in this research. Under the general principle of getting as much broad and diverse information as possible, technique of ‘snowball sampling’ is utilized as a mean of recruiting successive cases in this study. Snowball sampling relies on referrals from initial subjects to generate additional subjects (William, 2001). In this form of sampling, researchers begin, in whatever way they can, by identifying someone who meets the criteria for inclusion in the study. Then researchers ask informants to recommend other informants who they know and who also meet the criteria. These members are used to identify others, and they in turn others. Although the snowball sampling method would hardly lead to representative samples, it has its time when it may be the best method available. As William (2001) mentioned, this method is especially useful when researchers are trying to reach populations that are inaccessible or hard to find. Also, this technique is most often used with target populations made up of elusive subjects. In this study, research subjects are domestic workers who are reluctant to be approached by either authorities or academics. The ‘snowball’ sampling method, therefore, has its particular utility in this study. It is hoped that through this sampling method, a sufficient number of subjects can be accumulated to give the study adequate power. In regard to the sample size, researcher argued that the exact size of the sample studied is a difficult, if not impossible question to answer prior to conducting some research (Taylor & Bogdan, 1998). However, there are some general standards for fixing the sample size from which we can draw insights. Lincoln and Guba (1985), for example, pointed out that in sharp contrast to the conventional inquiry, most of which are quantitative research, the qualitative sampling can be terminated after a rather small number of elements have been included. Patton (1990) argued that the 12
sample size was mainly determined by the purpose of inquiry, the credibility of the data, the time framework and the availability of resources. Minichiello et al (1995) indicated that the sample size would depend on the relationship that builds between researcher and informants and on the informant’s volubility. The most helpful indication of when to stop sampling for this research is provided by Stake (2000), he claimed that the criterion invoked to determine when to stop sampling is informational redundancy, not a statistic confidence level. Referring to the above recommendations from experienced scholars and considering the time limitation, 24 cases have been studied in this research. The sampling process followed the ebb and flow of information, and was terminated when the information collected began to show redundancy as Stake indicated.
Recruiting Research Informants Access and entry are important yet sensitive components in qualitative research. Researchers are supposed to establish trust, rapport and authentic communication patterns with participants (Lincoln & Guba, 1985). By establishing trust and rapport at the beginning of the study, the researcher is better able to capture the nuances and meanings of each participant’s life from the participant’s point of view. In the case study, gaining access through the gatekeeper and establishing rapport with the case being studied is a frequently used strategy (Creswell, 1998). The ‘gatekeeper’ is an individual who is a member or has insider status with the target group. The gatekeeper is the initial contact for the researcher and leads the researcher to other informants. There are several considerations for choosing the access in this study. The foremost consideration is the accessibility and permissibility. Domestic worker is a group of floating population whom are hard to tap into due to their particular working locations. While formal access is restricted, an informal introduction through personal relationship is able to initiate the study. As a result, I first recruited research informants through my informal connections in Beijing. Upon arrival at the fieldwork, I began to look for potential informants through my social ties, seeking 13
interviewees from all those families who hired domestic workers and who personally knew my family or me. Tapping into contact with informants through acquaintances was convenient, but its scope was limited to quite a small number of households. Another drawback of this method was that knowing the relationship between the researcher and her employer, the worker interviewed was found to be somewhat reluctant to express her true feelings about the employers as well as the working and living status. The second way of recruiting research informants was to search through homemaking service companies or job agencies that particularly run for domestic workers. A sizable percentage of my informants were found through several household service companies with different natures. In some cases, I went to job agencies directly to talk with staffs and the workers registered in the company; in other cases, I asked those domestic workers who were paid by hours to come to my home and I paid them for interviewing. In the domestic service companies, I was able to observe the hiring and negotiating process between employers, domestic workers as well as staffs. I was also lucky to meet two groups of women migrants who had just arrived in Beijing from Shaanxi and Sichuan province through inter-governmental labour export projects. Talking with these workers helped me to understand the growing inter-government cooperation between labour-sending and -receiving areas. After spending one month in Beijing, I got to know some places where domestic workers regularly gathered in the public area of several residential communities. These domestic workers, most of whom were responsible for child-caring, took the child they cared out to play at a regular time in almost each morning and afternoon, and more importantly, they were free to talk when they were out. These gathered domestic workers were the most precious resource for my informant pool. I could spend long time observing and chatting with them, and I established rapport and trust with them after several time’s visits. I became friends with some of the workers and I was better able to capture the nuances and meanings of their stories from their point of view. What’s more, making friend with some of the domestic workers, who acted 14
as ‘gatekeepers’, I gained access to more informants. This has greatly facilitated my informant’s recruitment. Such a recruiting method, however, also has its deficiency in that the domestic workers interviewed were mainly restricted to a particular type of child care-giver only. But by visiting the domestic company and talked to other types of workers, I was able to overcome such deficiency and balance the composition of informant’s file.
In-depth Interview I rely on the interview as the basic method of data gathering, the purpose of which is to obtain a rich, in-depth experiential account of domestic workers in their migration life. The interview took the form of semi-structured in-depth interviewing. In-depth interview, according to Taylor and Bogdan (1998, p. 88), refers to ‘repeated face-to-face encounters between the researcher and informants directed toward understanding informants’ perspective on their lives, experiences, or situations as expressed in their own words’. Several significant assumptions inherent in the in-depth interview can be traced from this conception. Firstly, the encounters are repeated, which implies that a greater length of time is spent with the informants. The increased social interaction benefits the research by enhancing the rapport and leading to a greater understanding. Secondly, the encounter is between researcher and informants. This implies an egalitarian concept of roles within the interview which contrasts with the imbalance of power between the roles in survey methods. Finally, rather than focusing on the researcher’s perspective as the valid view, it is the informant’s account which is sought and highly valued. In the in-depth interview, researchers try to retrieve the informant’s world by understanding their perspective in language that is natural to them (Minichiello et al., 1995, p.68). To sum up, in in-depth interviewing, researcher plays an active role of human instrument; they try to uncover people’s experience of social reality through routinely constructed interpretation The choice of in-depth interview is determined by the research interests, the
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circumstances of the setting and target population, and practical constraints. The interviewing is well suited for studies in which researchers have a relatively clear sense of their interests and kinds of questions they wish to pursue (Taylor & Bogdan, 1998, p. 91). In my research, a relatively clear question of exploring women migrant’s migration experience has been established. Therefore, interviewing would be appropriate for pursing answers to these questions. In addition, the in-depth interview is called for because of the practical constraint. For one thing, other strategies such as participant observation cannot be operationally conducted because some of the activities that domestic workers take (such as daily working environment) are inaccessible to the researchers. For another thing, time limit also affects the choice of strategies. The interviewing makes the most efficient use of limited time that I can devote to, and it enables me to obtain comparatively rich information in relatively short period. Finally, the in-depth interview is particularly useful when the researcher is interested in understanding a broad range of setting and people (Taylor & Bogdan, 1998, p. 91). This is also a major reason for my choice of interviewing method. In this research, twenty-four rural women migrants with recent experience as domestic workers have been interviewed. An interview guideline was developed according to the framework of three-phase migration process (see Appendix 1 and 2 for both English and Chinese version). The contents of the interview are focused on informant’s self account of migration experience through their own interpretation of life situation. The first set of questions is therefore raised concerning domestic workers’ personal migration experience. These questions are with high level of generality and openness, hoping to encourage informants to provide as much information as possible on their experience and feelings from their own stands. Detailed questions in the first set are in the Interview Guideline under the subtitle ‘3. Personal Experience in Migration Process’. Since another objective of this study is to find out how the government could do to facilitate individual’s migration process and favor their migration experience, the second set of question is raised around the issue of migration policies and their 16
influences. These questions are aimed at examining the implication of migration policies, both in labour-sending and labour-receiving communities, on individual’s migration process. I hope that by answering these questions, the way and the extent that the migration policies at macro level influence individual migrant’s personal life and experience at micro level can be examined. Answering these questions may also help to better understand individual’s behavior as a coping and response to government’s migration policies. Questions of this kind are in the Interview Guideline, under the subtitle ‘4. Migration Policy’s Influence’. Each interview lasted from 1 to 2.5 hour, and was recorded by sound recorder with the permission of interviewees. Right after each interview, a short memo was made to summarize the impression and the key points of the finished interview.
Data Analysis Data analysis generally includes three linked processes: data reduction, data display, and conclusion drawing / verification (Miles & Huberman, 1994). The aim of data analysis is to strive for a detailed, in-depth understanding of research informant’s experiences and the meaning attached to them, to draw conclusions from cross-case analysis, and to generate an integrative approach. To obtain a general impression and to extract motifs and patterns, a preliminary analysis of the material was carried out after each interview. Memos were used to record and develop ideas about emerging themes. Interviewee’s responses were in the form of narratives and all interview data and other information were in Chinese. Individual narratives that were of significant importance to discover themes and develop propositions were transcribed word for word; other cases were also transcribed but not word for word. The average length of each transcription file was approximately 9 page of 10,000 Chinese words. These individual accounts are an invaluable and rare source of qualitative data which can shed light on personal experiences of floating population, the institutional and socio-cultural environment that they face, and the logic of women migrant labour regime.
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To condense data contained in a transcript file, I produced case summaries and developed a ‘storyline’ for each informant’s interview. The ‘storyline’ was about the whole migration process of each informant and was developed in an attempt to identify the main thread running through the informant’s account. Each case summary contained materials on the identity of the informant and some major topics raised in her narratives. By producing the case summaries and ‘storylines’, I was able to understand each particular case within a holistic picture. It helped to explain why this case happened in this particular way. In addition, theoretical commentary was also made on the margin of each case summary sheet, which put the case within a more general context of understanding what could have happened under carrying conditions. As such, the case summaries were not only used to sort out information contained within one case, but also used to make comparisons and generalizations between different cases. The following days of data analysis involved the discovery of concepts and the development of propositions. Reading through case summaries and theoretical commentary helped me to identify common themes which linked issues together. Meanwhile, new concepts emerged through this process and they began to gain weight in the continuously modified theoretical framework. Data analysis in later days focused on testing the links established between themes in order to assess the validity of propositions. Reading subsequent cases allowed me to compare and contrast issues that emerged from former ones. It also allowed me to follow and explore the significance of relationship built. The following cases gained more analytical importance when they were mentioned and expanded upon by other informants; in case of emergence of ‘abnormal’ cases, my understanding of theoretical framework was revised as I compared this individual case with other cases. Keeping revising the theoretical framework, my understanding of the migration process and its influential factors was expanded to include themes such as welfare provision of regionalized network and the linkage between women’s migration and their life circles. After several time’s revision, the current three-stage model and its background 18
variables were developed to link the emerged themes and patterns. The modified theoretical framework further helped to explain the dynamic process of individual’s migration.
Establishing Trustworthiness of the Research The issue of trustworthiness in qualitative research is a complicated one. The qualitative researchers have garnered much criticism in the scientific rank that the qualitative or naturalistic studies are undisciplined and subjective, etc. The qualitative research’s trustworthiness is doubted because it fails to adhere to canons of ‘internal and external validity’, ‘reliability’ and ‘objectivity’ in traditional sense (Creswell, 1998; Lincoln & Guba, 1985). However, the different basic belief and approach of qualitative and quantitative research determine that the same standard employed by quantitative researchers may not be suitable for measuring qualitative research. The qualitative research should be assessed by a different set of criteria which are more accurately captures the complexity and texture of the qualitative methodology (Janesick, 2000; Lincoln & Guba, 1985; Patton, 1990) Multiple terms have been offered as criteria to measure the trustworthiness of the qualitative research. For example, Lincoln and Guba (1985) used the terms ‘credibility’, ‘transferability’, ‘dependability’ and ‘confirmability’ as ‘the naturalist’s equivalents’ for ‘internal validity’, ‘external validity’, ‘reliability’, and ‘objectivity’ (p. 300). Richardson (1994) raised the idea of ‘crystallization’ as a better lens through which to view qualitative research designs and their components. Crystallization, as Richardson argued, deconstructs the traditional idea of ‘validity’ and provides us with a deepened, complex, thoroughly partial, understanding of the topic. The crystal ‘combines symmetry and substance with an infinite variety of shapes, substances, transmutations, multi-mensionalities, and angels of approach. Crystal grow, change and alter, but are not amorphous’ (p.522). As another example, Eisner (1998), constructed standards such as ‘structural corroboration’, ‘consensual validation’ and ‘referential adequacy’. In structural corroboration, the researcher
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related multiple types of data to support or contradict the interpretation; consensual validation sought the opinion of others; referential adequacy suggested the importance of criticism. No matter what terms and criteria are employed, the basic issue relating to the trustworthiness of qualitative research is congruent, that is how can a researcher persuade his or her audience that the findings of an inquiry are worth taking account of? What argument can be mounted, what criteria invoked, what question asked, that would be persuasive on this issue? As a result, irrespective of different perspectives and terms adopted, qualitative researchers have agreed on using several techniques to demonstrate the trustworthiness of the finding by having them approved by the constructors of the multiple realities. Some widely used techniques include: prolonged engagement, persistent observation, triangulation, peer view or debriefing, negative case analysis, referential adequacy, member checking, rich and thick description, and external audits (Creswell, 1998; Janesick, 2000; Lincoln & Guba, 1985,etc.). In my research, techniques of prolonged engagement, triangulation, peer debriefing, and thick description were used to enhance the trustworthiness of the study.
Prolonged Engagement Prolonged engagement is the investment of sufficient time to achieve certain purpose: building trust with participants, learning the ‘culture’, testing for misinformation introduced by distortions either of the self or of the respondents, (Creswell, 1998, p. 201; Lincoln & Guba ,1985, p. 301). Spending time with people, as much as possible for long periods of time, enables researcher to enhance his or her study’s validity and vitality. In this study I have spent a relatively long period in both domestic service companies and the public areas where many domestic workers gathered. In the domestic service companies, I was also able to communicate with staffs and some potential employers. Through the frequent visit to both companies and domestic
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worker’s gathering location, I built rapport with the informants, some of which began to write and call me spontaneously to talk about their life stories. The lengthy engagement strengthened mutual trust, and thus contributing to the obtaining of genuine information from the informants. Moreover, it also enriched my understanding of the total life contexts of the informants and other domestic workers, and provided additional information with which the authenticity of the collected data could be judged.
Triangulation Triangulation refers to the technique that researchers make use of multiple and different sources, methods, investigators, and theories to provide corroborating evidence (Creswell, 1998, p. 202). In this study, I corroborated evidence through collecting multiple sources of data and comparing them. Besides domestic workers, I also interviewed managers and staff members in two household servicing companies. One company was under a society college that offered formal courses such as household industry’s management and senior household service. The management of the company was quite standardized and it granted certificates at different levels to domestic workers. Another company I interviewed was a community-based one and was of much smaller size. I had very open and useful interviews with staff members responsible for recruiting domestic workers and assigning jobs in these two companies. Talking with staffs and browsing through documents of the company such as various regulations as well as the contract files was an important source of triangulation in my research. Through the introduction of one of my friends, I held a further interview with a policeman at grass root from the local police station. The man interviewed was in charge of issuing temporary residence card to floating population and he provided me with some information about the municipal government’s control over floating population. Although the interview was comparatively short and the policeman was
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reluctant to touch some sensitive topics, it still yielded a wealth of information. Finally, I paid particular attention on collecting the relevant reports about floating population and domestic workers in Beijing from public media. This also turned to be a very important material that complemented the interviews for it provided some updated information that could not be obtained through academic journals. Hence, by collecting and comparing information from different sources, the strategy of triangulation enhances the credibility of my findings and contributes to a relatively comprehensive description.
Peer View and Debriefing Peer view or debriefing provides an external check of the research process, much in the same spirit as interrater in quantitative research (Creswell, 1998). Lincoln and Guba (1985) defined the peer debriefing as ‘a process of exposing oneself to a disinterested peer in a manner paralleling an analytic session and for the purpose of exploring aspects of the inquiry that might otherwise remain only implicit within the inquirer’s mind’ (p. 308). The peer debriefer is an individual who keeps the researcher honest, asks hard questions about methods, meanings, and interpretations; and provides the researchers with the opportunity for catharsis by sympathetically listening to the researcher’s feeling. In the process of study, I also used this technique to help sound out my findings. Four years’ undergraduate study in Beijing and one year’s internship in the neighborhood committee enabled me to be acquainted with some scholars and community officers who were in the relevant field and who were willing to provide comments and criticism. I presented the work to a professor in my former university who was an expert in the social security field. She challenged my theoretical formulations and suggested a couple of alternative ones which were very illuminating. The insights and ideas of the work were also exposed to critical comments and suggestions from an experienced community officer who was familiar with the situation of floating population in Beijing, particularly in the district where
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he worked. Furthermore, the research findings were presented at both an international conference and departmental seminars, and valuable feedbacks and criticism were gained. In a word, a number of peer debriefers helped me to fix my interview guideline, to improve the research methods as well as to interpret the meaning of the data collected, thus helping to improve the credibility of my research.
Rich, Thick Description The rich and thick description allows reader to make decisions regarding transferability because it provides the widest possible range of information for inclusion (Lincoln and Guba, 1985). With such detailed description, the research enables readers to transfer information to other settings and to determine whether the findings can be transferred because of shared characteristics (Creswell, 1998). This technique was employed at the final stage of report writing in this study. In the following chapters of finding report, I will describe in detail the participants, the setting under the study, and various relationships established between personal experience and environmental factors. By doing so, I hope to provide rich data that could make transferability judgments possible. By rigorous use of the techniques mentioned above, the credibility of the research process as well as the research findings are supposed to be assured. Yet, it could not be claimed that the findings of my research will be absolutely trustworthy, and they are open to challenge and alternative interpretations. However, I hope the measures mentioned above would be able to provide confidence in the accountability of this research to its greatest extent.
The Profile of Research Informants In the end of this chapter, the profile of research informants, in terms of their individual, household and employment characteristics is presented (see Appendix 3). Among my informants are 24 rural women migrants with recent experiences as live-in domestic workers. More than half of them had entered domestic service 23
industry between the ages of sixteen and twenty, upon their first arrival at Beijing from diverse rural origins. At the time of interviewing, 17 were currently employed as reside-in domestic workers; 4 were live-out domestic workers who were paid by hours of working, and the others were then seeking for new jobs or had changed to other occupations rather than domestic service. The average age of the informants is 29, with the youngest of 18 and the oldest of 47. The share of the informant aged 24 and below is around one third of the total, and only approximately ten percent of all the informants are aged between 25 and 30. The concentration of middle-aged women (30 to 40) in my study is remarkable, the proportion of which age group reaches over 45 percent. Participations in migration activity gradually decreases as women aged, and the share of informants elder than 40 is only a little more than 10 percent. Such an age distribution of the informants suggests that, under the age 24, young rural women may be less involved in marriage and has little household responsibilities, thus they have a higher tendency of migration. Women aged between 25 and 30 are more likely to be tied to family responsibilities such as giving birth to children, looking after baby, etc, and they are restricted from movement. Aged over 30, rural women are active again in migration when their household responsibility could be shifted to their parents-in-law. The concentration of middle-age women in my study also counters to commonly held views that rural women do not migrate in substantial numbers after marriage. As far as marital status is concerned, roughly a half of the total informants were married women. Among them, approximately one third were migrating with their husbands or families; the rest moved to Beijing by themselves, either as the single or divorced. There is an overtly high percentage of divorce rate among the informants: among the total 24, 4 informants, which is equal to over 15 percent have divorced. As for their place of origin, accordant with the existing research on floating population and domestic workers in Beijing, majority of the interviewees came from relatively poor provinces with large population, such as Anhui, Sichuan and Gansu province. The fieldwork also interviewed domestic workers from Henan, Shaan’xi, 24
Shanxi, Shandong, Heilongjiang, Guizhou, Hebei and Inner Mongolia province. It is interesting to notice the regionalized process of population movement in China through this research. Provinces like Anhui and Sichuan have long been known as the major labour exporting areas of ‘high quality’ domestic workers. A huge number of women move out to big cities, especially to Beijing, to work as domestic workers each year from these two provinces. During recent years, inter-government cooperation between Shannxi, Inter Mongolia, Shandong province and Beijing has been promoted. Now Beijing urbanities have more choices of domestic workers from almost all over China. The educational attainment of interviewees shows that one third of them have received only primary school education or even lower. The data is congruent with that from Beijing Homemaking Service Association (BHSA) on the whole domestic service workers in 2004 (Lei, 2004, February 29). Among my informants, roughly 12 percent were illiterate. The informants who had received some forms of junior high school education also accounted for a relatively big share of over 40 percent. In spite of the overall low education attainment, there were still over 20 percent informants in my research who has received senior high school education. To sum up, the data collocated show that the interviewed domestic workers have composed a comprehensive and information-rich participant pool. Interviewees came from all over China’s major labour importing provinces; they aged from 18 to 47; some had finished senior high school education, while some were illiterate; they initiated movement at various time: some first moved 20 years’ ago and some had just arrived in Beijing for days. A profile of interviewees indicates that the research has successfully recruited informants with diverse attributes, and it helps to uncover multiple perspectives about the migration situation.
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Chapter Six Pre-Migration: Make A Decision to Move Pre-Migration stage indicates the migration period before the actual physical departure takes place. The experience of prospective migrants in this phase is mainly about making a decision to move. Other critical events in this stage include reaching a household agreement on the movement, arranging after-migration affairs, and in some cases, obtaining required certificates in home villages. In this chapter the reasons for migration are firstly listed. Based on informant’s accounts, reasons for movement are divided into five categories of Economic Stimuli, Desire for Different Life, Idleness, Marital Problems and Others (see Appendix 4). Analysis of each reason is focused on the influence of variable factors in the decision-making process. Secondly, social network as a critical influential factor in the Pre-Migration stage is particularly examined. The rest part of this chapter describes other critical events and facets of the Pre-Migration Stage such as prospective migrant’s effort to overcome the resistance against movement and the involvement of origin government in the Pre-Migration Stage.
Reasons for Migration The reasons for prospective migrant’s movement to cities are complex and combined. Although factors at both macro level (e.g. nationally and regionally socioeconomic development in both urban and rural areas) and micro level (e.g. individual’s responses to economic incentives) all affect migrant’s experience in the Pre-Migration in particular the decision making process, this study is more focused on the individual and household perspective, namely on how the decision of migration is made within the unit of household and individuals. In the following, the reasons for migration are analyzed.
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Economic Stimuli Urban-rural income differentials and expected higher salary in cities are the primary reasons for prospective rural women migrants to move to cities. In the study, 17 informants of the total 24 (equal to 70 percent) have indicated that the economic betterment is their major motivation to migrate to Beijing. Although these 17 informants have initiated the movement at different time at their different ages, they unanimously listed the low income of peasant in rural areas as a strong pushing force to movement and meanwhile the higher income level in Beijing as a huge pulling force. From another aspect, the concentration of informants’ origin places in poorer provinces such as Anhui, Sichuan and Gansu Provinces also demonstrates the significance of economic stimuli in the decision making process. The experience of Xiao Wei, my first informant, is a typical story for those who moved to city by economic stimuli in 1980s and early 1990s. Xiao Wei comes from a small county near Wu Hu city in the southeast of Anhui Province. She first moved to Beijing to work as a reside-in domestic worker in 1984 when she was 18 years old. After then she kept moving between her home village and cities that also included Shanghai and Hangzhou. Now she has quitted from the reside-in domestic service and works as a live-out worker, living with her husband and son in a rented house in Beijing. The following narrative of Xiao Wei shows the economic stimuli to her movement:
I came out twenty years ago. The difference between cities and countryside was so huge then. (People living in the) countryside were poor and pitiful. I did not live well: we had nothing then…. my family did not have much land, it’s even hard for us to have a good meal, not to mention how much we can earn and save for a year. To farm a piece of land, to eat my fill, to make a piece of new clothes and eat something good in Chinese New Year, these were good enough at that time. There were out-migrations in our village early in 1983. When I heard from my town-fellows that I could (be) out to do domestic work, I was determined to go at once. I did not have choice and I had to go…I was forced by life…Farm only, you even do not have enough to eat. 27
In Xiao Wei’s case, prospective rural migrants moved due to the extreme poverty in the home village and they migrated to cities in order to maintain a basic living. Such a need for sustenance tend to be common among rural migrants in early day’s population movement of China: all informants who started movement in 1980s and some moved afterwards from comparatively poorer provinces expressed a similar motivation of ‘to dress warmly and to eat full’. From mid 1990 onwards, the living standard of rural residents has gradually improved. Though there are still places where eating and dressing remain to be the major problems, the nature of economic stimuli to most of the rural migrants has changed somewhat from addressing the basic needs of sustenance to ‘earning some spare cash’ (xianqian) and ‘making life more convenient’. Among the informants who first moved after 1990s, only one from Gansu province still said that she moved mainly for household’s sustenance. For other informants, economic stimuli served more as a mean to increase ‘pocket money’ and to improve living quality rather than just for surviving. Here, Xiao Ying’s account illustrates how the expected stable income in cities motivated her movement in 1998. I live in a small town, half day’s way from Hefei city (the capital city of Anhui province). There are six children in my family, and we had 10 mu land... In the year 1995 to 1996, there was a big harvest and we earned six to seven thousands, that’s very good. In other years, if the weather’s good, (the household’s) annual income is around three to four thousands; in case of bad weather or natural disaster, less. (The income level of my family) in the local area at that time was a little better than medium, but still not much spare cash left besides food to eat. However, if I worked in Beijing, my own effort might result more than the efforts of my whole family. If I have a stable work in Beijing, I earn at least several thousands per year. While at home, though you have much land, you still have to see the weather, you can have food only if the heaven allows you… Not like Beijing, now I have stable income. Even if I earn only three hundred in Beijing per month, it’s still better than in my home village…
Xiao Ying’s story not only illustrates how the expected higher and more stable 28
income in cities attracted her to move out, more importantly it demonstrates that the lack of nonagricultural activities in the labour-sending areas is a more stimulating factor to the out-migration than the amount of land that a household owns. Not like Xiao Wei, Xiao Ying’s family owned quite a number pieces of land, which is several times more than that of some other informants, yet the low and unstable income from agricultural production can not bring her family economic prosperity. Participating in migration, Xiao Ying succeeds in diversifying household income resources and reducing risks of household income by allocating labour between the farmland and the city. Xiao Ying’s story also reveals that the potential migrants do not necessarily originate from the poorest households or areas. Narratives from other informants support this statement. There are several informants whose household income was over seven or eight thousand yuan per year before movement, which could be rather good in rural China. For them, living in the hometown is not a problem, but by migrating to cities they are able ‘to gain some spare cash’ so that ‘it’s more convenient when you want to buy something’. There are not many informants in my research who have originated from extremely poor village. It again attests to the assumption which suggests that very poor households or individuals are less likely to participate in the migration due to lack of resources to start moving. Also motivated by economic stimuli and needs for household livelihood diversification, married rural women have more specific reasons to move out, that is: to raise money for their children. There are 7 informants among the total 24 (equals to 30 percent) who started first movement after marriage and childbearing. Except for one who migrated mainly due to marital problems, all the other six ‘mother migrants’ expressed that to earn more money and to give their children better lives were the primary reasons for migration. In particular, to earn money for children’s education seems to be a predominant concern of these ‘mother migrants’. As one informant indicated: ‘(Moving) out to earn some money, I did it all for my children’. However, the movement decision for ‘mother migrant’ could be a tough one. On the one hand, moving out to work in cities will increase family’s income and 29
consequently benefit children, especially for their education; on the other hand, working in cities always leads to separation and suffering. Each prospective mother migrant has to balance the gain and loss of the migration before making the decision, which is a difficult task. As one informant said: ‘it pains like a separation for ever’, some married rural women are not able to migrate due to their unwillingness to leave their children. Others such as most of my married informants still found the force of economic stimuli so strong that they finally took the action of movement. To summarize the influence of economic stimuli on potential rural women migrants: although the nature of economic stimuli differs for rural women migrants moved at different time and from various economic and household backgrounds, it’s always the predominant motivation for them to participate in migration. For those who find it hard to survive in home village, moving out to cities addresses their basic need of sustenance. More often, expected higher and stable income in cities meet the requirement of rural dwellers to diversify household income portfolio and potential risks, hence improving the economic status and life quality of the household. For rural women migrants who initiated movement after marriage, the economic stimuli of working in cities is so strong that it outweighs the loss of the migration such as separation from their family, particularly from their children. The domination of economic motivation in migration’s decision-making process also indicates that as long as the distinctive urban-rural income differentials exist and the off-agricultural activities remain to be limited to rural dwellers, the spontaneous population movement from rural to urban areas will continue to be motivated and accelerated.
Desires for Different Life Although the economic stimuli are always the major motivation that draws rural women out of their hometowns, itself alone is not a sufficient explanation for the massive out-migration. Among all informants, very few listed the economic motivation as the only reason for their movement. Instead, quite a number of
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informants (42 percent) expressed that they also wanted to explore the out-side world and change their lives through the migration. Back to early 1980s when the rigid control over rural-urban population movement began to release, the possibility of working and living in urban areas gradually emerged to the first generation of rural women migrants. Attraction of the unknown outside world is especially propelling to young girls who are less committed to farm work and household responsibilities. Informants who started movement in this period were all at their late teenage or early twenties when they moved, and they all expressed the ‘curiosity about the outside world’ and the desire to ‘broaden the horizon’. Having been trapped on farmland and given almost no access to urban life for decades, the first generation of women migrants realized their dreams of ‘seeing the world outside’ by migrating to and working in cities. Along with the continuous population movement between rural and urban areas, as well as the prevalence of television in countryside, the connections between labour-sending and -receiving places have become closer. Rural dwellers’ knowledge about outside world has also increased by hearing from returned migrants. One informant from Anhui Province told me how she imagined the city and the city life before she moved, and how it helped to initiate the movement: (those who returned from Beijing) all said that it’s great and modern…I thought that going to Beijing would be great, otherwise I would live in my small village for the rest of my life being just a peasant… I wanted to change my destiny. Here we see how the growing knowledge of urban areas, in particular of the destination place inspires the movement of potential rural women migrants. City is an object of fascination for it provides ‘great’ and ‘modern’ life style. In addition, more propelling to the movement is the awareness of huge urban-rural differentials and the desire to diminish the alienation from urban prospering communities. For prospective rural migrants, the knowledge of the dramatic difference between rural and urban areas creates among them an awareness of the dynamic and prospering community from which they are excluded from. A desire for modernity, associated 31
with urban living, in part propels young women out of the countryside. Here I quote the words of Xiao Hong, a 18 year girl from Shaanxi Province who moved in 2004, to show how the desire for ‘modern life’ motivated the movement. I think the cultural quality (wenhua suzhi) of Beijing people is very high…(people) from my place are relatively rustic, our languages are unrefined and qualities are relatively low…there are differences, Beijing people have culture (xiuyang), they look polite and speak differently…and their house are all clean and well-decorated; in my hometown the houses are casually and simply decorated…I just wanted to come to see the world in Beijing and change myself. Young rural women’s desires and expectations of migration are thus formed in the context of China’s modernization process and the request on its citizens to have higher quality (suzhi) and culture (xiuyang). While rural hinterlands appear to be economically sluggish and backward, residents in rural areas are always the objects to be civilized and moralized in the urbanization process. Thus cities, especially big cities like Beijing and Shanghai, are assumed to be a site of modernity where rural residents can taste the modern urban environment and improve their ‘qualities’. In particular, Beijing as the capital city has a unique ability to catalyze migrant’s emotions. Also heading to Beijing to work as domestic worker, some informants have more specific and ambitious aims such as to transfer to more prosperous industries or to obtain higher education degree. For instance, a young informant stated firmly to me that: ‘After several years, I will find other jobs…Beijing have more opportunities than in my home village and I will find some better jobs…that’s the main aim for me to come to Beijing’. Another young girl who has just arrived in Beijing when I interviewed told me confidently that: ‘Before movement I have made the decision that at most I would work for one year, due to the time requirement of the contract. After then I will attend adult tertiary examination (chengren gaokao). I want to study music in Beijing Normal University. I don’t know whether I can make it’. In their cases, moving to Beijing provides accesses to more job and education opportunities and thus serving as the springboard to better social and economic status. 32
In the study, it’s also noticed that those who behold the migration as a mean to pursue different lives were all at their early twenties when they first moved. In contrast, none of the informants who moved at their late twenties or older have indicated the desire of ‘changing lives’ or ‘seeing the outside world’ as a motivation to move. This finding suggests that for married rural women and rural women with children, the opportunities to escalate their social status and ‘change destiny’ through out-migration is smaller than those of single women. Married rural women are more economic-driven in the migration while for young girls, migration to cities still provides them possibilities to change their lives of ‘being a peasant for a whole life’. Promoted by such a vision, many young girls from rural areas risked in a strange and uncertain migration adventure.
More Gendered Reasons The decision-making process of migration is more complex than the simple explanation of economic rationality and a pursuit of different life. The dynamic process is also embedded in rich cultural contexts. For women migrants, the gender role expectation and the societal discourse on women not only influence their motivations of migration but also affect the whole migration process. A more sensitive approach to the role of societal values and gender difference is required for obtaining a better understanding of women migrant’s behavior and experience. In the study, ‘Idleness’ is a frequently mentioned reason that motivated the movement of rural women, in particular young rural women. More than one third of the informants indicated that ‘being idle’ propelled them out of home village. To list the ‘Idleness’ as one of the ‘More Gendered Reasons’, I don’t mean that potential male migrants do not face the problem of idleness. I agree that the surplus labour phenomenon in rural areas refer to both men and women. However, according to the accounts of informants, it is noticed that due to women’s particular socio-cultural status in both households and society, young rural women are more likely to experience idleness and hence their possibility of moving out is increased.
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The first reason that accounts for young rural women’s more idleness relates to the household responsibility division in rural areas. Different from married women, unmarried young women in countryside are less directly involved in agricultural production and less tied to farmland. For almost all the unmarried informants who listed ‘idleness’ as a motivation to movement, either their parents or elder brothers or their sister-in-laws worked in the farmland, while very few of them were directly engaged in the farm work. One informant told me: ‘my family doesn’t have much land…I haven’t done any farm work in my home, all I did is to help feed pig or cook sometimes… I finished my school and I was idle in my home then. I just played everyday ’. Many other informants gave the similar accounts of their ‘idleness’ due to girls’ less involvement in farm work while they were at home. Their narratives demonstrate that in a family where the farmland is scarce, young daughter’s participation in farm work is not a must or not necessary. In other words, not like their brothers, young women’s labour is not crucial to the maintenance of the household economy. As long as their manpower is appropriable in the household and they are less tied by family responsibilities, unmarried young women are highly likely to take the action of movement that has become available because of the greater labour surplus in the household. Besides the responsibility division in rural household, young rural women’s more idleness also in part attributes to their less access to education. In the study, it is found that the preference on boys’ education to that of girls is still a quite common phenomenon in rural China. When a family comes across the difficulties of sending all the children to school, privilege always goes to sons while the daughter’s rights of receiving education are often bereaved. So at their age of attending school, many girls are forced to drop their study, which is mainly due to the economic strain of the family. This also enhances girl’s possibility of out-migration. One informant Xiao Yong told me how her education rights were sacrificed to the interest of her elder brothers: I have studied to the grade two of senior high school. My score was among 34
the best in my class… In that summer I was preparing for the examination. I needed to submit eleven yuan for the examination papers. I asked my dad (to give me the money), but he refused…he just refused to give me eleven yuan… I argued with him, and he said: “You are reasoning with me? Isn’t it me who give you money to send you to school? From now on I won’t give you money and you don’t go to school”. So from then on, I haven’t attended school anymore… Later I talked to my father that since I couldn’t attend school, I wanted to learn some skills. I wanted to learn dress-making. He said that to learn dress-making, at least we have to pay five hundred yuan. You know what, he just didn’t give me! He thinks that sooner or later we daughters will marry to others and he feels it’s unworthy to spend money on me. I was so sad…So I was home and began to help my mother with housework. I was unhappy doing housework. I was not convinced. Both of my two elder brothers all went to colleges, why couldn’t I? So after staying at home for several months, I came out with my cousin to Beijing. Xiao Yong’s case not only demonstrates the phenomenon of boy’s priority in rural areas in regard to receiving education, most importantly, her father’s refusal to pay her school and other education fees reveals the traditional idea in rural China that for women’s natal family, daughters will eventually leave the household and become the member of other families, and thus it’s not wise for the natal family to invest in their daughters. Xiao Yong’s account is backed by a couple of informants who shared the similar experience of being forced to leave school and later participated in the migration. So for single young women in rural areas, on the one hand their labours may be not required for the maintenance of household’s economy; on the other hand, they are more likely to be excluded from attending school. These two factors together make young rural women ‘double-idle’ comparing to their male counterparts and impose a strong pushing force on them to move out. For married women, their decision of movement also shows different features from that of men’s. In the study, a high divorce rate of over 16 percent is found among informants. In addition, another two informants indicated that the quarrel with their husbands has directly motivated their movement, which makes the share of marital-problem driven movement increasing to 25 percent in this research. I pick the cases of Xiao Zhao and Xiao Guo to show how the marriage failure of rural women 35
leads to their migration action. Xiao Zhao differs from other informants in that she is the only one who took the initiative to find me to be interviewed. I have spent several days interviewing in a public area of a community where many domestic workers gathered every morning and afternoon to company children that they cared playing outside. It was in a morning, one domestic woker whom I had interviewed came to tell me that an auntie (a yi, that’s how domestic workers address each other) from Hebei Province wanted to talk to me about her ‘miserable’ stories. In that afternoon, I met this Hebei auntie Xiao Zhao. Xiao Zhao was at her late thirties and she was not good at expressing and her Putonghua was hard to follow. We had a long conversation during which she bursted into tears for several times. My family is bad. When I first came here, (my children) one was six and another was ten. Their father went out to work in the south, and he met a women from Ningbo, and (she) born a child for him…So he forced me (to divorce), he didn’t give me money, didn’t pay for children’s school fees, and he didn’t give me money for life. For two years, he gave me nothing. At that time, it’s bitter and children suffered with me. I cried everyday, and I asked children’s grandpa for money, their grandpa said: No money. No money. I went out to borrow from others… At that time I was just a rural woman, and I knew nothing. I raised two children and I farmed… I did all the farm work. And no body dared to help me. (They) said that even children’s father doesn’t care, why should we intermeddle in other’s affairs? …I am that kind of person: I am too shy to express myself. Until that women born the second child for him, I began to express and learned not to be shy…So we divorced, and children are with him. So I came to Beijing… Xiao Zhao’s sad story reveals that in rural China women are disadvantaged in divorce since it is always linked with economic deprivation and lower classes. Breaking away from their husbands, rural women lose farmland as the main income sources. Most of the divorced rural women could not afford to raise their children. Also, living in their husbands’ villages could be very hard or even impossible. As Xiao Zhao said: people ‘dare not to help’ because of her identity as an outsider in the village. Meanwhile, going back to the natal family appears to be difficult too, as
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marring out and moving to husband’s village indicates a rural woman’s separation from her natal family. In this sense, divorced women are partly forced to leave the place of origin and thus they are more likely to move to cities to try a different life. Such a view of ‘forced’ movement is supported by accounts of some other divorced informants who similarly expressed that ‘Had I not divorced, I would not come out’. The second case that I want to cite is about Xiao Guo. Xiao Guo is the best educated among all the informants. She has finished senior high school. ‘One heart cannot be used on two things’, she told me that she failed in the college entrance examination because she began to involve in love affairs with her current husband. They got married when Xiao Guo was 21.
Generally speaking, people are out for money, but I am not. I run small business before I moved. I sold eggs in the market and actually I used to earn almost as much money as I earn here…I didn’t get along with my husband, and I came out after we quarreled. The aim I came out was to be separated from him for a while. We could not always be together. He always shows distrust on me and we quarreled a lot. Almost like escape, I came out of my home alone…I don’t want to earn much money and return to do something. It’s all about marital problem. Xiao Guo isn’t divorced, but unhappy marriage made her drop a fairly good job in her home village and ‘escaped’ to Beijing for a different life. While it’s hard to imagine that a man leaves his hometown solely because of marital problems, Xiao Guo’s experience once again demonstrates that the gendered differences between men and women in dissimilating their decision making process. In fact, after several weeks when I have first interviewed Xiao Guo, Xiao Guo called me to say goodbye, saying that she would go back to home because her husband came to Beijing to look for her and she has forgiven him. Here we see that Xiao Guo’s adventure of migration started by her marital problem, but also ended by the solving of the problem. Her short migration experience echoes with the account of another informant that I mentioned above: ‘Had I not divorced, I would not come out’. Both of them illustrate the importance of marriage status of a woman in her migration decision. 37
Findings in this study suggest that reasons for women’s migration may be quite different from that of men’s. A gendered perspective is crucial to understand women’s migration decision and the socio-cultural background particular to women should be considered for both single and married women migrants.
Household Decision For the research on women migration, especially on married women’s migration, one interesting question to ask is: why is it this woman, not her siblings (for single women) or her husband (for married women), who came out to migrate? To answer this question, a household perspective is needed. While the preceding sub-section explains the motivation for women’s movement from an individual angle, this sub-section examines the decision-making in a household setting. Household is the basic social unit in rural China and the existing research on rural-urban migration in China have correctly pointed out that in China’s cultural background, the consideration of migration is by and large connected with the pursuit of household maximum interest rather than individual economic rationality (Bai, 1999; Du, 1999, etc.). Findings of this study support the importance of household decision in the migration process, and differences are found between single and married women migrants. Young single women are less tied to household responsibilities and their action of migration is more driven by personal will rather than household decision. In the research several informants who moved when they were single unanimously emphasized their own wishes and desires for the movement. They expressed that they themselves ‘wanted’ or ‘longed for’ the life in cities and their family members rarely involved in the migration’s decision-making. Besides such subjective statements, another evidence of the predominance of single women’s own will in the migration process is that many informants have faced various objections from their families against the movement, which suggests that young women migrant’s wish of movement is not necessarily in accordance with the interests of the whole family.
38
Some informants shared the similar experiences of ‘my parents didn’t agree, but I myself wanted to go out’. One informant even tried to flee from her home for Beijing to show her protest to her parents’ disagreement on her movement. In another case, conflicts arose when the informant’s own pursuit of new life was against the interests of her family. One informant Xiao Ying who first moved when she was eighteen told me that when she told her family about her intention to move out, both her parents and her elder brothers disagreed. The reasons for their objections, Xiao Ying said, were that her family had quite some of land, and although she did not farm, her presence in the family would still be helpful, and it was particularly ‘good to my parent’s health’. So whereas the movement may bring benefits to Xiao Ying as an individual, it jeopardizes the interests of her household, hence it was opposed by Xiao Ying’s parents and brothers. However, finally Xiao Ying was able to persuade her family and moved to Beijing to realize her own wills. For
single
women
migrants,
household’s
less
involvement
in
the
decision-making process does not mean the influence of the household does not exist. Rather, the influence of the household decision still affects in a more pervasive way. On the one hand, almost all the movement action of young single women requires the final permission from their parents as the head of the household. On the other hand, if to say that the household dose not directly decide who should migrate, it still affects prospective migrant’s choice by deciding who should stay. Still citing Xiao Yong’s case as an example (p. 122), when the resources for children’s education are limited within her household, Xiao Yong’s parents decided to send their two sons to school while leaving Xiao Yong at home to help with housework. Xiao Ying’s parents did not directly urge Xiao Yong to move out, but by allocating the limited household resources on their sons, they left Xiao Yong with little chances to improve her economic and social status but to migrate. In this sense, the household decision party shaped Xiao Yong’s movement. For married women migrants, household plays a more important role in their movement decisions. The composition of the household and the responsibility division within it both impose impact on the decision-making. Except for those who 39
moved due to marital problems, almost all the married informants described their migration as a household strategy to pursue its maximum economic interests. The following two cases illustrate the important role of a household in married woman’s decision-making. The first case is about Xiao Chen, a 36 years old woman from Gansu province. She told me her reasons for migration. There are two children in my home and they are all studing at schools. I wanted to earn some money for children’s school fees…my husband farms at home and he doesn’t come out. Since I am out, he cannot be out… he once tried to come out to work, but he earned no money…we have no choices, and I said: let me go out to work. The second case is Xiao Yang who’s from Sichuan Province. Xiao Yang moved alone to Beijing in 2000. Like Xiao Chen, Xiao Yang’s husband is farming at home village and their only daughter is studing in the local high school. When asked why she moved out and her husband stayed at home, Xiao Yang answered me: In our place the land is scarce, and the farm work is little. Her father (child’s father) does all the work. We women could not do much in the lands. It’s all the farm work: we grow paddy, and we use cattle to plough - all these things women cannot do. And it’s suffering for men to move out and work. To be a construction worker, the Sun’s burning - it’s too hard. I am 37 years old and my husband is 38 already, I don’t want him to come to suffer… Child is a problem, too. Someone is needed to care the home. If both of us come out and no one is at home, child will have no mind to study. And we have an old grandma in the home, she also needs caring…we women working outside return to home every year, it is worry-saving (sheng xin). We women don’t spend much money working outside. Men are different, they smoke and drink and spend more money. Some clues can be traced from the above two accounts, on why, in contrary to the traditional idea of women’s working in intra-household sphere and men outside, some households send women rather than men to migrate out. Firstly, we see that when needs arise (e.g. to increase household income in both cases and to allocate household surplus labour in Xiao Yang’s case), a household will participate in migration to diversify its income and/or to deploy its own labours. In regard to who 40
should go out and who will stay, the household weighs the gain and the loss of each member’s migration and chooses the most profitable option. Generally speaking, due to men’s traditional identity of outside labours, the preference of movement is still on the husband of a household. However, men’s migration is restricted by comparatively higher requirements on their labour force and skills. Over middle-aged or unskilled men from rural areas are less likely to find a job in cities. Furthermore, household’s needs for men’s presence in the hard farm work also prevents them from movement. Xiao Chen and Xiao Yang’s husband all failed to migrate due to the restrictions mentioned above. Comparatively, women’s migration, especially when they work in domestic service industry, has its own advantages. The most obvious advantage is that the work imposes little requirements on women’s age, skills and working experiences. The domestic service is mainly an extension of women’s intra-household duties in the labour market, and almost all the rural women, regardless of the age, education level and origin place, could easily find a job as domestic worker in cities. Working as domestic worker, as Xiao Yang mentioned, is also ‘worry-saving’. It’s less laboursome and safer than men’s work, yet the income could be as attractive as that of men’s. Finally, although married women are more tied to household responsibilities such as caring for children and the elderly, their works inside household can be replaced by their husbands, not vice versa. In the two cases mentioned above, both informants’ husbands performed the traditional role of women to care the children and do housework at home. To decide which family member will migrate, the household balances the need for outing migration and the need for indoor works, counting the advantages and disadvantages of each member’s migration, and then it deploys its labour between rural and urban areas to reach its maximum interest. So even women have assumed roles of working in domestic private sphere within a household, if compared to their husbands their migration is more beneficial to the families, they will take the action of movement. It’s also possible for both husband and wife of a household to move together, as long as other family members or their relatives could care the works in 41
the home village. In this study, all the three informants who work as live-out workers moved with either their husbands or their families, and it further increases the household’s income. In a word, married women’s action of migration is by and large a household’s strategy to deploy its labour force and to maximize its economic benefit. Household’s influence also affects single women’s migration decision, but is more pervasive. To understand why they move, background information of a woman migrant’s household, such as the household’s features and the responsibility division within it, would be necessary and illuminating.
Resistance against Migration and Overcome the Resistance To various extents, a great number of informants have confronted objections to their migration before they could move. For young single women, the objections were mainly from their parents for the concern of the daughter’s safety; for married women, although their migration is always a household strategy to pursue its maximum interest, the wife’s departure from the home and housework still caused uneasiness among some husbands and it might take some time before the couple could reach an agreement on wife’s migration. What follow are the accounts of two informants about their experiences of facing the resistance and finally overcoming it. The first one Xiao Shen, from Anhui Province, first moved twenty years’ ago while she was 18. She said: For the first time I wanted to move out, my parents objected, and they didn’t allow me to come. The main reason was (they were) afraid of kidnapping. During that time, there were many people who kidnapped women and children…So I troubled my parents and made noises (nao) everyday. Once I carried a bag within which there was eighty yuan and I ran out. But I was found out by my mother, and was seized back. After I was back I still made noise for coming out…I persuaded my mother, telling her that it’s also hard for me to be apart from them all, but my working outside could bring more to our family…and finally, I persuaded them to let me out. Xiao Fu, first moved when she was 34 with two children told me her husband’s 42
objection against her movement.
At the very beginning, he was against me, saying that: we could live happily without working outside; we don’t lack food or clothes. And he said sadly that: you wanted to earn money but you don’t want the family…he even said, don’t send money back, we don’t need your money. The more he expressed in that way, the more determined that I was to come out… I know that he’s unhappy to see me out, but he also knew that for the family I needed to go out. He was in a quandary…I persuaded him and he finally agreed – he had to, the family needed money. Both Xiao Shen and Xiao Fu have faced the objections from their family members against their movements, either from their parents or husband. And they all managed to overcome the objections and finally participated in the migration. The way they took to resist the objection against their movement could be gentle persuading. Also, in Xiao Shen’s case, the resistance to their parent’s control over her migration was in a fiercer form, that she ‘made noise every day’, and she even tried to flee to Beijing without informing her parents. However, we also see that the objections against their migration gradually bated after each time’s movement. Xiao Shen’s parents stop trying to draw her back after she has shuttled between Beijing and her village for several times. As Xiao Shen said ‘they now think it’s ok for me to go to anywhere’. Xiao Fu’s husband even began to support her migration. Xiao Fu indicated that: ‘Afterwards when I returned home and said that I didn’t want to go out, he even asked me to go out to work. He said: you are not able to do heavy farm work, and you go to work, anyway working in Beijing’s not so tiring’. Another source of objection against informant’s movement comes from the social stigma associated with the domestic service work. One informant from Shandong Province once came cross the problem of her town-fellow’s low evaluation about the service job that she would do.
At that time when I came out, many people in my village could not understand me: they said that I was stupid that I went out o serve others and some persuaded me not to go because the work is low-class… my father also objected the job, he felt that I was going to be a servant, he said that the job 43
is demeaning ant it would lose my family’s face if I go…even now the majority of people (in her village) still regard the domestic service as an industry lower to others, so do people work in this industry. Another two informants from Shaanxi Province gave the similar accounts of the negative influence imposed on the migration decisions by the social stigma associated with the domestic service. One of them told me that in her place, the domestic service is looked down upon to such an extent that even the local government promised to pay for all the training and transportation fees for potential domestic workers to work in Beijing, not many rural women would be willing to go because they thought the job was low-class. Also, there is a subtle relationship between the socio-economic background, the migration history of the origin places and the objection agaisnt the migration that potential migrants may confront. In provinces like Shannxi and Inner Mongolia where people have comparatively conservative attitudes towards out-migration and where the migration history is short, the prospective domestic workers are faced with more pressures and objections. In contrast, women from Anhui, Sichuan provinces that have a longer history of exporting redundant labours, parents and husbands of a household are more willing to send their daughter or wife out to work. Thus, the decision-making for women from these provinces often takes shorter time. Above all, no matter what objections that rural women migrants have faced before their movement, they finally made it to overcome the resistances and step forward to move out and try a different life. From this point, all these women migrants present and share a spirit of activity and initiative in pursuing their own lives and constructing their own identities through the migration. It also can be expected that, following the growing trend of women’s out-migration, objections against women’s migration would become less, and it would be easier for rural women to move out and work in cities in near future.
Social Network: A Strong Tie between Destination Place and 44
Home Village To potential rural women migrants, social network established with former migrants from the home village plays a significant role in their Pre-Migration Stage. To some extent, the social network imposes the foremost influence on the decision-making by determining whether the migration could be carried out ultimately. In this research, except for those who moved through local government’s organization, all the other informants have had one or more established relationship with their town fellows who were working in Beijing before the movement. In other words, no one risked in a strange and uncertain migration adventure until they were assured of some supports in the destination place.
Locate the Destination Place As the foremost determinant in the Pre-Migration Stage, social network functions in two ways to influence the migration decision. Firstly, potential migrant’s connection with the former migrants determines the direction of the migration flow. For all the informants, moving to Beijing rather than other cities is not a casual choice or a matter of proximity. Except for the migration through inter-government cooperation, all the informants chose Beijing as their destination place because they had relatives or town-fellows who were working there at the time of their migration. Former migrant’s work and living experiences in Beijing might be the greatest attraction for potential migrants to move to Beijing. The following accounts of informant Xiao Wei demonstrate such attractions. Ten years ago, there were people moving out in my place (Henan Province). They all went to care babies or little child. For the first group, they came to Beijing…some have returned to home and got married – their children have grown up now; but some were not. Each time they returned, they would bring more out…I got to learn Beijing from them. They said that in Beijing, here’s good, there’s good…very attractive…There are people in my village who brought home much money (by working in Beijing)…I was introduced by my neighbor (to come here), (she) said, come, I will help you to find a job…In the vacation when she returned, she came to my home and we 45
chatted. I asked her the situation in Beijing; see how much she earns…the former job agency I joined was introduced by her. These years when I returned home, for every time I was at home, many people came to ask me when I would leave. I will help them for sure if I can, (people) all want to earn some money, right? We are all neighbors. I led many to come to Beijing. They all followed me. If I am not capable to find a job, I will help them to find a job agency. Xiao Fu’s experience of changing from being led to Beijing to leading town follows to Beijing exactly shows how the social ties between each migration generation direct the migration flow. Xiao Fu’s knowledge about the potential destination place was from her neighbor, from whom she got to know the higher income and desirable life in Beijing. The destination city is not nowhere anymore. Her neighbor’s promise to help her find a job also appeared as a big attraction which finally made Xiao Wei determine to leave. Without the introduction of former migrants, an unknown city could be scary and full of dangers, and the possibility of moving to a strange city could be next to the impossible. After several years’ working in Beijing, Xiao Wei replayed the roles of her neighbor as an intermediate that links Beijing and her home village. Ties between town fellows could be very strong, as Xiao Wei stated: ‘I will help them for sure if I can’. She has regarded it incumbent on her to lead town-fellows out and help them to ‘earn some money’. Another informant Xiao Chen from Gansu Province told me proudly about the mutual help among her town fellows ‘in my village, you pulled me out, and I pulled you out. We love and help each other (hu zhu hu ai)’. Social network’s significance in fixing the destination place is shared by all the informants who were brought by or/ and have brought town-fellows to Beijing. In this sense we can say that although the huge migration tide from rural to urban China is dominated by spontaneous movements, it is not blind and un-directional. Instead, it is quite organized and ordered, with social network functions as a very strong tie between the former migrants and the potential ones, between the particular labour-sending and -receiving areas. This also explains why the domestic service in Beijing is dominated by rural women from Anhui and Sichuan Provinces. 46
Enter a Specific Industry Besides its function of locating the destination place, social network also helps potential migrants to enter a specific industry. Introduced by former migrants who are also engaged in domestic service, the majority of my informants has benefited from their town fellows’ established networks in Beijing and was able to gain an easier entry into the domestic service industry. It is common, as found in the research, that some potential employers find their domestic helpers through the recommendation of their friends’ maids. This suggests that the current domestic workers themselves might be a valuable resource for coming town fellows to find a domestic service job. Furthermore, even current domestic worker cannot find a job for their coming town-fellows, as Xiao Fu said, they could also help to find a good job agency for the prospective migrants. Here one can argue that, to potential migrants, the help they can draw from the former migrants is mainly restricted within a specific industry. In this sense, social network is important for prospective migrant, yet it is in a limited scope and it reduces their possibility to join other industries, at least for their first movement. However, in this research it is also found that experienced migrants are less restricted by the limitation of social network on their job and employer choices, and they began to map out the situation of the destination place, the industry that they entered and they started to build their own networks. Also, one interesting aspect of the social network is that the function of it is connected with the honor and credit of the current migrant women. Here I quote an narrative of one informant from Sichuan Province to illustrate that women migrant’s honor matters in her influence on coming migrants. This informant told me: Some women (migrants), they are honest (laoshi) in the home, so people believe you. Both the town-fellows and neighbors think that you are very honest and trustful…when during the Chinese New Year, you return home and always return home on time, so they would feel guaranteed to ask you to bring their friends or relatives out to work; otherwise, there are so many (women migrants) changing their minds, who dares to ask you (to bring people out)? 47
The viewpoint mentioned above is echoed by other informants. Their statement suggests that a moral requirement is placed on current women migrant who is supposed to bring town-fellows out to cities. Whether women migrant could return home on time during Spring Festival is one of the major criteria to judge rural women’s morality and trustiness, and those who fail to fulfill the moral requirements placed on them by home villagers will not be considered as suitable person to draw help from. Therefore, the possible social network with former migrants is also limited to rural women with good ‘reputation’ and ‘trustiness’. To summarize, in this section the social network as a very important determinant in rural women’s Pre-Migration Stage is examined. The connection of social network between the current and the potential migrants helps to explain why, after making the decision of movement; the informants in this study chose Beijing as the destination place and choose domestic service as their fist jobs. As a result, even rural women’s choices in the urban job market are disadvantaged by their lower education level relative to their urban counterparts, they still have an ‘advantage’ in that domestic service jobs are explicitly reserved for them by various social networks.
Origin Government’s Control and Organization The migration decision is made predominantly at the individual and household levels, nevertheless the government involves in this process by implementing relevant regulations or programs to control or facilitate the migration. The existing literature has pointed out the implication of institution-based barriers to rural resident’s movement and the state’s effort to construct the ‘orderly migration’ (Fan, 2002; Lei, 2001; Wan, 1995, etc.). In this study, it is found that from the aspect of the labour-sending areas, the local government’s control over migration is weak. And many local governments actively promote their residents to move to cities by organizing collective out-migration and easing the transition process.
Certificate System in the Origin Place 48
In rural areas, a major measure of the local government to ‘control’ out-movement is to issue ‘out- going employment registration card’ (waichu jiuye dengji ka) or ‘out-going work permit’ (waichu wugong zheng). It is required that every potential out-migrants should obtain such a certificate before he or she move, so that the local government can be aware of the magnitude and direction of its resident’s flow. In addition, for women migrants, a certificate to verify their marriage and birth situation is required from local government, which aims to strengthen the cooperation between labour-sending and -receiving areas on controlling moving women’s reproduction. To obtain each certificate, fees are charged. In this study it is noticed that the certificate system in origin places functions more as a promoter to rural resident’s out-migration rather than a restriction over their movement. Firstly, it’s very easy and convenient for out-going migrants to obtain the required certificates in their home village. For informants who complained the redundant process of obtaining various certificates, all the criticisms were against the urban certificate system, not their local certificate system. In contrast, informants expressed that it is ‘fast’ and ‘convenient’ to obtain all the certificates in their hometowns. Besides issuing authority’s proximity to the potential migrants, the intense and intimate relationships among rural villagers including both officers and ordinary residents also helps to explain the easy access to various certificates in the origin places. In addition, the issuance of required certificates in origin place is cheap. Comparing to the certificate system in destination places, which has long been blamed for over-charging and being used by urban officials to generate revenue, issuing out-migration certificates in labour-sending areas is much cheaper. For example, as told by several informants, the ‘marriage and birth situation certificate’ costs only five yuan, and the ‘out-going work permit’ costs less then fifteen yuan. It’s reasonable to say that the fees charged for issuing certificates in the origin places cannot not be a deterrent to rural population's out-migration. In fact, in spite of local government’s requirement on various certificates and the fees charged, quite a number of informants unanimously expressed that ‘anyone who wants to go out can 49
go out’, without any restrictions from the labour-sending areas. However, although obtaining required certificate in rural areas could be convenient and cheap, the system is not so standardized and developed as that of cities. Back to early 1990s, the then Ministry of Labour has introduced work permit system over migrant labours, but accounts of the informants reveal that even nowadays, a number of migrant workers including domestic workers do not obtain required certificates from their origin places. In addition, the ‘certificate’ that the local authority issued might be very informal. One informant who moved in 1997 from Anhui Province told me that the ‘out-going work permit’ she got from the local authority was a piece of note written by the head of her village, which verified that she was the residents of the village and explained that she moved because of the economic strains of her household. The utility of such a ‘certificate’ in urban labour market is quite questionable. The easy and convenient process of obtaining required certificates in labour-sending areas in part reduces the cost of participating in migration and therefore facilitating the potential migrant’s movement. However, problems also emerge due to the system’s underdevelopment. Since the system does not cover all the out-going migrants from rural areas, for those who do not have the certificate or those who have unauthorized certificate like the one mentioned above, their possibility of effectively dealing with the problems in destination place through formal channels is reduced, and it increases their vulnerability in cities.
Organized Labour Export Migration organized by the local government is another important access to urban employment for potential domestic workers. Through the narratives of interviewees and the relevant news from public media, one can notice a growing trend of inter-governmental cooperation on exporting rural women to work as domestic workers in cities. Also, many links have been built up between the labour-sending areas and the household service companies in several big cities such
50
as Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou. In my study, I have met several domestic workers from Gansu, Shaanxi, Sichuan and Inter Mongolia Province, all of whom moved through the labour export projects jointly held by their origin governments and some big household service companies in Beijing. Some informants have just arrived at Beijing for less than a week when I interviewed; others have been in Beijing for years since their first arrival and have already registered at new domestic service companies different from the originally assigned ones. The process of each informant’s movement, as can be told from the narratives of informants from different origin places, is more or less the same. The following account of Xiao Yao, who is from a small village near the Tianshui city of Gansu Province, is a typical case of movement through the labour export projects. It was when I was sixteen, I was working at home and by accident I heard from the (village’s) broadcast that the Women Federal was recruiting workers…It’s the Tianshui Women Federal, which has good relationships with Beijing’s Women Federal – they are all the ‘Federals’… It was said that they wanted women aged from eighteen to thirty-five, those who have finished the junior high school’s education, to do the service. It sounded good: they said that who wanted to go could go, only take some clothes, nothing more was needed… After I heard the broadcast, I went to the town and registered. In my village, three of us went to Tianshui city first. There were also many from other villages, with a total of thirty or so. After arriving there, we underwent physical examinations – many tests. Those who were all right could stay…We stayed there for fourteen days, for training. We had classes, seven or eight classes for every day, which covered the basic knowledge of domestic service. And we had three meals everyday. We ate well and slept well, they were all free…after training we were granted qualification certificate and came to Beijing…For that time, we were really lucky, even the fees for train’s ticket (to Beijng) were not paid by us. Almost for all the informants who migrated through the government’s organization, their experiences of movement are regarded as a ‘lucky’ one. The government-organized movement is attractive to potential women migrants in that it’s more reliable and safer than the movement through individual’s connections. Since the majority of such movements are held by the local Women Federal, which 51
enjoys a high reputation in rural China, the potential migrants as well as their parents believe that ‘it must do good to us women’ and ‘it could not cheat us’, and therefore the movement is more trust-worthy. Some informants also think that finding a job through government-organized migration is much easier. An informant once showed me her signed contract with the local Women Federal, which promised to locate a job for her within fifteen days. Such a promise also sounds quite attractive to the potential women migrants. What’s more, for rural women who have been given comparatively less access to education, a chance to be trained freely and to obtain a qualification certificate that may help enhance their positions in the labour market, would be beneficial. Informants who moved through government’s organizations all received some training on domestic service, which covered the knowledge of using modern electrical machines and the skills of cooking and caring babies or the elderly, etc. Upon the completion of training, each trainee was granted a certificate. In some cases the trainees are graded as junior, middle or senior domestic workers according to the length and the context of the training. After the training and getting the qualification certificate, these rural women are on their way to the destination places. One informant from Sichuan Province proudly told me her exciting trip to Beijing: We were on the train to Beijing and we all wore an apron on which it was written that ‘Sichuan Sisters Go to Beijing’ (chuan mei zi jin jing). It was our symbol… And we had a song. When we boarded on the train, we sang the song – it stirred the whole carriage! We were like a big advertisement: when we left Sichuan, there were journalists from Sichuan Newspaper, and when we arrived in Beijing, there were also many. Later on I got to know from the newspaper that the above organized movement, with its logo of ‘Sichuan Sisters Go to Beijing’, is a part of a bigger project held by the Sichuan government and Beijing Homemaking Service Association (BHSA) to export women labours from Sichuan Province to work particularly as domestic workers in Beijing. Although rural women from Sichuan Province have a long
52
history of working as domestic workers in Beijing, most of them used to move through personal networks with town-fellows. This project signifies in that it show the local government of Sichuan Province began to play a more active role in local women’s training and labour exporting. The similar projects have also been set up in Shaanxi, Henan and Shandong Provinces, and it is reported that all these provinces are making great efforts to build and consolidate their own brands of ‘high-quality domestic workers’ (Yang & Dong, 2004, May 20). As one can expect, the origin government’s active involvement in the labour-exporting projects will further promote and facilitate rural women’s out-migration. More than likely, it will also decrease rural migrants’ dependence on their informal social networks for the movement. As demonstrated in the study, the majority of informants who moved through government’s organization indicated that they did not have friends or relatives in Beijing who would help to bring them out or secure a job. More pervasively, looking from a long-term aspect, a changing attitude towards the domestic service industry could also be brought with government’s growing participation in domestic worker’s out-migration. It is highly likely that the social stigma on the domestic service would be gradually reduced and working as maids in cites could be more acceptable for rural women as well as their families. Despite all the advantages of government-organized migration stated above, its real effects still remain unclear. On the one hand, although the government-organized migration is in a growing trend, some origin governments still face the difficulties of recruiting domestic workers form rural areas. Take the project of ‘Sichuan Sisters Go to Beijing’ as an example. In January of 2004, relevant departments in Beijing and Sichuan planned to organize 3,000 ‘Sichuan Sisters’ to work in Beijing. However it turned out that less than one hundred Sichuan women came finally (Sichuan Online, Jan 28, 2004). On the other hand, even labour-sending government succeeds in exporting its women labour to cities, how to keep them is also a problem. Still citing the project of ‘Sichuan Sisters Go to Beijing’, it is reported that among the first two groups of 69 Sichuan women who moved to Beijing in the beginning of 2004, over 23 percent had left Beijing or the original household service companies that were 53
assigned to within half a month’s time (Sichuan Online, Feb 17, 2004). Another problem associated with the government-organized migration is that since the local government has substituted the personal networks to be the intermediate in the migration, rural migrant’s opportunities to obtain physical or emotional support from their informal social networks is greatly reduced. In case that they lack the access to formal help offered by either labour-sending or - receiving government, rural migrants could be rather vulnerable in a strange city. One of my informants through labour-exporting program has confronted exactly such a problem. This informant became sick after her first arrival in Beijing and she lost contact with both her local government and the receiving job agency. Although finally she was able to return to home village, she suffered a lot from the sickness while to no body she could fall on. The sad experience of this poor informant demonstrates that rural migrant moving through government’s organization could be rather vulnerable in the destination place since the support that they could draw has been restricted to the formal resources solely, yet which could be very difficult to reach for them. In this sense, although the government-organized migration could facilitate rural women’s out-migration, it may also increase their vulnerability in the destination. Therefore, to reduce this potential problem associated with the government-organized migration and to better protect migrant workers, both the labor-receiving government and the household service company should make more effort to increase rural migrant’s access to support from formal channels.
Summary In this chapter, the migration experience of domestic workers in the Pre-Migration Stage is examined. The analysis is focused on the critical events in this stage, which include: making a decision to move, overcoming various resistances against movement and obtaining required certificates in origin places. Some major variables in this stage such as social network and origin government, and their
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influence on the migration process are also explored. The narratives of the informants indicate that the income differential between rural and urban areas is still a predominant reason for rural women to move out. However, the motivations of movement also include the desires to seeing the world outside and gaining more life experience. Rural women’s particular socio-cultural status also affects their decision-making. For young single women, they tend to have a higher mobility than their male counterparts due to their less commitment to agricultural production and less access to education; as far as the married women are concerned, in this study, an overtly high divorce rate among informants is noticed, which suggests that marital problem is also a catalyst for rural women’s movement. Findings of this study also echo the importance of the household perspective in China’s migration study in that the consideration of migration is by and large made within the household sphere rather than solely for individual economic rationality. During the process of making a decision to move, a number of informants have come across various objections against their movements from their family members. However, these rural women were finally able to overcome the resistances and step forward to move out. In this sense, all these women migrants presented somewhat initiative and determination to pursuing their own lives and constructing new identities through the migration. In the Pre-migration stage, informal social network and origin government’s involvement in the migration are two important variable factors. The social network established with former migrants is found to be one of the most influential factors in the decision-making for individual migrants. It exerts tremendous influence on one’s migration decision by helping one to locate the destination place and to enter a specific industry. Acting as an intermediate between the labor-sending and –receiving area instead of the social network, government organized labor-exporting project begins to play a more important role in the Pre-Migration stage. Its influence on the potential migrants can be both positive and negative. On the one hand, it undoubtedly facilitates individual’s movement by easing the migration process. Nevertheless, on 55
the other hand, a labor-exporting project without good following-up may increase the vulnerability of rural migrants as the formal channels become the only resource from which the migrant can draw help.
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Chapter Seven Transit Process: From Home Village to Beijing Once a decision of migration is made, the individual migrant moves into the second phase of migration – the Transit Stage. This stage involves physical breaks of migrants with their families and origin places, movement of migrants to destination places, and it lasts until the migrants find an initial accommodation and a job in the labour-receiving areas. For majority of the rural migrants, the most important events in this stage are finding a shelter to live and securing an employment as a mean of regular support to both themselves and families. In addition, as to the domestic workers in Beijing, since hundreds of domestic service companies are valuable sources of job opportunities and temporary accommodations, to register in a domestic service company is also a major issue in their transit stage. Ultimately, as temporary residents in the destination places, rural migrants are required to obtain a series of certificates and cards for renting a house or signing a labour contract. Focused on these critical events, this chapter uncovers various facets of domestic worker’s migration experiences in the transit stage.
Initial Settlement: Social Network Makes Difference The initial settlement of newly arrived migrants in the destination place is predominated by two major concerns: one is to find a place to live and the other is to find a job. In the following, migration experiences of coming rural women who intend to work as domestic workers in Beijing are explored around these two issues. Informant’s statements again reveal the importance of social network in the transit stage.
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Find a Shelter to Live For reside-in domestic workers, since the employer provides a living space, they do not need to spend much time on searching for an appropriate accommodation in the large and expensive capital city Beijing. However, most of them do face the problem of finding a temporary shelter before they could find some one to hire them. Here the established relationships and available supports from acquaintance of their home villages could be very helpful. One informant Xiao Shen told me that when she arrived at Beijing for the first time, she was not able to find a job for a whole week. Fortunately, one of her former classmates who has worked in Beijing as a domestic worker for a couple of years was looking after an empty house owned by her employer then. Xiao Shen said: ‘she (her classmate) attracted many town fellows to Beijing…the house once accommodated a dozen of our villagers’. Xiao Shen also comments gratefully that ‘during that time, my living in Beijing was totally depended on the help from her’. Xiao Shen’s case is, of course, not a typical one, since most of the domestic workers at work would not be so lucky to own an empty house to serve as a temporary shelter for the coming town fellows. However, her story sheds lights on the importance of the supports from the former migrants, which could be lent to the newly arrived migrants during their unstable transit stage. Not all the old migrants could provide a shelter for the coming ones, but they could help them to find a temporary place to live within a shorter period and help them to familiarize the strange environment in an easier manner. As another informant pointed out ‘going out to work you need to know someone, otherwise you dare not to go out ’. The existence of some town-fellows or relatives in the strange destination place makes the transit stage less stressful and more smooth. Without any acquaintance in receiving area, the transit process could be tough and may last for weeks. For live-out domestic workers who clean and cook at employer’s home during daytime only, housing plays a more important role in their daily life, and they need to rent long-term accommodation like other types of floating population. Consequently
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they encounter more difficulties in seeking for an accommodation in the transit stage. Housing is particularly a big problem for the floating population in the large cities like Beijing. The rent for an apartment or a moderate house near the downtown Beijing could cost more than several times of a migrant worker’s monthly income. As such, the only choice that seems to be available to rural migrants is the simple and crude one-story cottage in suburb area. Partly due to the close ties among home villagers, many live-out domestic workers in this study lived together with their town fellows. An informant from Anhui Province told me that she lived in a so-called ‘village’ where the majority of the villagers were also from Anhui. ‘Many Anhuinese live in the village’ she said, ‘all (the migrant families) are like this: the husbands came to Beijing first and later their wives came to work as (live-out) domestic workers…we introduced one another… we live together and it’s convenient’. Her statement shows that the social network not only provides possible housing resources for newly coming migrants, it also offers firsthand help in their later lives. Bounded by such ties, many villages of the similar nature, in which migrants from one or a few number of origin places gather together have formed in the outskirt of Beijing. Although the migrant community is not the focus of this study, it reveals the few housing options that rural migrants face and the function of social network in their transit stage. Despite the convenience that social network may provide, a probably more important criterion for rural migrants to choose the housing is economic concerns. For example, when asked whether living with many town fellows, Xiao Ying, a live-out worker who moved to Beijing six year’s ago, answered: No. When I first arrived, I lived with my cousin, but later I began to live by myself… Our migrant workers have to find cheap houses. I searched everywhere and I live anywhere that is cheap. Now I live near the Xishan (western suburb of Beijing) with my younger brother. Residents there are from all over the China. Xiao Ying’s narrative shows that as becoming more familiar with the cities, rural migrants are less dependent on their town-fellows for seeking an accommodation. If to say that the newly arrived rural migrants still greatly rely on the social network for 59
an initial accommodation, migrants with years’ of experience living in cities begin to search their own houses and they tend to have more options.
Rural Migrant’s Poor Living Conditions Live-out domestic workers suffer from poor housing conditions as most of other floating population. Although the existing literature has pointed out that rural migrants occupy far less space and endure poorer conditions than local residents (Shen & Huang, 2003; Wu, 2002, etc.), a personal visit to one informant’s home in this study still shocked me with the extreme unfavorable living conditions that the informant had. In early August 2004, I was invited by one informant Xiao Wei to visit her home in suburban Beijing. After 30 minute’s bus, I spent another 20 minutes fumbling my way through narrow and congested alleyways before I found her home. Xiao Wei’s home was located in a village where native Beijing people built many crude one-story houses and rent them out especially to rural-urban migrants at comparatively cheaper prices. I was shocked by the complex and jam-packed structure of the village: within a single street that was shorter than fifty meters, there were more than seven or eight doors on each side of the roads, and each doors might lead to three or four more separate rooms occupied by one migrants family. Xiao Wei told me that although the village’s not large, it could accommodate hundreds of residents, most of whom are floating population who could not afford houses in the downtown. It’s hard to imagine what will happen if a fire takes place in such an over-crowded village. Xiao Wei’s family shared a one-floor house with other three families who also came from her hometown Anhui Province. Each of the four families owned a small room that was less than fifteen square meters and they shared a very small kitchen. There was no toilet or bathroom in the house. The only toilet in the village was far away form the house and was in a very poor sanitation condition. Xiao Wei said that in every morning, there would be a long queue in front of this public toilet –
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obviously the only toilet in the village far greatly failed to meet the basic need of hundreds of villagers. This small room which accommodated her whole family of three persons: her husband, a contracted plumber in Beijing, her 13-year-old son and herself, was dark even during the sunny daytime when I visited. The room has a small window, which was connected with another family’s room and was not supposed to be open for fresh air. As a result, the room wa stuffy - although the fan was open during the interview, I still got sweaty over after the visit. The room had very basic furniture, two beds, a small desk for child to study and two cabinets. The most advanced utensil in the room was a macro-wave oven. Xiao Wei told me that she bought it for her son to heat food by himself as both her husband and herself came home late. However, even the macro-wave oven was once broken down because of the unstable electricity provision in the village. Xiao Wei complained to me about the poor living conditions, but she was satisfied with the rent, which was only 300 yuan, and she emphasized that her housing was better ‘compared with some other villagers’. Xiao Wei also told me, as a rural-urban migrant, living in Beijing is one of their major problems. …It’s hard to find an appropriate accommodation. The houses near the downtown are too expensive. Living here, though it’s cheap, I spend more than one hour on the way to work. My son says that everything in Beijing is better than in my hometown except for the house… and many Beijing landlords, they look down upon us… My former landlord was very cruel to our coming migrants. If you cannot pay the rent on time, he would drive you to move out immediately, regardless of whether you have a place to live or not…sometimes, Beijing people treated us badly. A young man who used to live in the next door, he was beaten by his landlord because he refused to pay the overcharged electricity fees. A young man, beaten by an old man, it’s pity…but what can we strangers do to those native people? And you have to live and endure - there are many migrants who draw their luggage walking around just for a shelter. Xiao Wei’s experience about the housing problems discloses the difficulties of floating population in finding and keeping an accommodation in cities, regardless of whether they are first arrivals or old migrants. On the one hand, floating population 61
are at a considerable disadvantage in housing market due to their temporary resident’s status, and they are largely excluded from the mainstream housing distribution system. On the other hand, we can find a hostile attitude against rural labours and a strong feeling of “outsiders” and “insiders” among urban communities. Such a more pervasive but visible sense of community and commonality further prevents floating population from settlement and integration in cities. In this study, all the live-out domestic workers had changed their residence in Beijing for several times and all of them lived a temporary and unstable life among the prosperous urban communities.
Secure a Job The most interesting thing to notice in the transit stage is how the potential domestic workers locate their first jobs. Before going to the details of how they secure a job, a brief introduction to the domestic service industry in Beijing shows that fact rural women have their own advantages in the labour market. The number of migrant women working in domestic service industry has increased steadily since the early 1980s. Although the precise figures are difficult to come by, the latest report of Beijing Homemaking Service Association (BHSA) estimates that there are 150,000 household workers working in Beijing now, among which 138,000 (equal to 92 percent) come from rural areas, and 90 percent are women (BHSA official website, 2004). Despite the growing number of rural women engaged in the domestic service, there is still a big gap between the demand and supply. The BHSA indicated that over 90,000 household service positions remained vacant in 2004, and that the domestic service industry will keep to be a ‘seller's market’ in several years (BHSA official website, 2004). Such a ‘seller’s market’ has granted some bargaining powers to the domestic workers engaged. One of the evidences is that nowadays it takes shorter time for a new domestic worker to locate the first job; another evidence is that experienced domestic workers (or some smart newly-arrived ones) begin to negotiate
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with employers and even pick their preferred households to work for. As such, rural women migrants are actually facing an easy entry into the domestic service industry that may also lead to a smoother transit stage. Another ‘advantage’ that rural women have in the domestic service industry relates to the particularity of this profession. Generally speaking, rural women’s choices in the urban job market are disadvantaged by their relatively lower education attainment. As BHSA reports, among the current household workers in Beijing, roughly one-third have received only primary school education or even lower (BHSA official website, 2004), yet, rural women in the city have an ‘advantage’ in that domestic service jobs are explicitly reserved for them. For one thing, the social stigma attached with the job greatly thwarts urban dwellers’ participation in this industry; for other thing, although domestic service pays relatively low wages compared to other jobs available to migrant women, it is wide open to new arrivals with no prior work experience or with low education level. Established social network with current domestic workers also attracts many newly arrived women migrants to this industry as a matter of convenience. Under such favorable entering conditions, how do prospective domestic workers find their first jobs? In this study it is found that although a few informants moved with already secured jobs by their friends or relatives in advance, most of them secured the first job through job agency, namely the professional domestic service companies (see Appendix 5). Over 70 percent of the informants (17 out of 24) found their jobs through formal channels – the governmental or private job agencies in Beijing. The other 30 percent were through the personal introduction of friends or relatives. The figures indicate that the job agencies are the major employment recourse for potential domestic workers. Even so, the function of social network still exerts large influence on the job-hunting process. This is because among these 17 informants who obtained job through job agencies, 11 were choosing a particular job agency through the introduction or recommendation of their town fellows; the other 6 were allocated to different agencies through governmental organized movement. Added this 11 to the 63
former 7 who found job directly through personal contacts, the number of informants who secured a job through social network reaches 18, or over 75 percent of the total. Let me refer to the case of Xiao Yang to illustrate how the social network helps to secure a job: It took me not too long to find the first job - less than a week. My husband’s brother recommended me. He was working in this neighborhood, and he knew some Beijingnese. He helped both my sister-in-law and me to find jobs…the first time I came to Beijing, I knew nowhere and I knew nothing. It’s hard for me to find a job by myself… Since my relative’s here, I didn’t face many difficulties when I first arrived. Similar to Xiao Yang’s brother-in-law, some capable and experienced rural migrants with established relationships with local residents or agencies are able to supply possible job opportunities to new migrants. Nevertheless, more often the support that the town fellows could lend is introducing the new arrivals to a job agency either with good reputation or of proximity. No matter what forms of support that social network provides, it is unmistaken to say that majority of the rural migrants and almost all the new arrivals benefit from the available networks with former migrants in their job-hunting process. Despite of its importance, social network is not necessarily the prior choice for rural migrants to locate a job. As one may expect, new arrivals are more dependent on their informal networks to locate a job while experienced workers are able to find their own job agencies or even potential employers. Therefore, for each statement valuing the convenience that social network provides, there would be a voice advocating the effectiveness of finding a job by oneself. Some domestic workers who have worked in cities for years prefer to pay and join a company directly rather than asking for help from town-fellows, even it’s available, for the consideration of ‘favor’ (ren qing) that needs to be paid back. Xiao Cheng is an example, who insisted to find a job agency and seek a job by herself after she moved to Beijing for the second time. When I first came to Beijing, my town fellows helped me to find the job. But this 64
time, I didn’t ask them for help – you can’t always bother others and you have to learn to find (a job) by yourself…and sometimes it takes longer time waiting before they (town fellows) could find a job for you… After two years’ work here, I could figure out the (domestic service) companies around, so I register at one. Actually, to find a service company, to pay some money, you can always find a job. There are many job agencies now, and I think generally speaking those companies are good, and the market is good, too. Although Xiao Cheng could not explain to me clearly what she exactly meant by ‘market is good’, she said that to find an employer was not a difficult thing even for the newly arrived rural women, because ‘many people want to hire domestic workers’ and that ‘you could always find a job by registering at a company’. Her confidence in securing a job by herself rather than relying on her personal relationships attests to the BHSA’s claim that the domestic service industry is a ‘seller’s market’. From another aspect, it is just the continuously high demand on domestic service in Beijing that enables even the new arrivals to be less dependent on their social network to find a job.
Domestic Service Company: A Role Becoming More Important More than 600 job agencies and companies of various ownerships are providing professional home making service in Beijing now (BHSA official website, 2004). The first household service company of this kind was established twenty year’s ago in 1983 by the municipal Women Federal. However, decades passed until the engagement of domestic workers through such a formal channel has become prevalent among Beijing residents. In the late 1980s and throughout the 1990s, a great share of Beijing families who sought for domestic workers still located their potential helpers through informal labour market on the street, which is known as ‘black market’, or through personal contacts. Nowadays most of the prospective employers prefer to hire domestic workers through an agency, chosen on a friend’s recommendation, from an advertisement or because of convenience or proximity to home or work. 65
Like their potential employers, more migrant workers begin to register at a job agency rather than totally depending on their social networks for the job searching, because the job agencies could always provide more employment opportunities. Now in Beijing, the majority of domestic workers are hired through one of these several hundreds job agencies as either reside-in or day-time-only workers. Unquestionable, job agencies have become one of the most crucial factors which not only influences migrant domestic workers’ transit stage but also imposes impact on their later work and living in Beijing. To join a domestic service company and to find an employer, the potential domestic workers need to go through a required process that may include physical examinations, training, interviews and then signing a labour contract. The interaction between the job agency, its registered domestic workers and their potential employers is an interesting issue, which is also essential to the personal experience of domestic workers in the transit stage. How do the agency, the domestic worker and her employers interact with one another in this stage? How do such interactions influence domestic worker’s migration experiences and welfare? These are the questions to be addressed in this section.
Register at A Company Before joining a company, a prospective domestic worker must submit to physical examinations and medical tests. Specimens are taken to test for various forms of hepatitis. Passing the examination, the worker will be granted with a Health Certificate that is a must for her service work. With the certificate and Identity Card, this women migrant could formally register as a member of one company and is subject to a registration fee that may have different names such as ‘management fee’, ‘introduction fee’ or ‘procedure fee’ in different companies. Whatever the name might be, the fees charged are mainly for the introduction of potential employment, and they constitute a chief portion of a domestic service company’s revenue source. Although providing the similar service, individual
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companies may charge quite differently over their registered workers. The general amount of the registration fee is 120 yuan for one year, while some small-scale companies charge 80 yuan and one of the biggest companies I have visited charges 200 yuan. In addition, some companies regulate that the registered workers enjoy unlimited access to possible job opportunities within one year’s time; some provide three times of free change of employer and some charge their workers 10 to 20 yuan each time in case of changing employer within one year. The standard of the registration fee, as can be seen from the above listing, varies greatly from one company to another. The fee of one company could be as twice as that of another one even they provide the similar service. The contract between the company and its registered workers also turns out to have the same problem of lacking standardization. In my study, I am surprised to find that several registered workers were working under the verbal contracts with their companies. These workers, some of whom were illiterate or attended school for just a couple of years, said that when registering at the companies, they paid the required fees but the company only verbally informed them the relevant rules without giving them a formal contract. ‘I don’t know how to read, so I left it to them’, ‘I think they won’t cheat me’, these were the explanations of the domestic workers who registered without a written contract. The lack of standardization among various domestic service companies and the ignorance of some rural women migrants can be a big problem that may lead to the very vulnerability of some migrant workers in the strange destination place. In this study, I met a domestic worker who encountered such a problem that caused by the inorganization of her company as well as her own carelessness. The case I quote here is about Xiao Mu, a middle-aged woman from Sichuan Province who moved through the labour-exporting program jointly organized by her home county and a relatively big domestic service company in Beijing. I first met her in the dormitory of the company, on the very day of her first arrival in Beijing. For Xiao Mu, coming to Beijing to work was quite an exciting thing. She was happy that she could earn more money for her son’s tuition fees and she even planned to stay in 67
Beijing for at least three years without returning to home, in order to save more money. Ending the interview, I wished her good luck and left her my contacts asking her to call me if she had any problems. After just several days, I received a call from Xiao Mu. Her voice sounded very upset and weak. She told me that she was so sick that she could not stay longer in Beijing. She said she wanted to go back home but just realizing that no body could be fell back on: she could not get in touch with the domestic service company in Beijing, neither was the organizer from her home county. She even didn’t know where to buy a return ticket. Having no more person to ask for help, she finally called me. I called the cell phone of the staff I knew in that domestic service company immediately. The staff seemed to be more upset with why Xiao Mu had bothered me rather than how her illness was. He promised me he would take care of the issue and hang off the phone. The next week when I visited the company again for interview, I asked the staff about Xiao Mu. The staff told me that she got an acute appendicitis and returned to her hometown. When asked why she could not contact either side of the program organizers, the staff began to be faltering, and later he admitted that ‘there are some insufficiencies’ in their work and they didn’t ‘keep a good contact’ with the workers who have contracted out. How did the company get in touch with Xiao Mu and how did they terminate the contract and send her home remained unknown to me. But it’s quite clear that as long as the company wishes, it’s not hard for them to ‘keep a good contact’ with their contracted workers and provide necessary help when it’s needed. Xiao Mu’s sad experience is a particular one, but not an exception, as the same problem may happen to any other workers when they encounter the similar emergencies. More importantly, Xiao Mu’s case reveals that, for domestic service companies who always claim themselves as the natal family of their registered workers, the workers and their potential employers are actually the valuable source of the revenue, not the ‘family members’ as they claim. To attract a potential worker to the company, staffs in a company would behave as welcoming and warm as possible, but after 68
having paid the registration fees and finding a job, many domestic workers would surprisingly find that the once-so-nice staffs suddenly become cold and careless. This dramatic change is widely reported by my informants. It also demonstrates that the domestic service companies, no matter how concerned they advertise themselves to the newly arrived rural migrants, are in essence the business organizations as any other companies, whose own interests still place first.
Training: for Whose Interest? Many domestic service companies and almost all the government organized labour-exporting projects provide training programs to potential domestic workers. The training programs cover basic knowledge on domestic service, such as caring for the infant or the elderly, cooking skills and the usage of modern home appliances, etc. The duration of the training varies from a couple of days to three months. After the training, qualified domestic workers are graded at different levels: junior, middle or senior, mainly based on the time and the content of the training. In some companies, the grade of trainees helps to fix a domestic worker’s salary levels – for example, in a rather established company, it is prescribed that the initial monthly income for a junior worker is 450 yuan, 600 for middle-leveled workers and 800 to 1000 for senior ones The training of domestic workers sounds to be necessary and helpful, and it has been greatly promoted among several big domestic service companies in Beijing, in some of which the training becomes a pre-requisite for all the newly arrived women migrants before they are provided a job opportunity. But what are the real effects of the trainings? Dose the training enhance a potential worker’s employment chance and make her more competitive in the labour market? The following quotations from both staffs in the domestic service companies and workers themselves show that the answers to these questions maybe not affirmative. The first quotation is from Xiao Hong, a young girl from Shaanxi Province who had received a three-month’s training before she found her first job in 2003.
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Although having received such a long-term training, Xiao Hong’s comments on the training were still not positive: We were trained for three months, and we had many classes such as cooking, baby caring and house cleaning, so on and so forcth. After the training, we were granted with a certificate of middle-level’s domestic workers…before I went to the family, I was confident – anyhow we had a three month’s training. But after I came here I found that we learnt a lot, but not deeply…the practice was far away from what we have learnt, and families are very different, something learned is not useful at all… The training that only lasts for days, they are even worse than ours… The problems of training that Xiao Hong has are two: the superficial knowledge learned that is not enough in the daily work, and the disjunction of training and the practice. These problems are not unique to Xiao Hong only, as some other informants who had received similar or even shorter training also reported the difficulties of using the knowledge learned in training into practice. Xiao Hong’s statements indicate the drawbacks of some domestic service training programs, which in turn call for a more sophisticated and practical curriculum. However, this is one side of the story from the trainee’s point of view, domestic service companies as the trainers also have their different reasons for the unsatisfactory result of the training. The second quotation is from a manager of a middle-size, community-based domestic service company. The manager Mrs. Guo once has worked hard to train every newly arrived domestic worker registering in her company, but after several months, she gave up the training for various reasons. As she told me, the problem is on the domestic worker’s side. I trained every new ones before…I wanted the workers in my company to be of high quality and I wanted them to have good reputation so that more households would come to hire them…the training was similar as that of other companies, but the result was not good – there were always employers coming back and complaining to me…I think it’s still a matter of quality (suzhi) – you talk to them (domestic worker), can they understand? You give them some materials, can they read them? – They are not well-educated… and something you can not train them, like the ways to get along with others (dai ren jie wu) – though I don’t mean that rural people are no good – they 70
do lack this consciousness (yi shi)
Mrs. Guo gave a quite different explanation for the failure of the training, which suggests that the low ‘quality’ and long-existing bad habits of some rural women migrants prevent them from fully absorbing the knowledge learnt in the training and later using the knowledge in their work, thus leading to the dissatisfactory result of the program. While both the argument of Xiao Hong and Mrs. Guo have their good reasons, neither of them solely stands for the failure of the training program. In fact, their statement shed light on the two sides of the issue, indicating that both the deficiency of the training program and difficulties of some trainers to accept knowledge jointly bring on the dissatisfactory outcome of the training. Admittedly, some training programs are helpful to the new arrivals who lack the skills of doing housework and using modern appliances. But as told by quite a number of informants, spending several days at the employer’s home would be enough for a novice to familiarize with new work environment as well as to master the basic working skills. In other words, working experience is more important than the training with regard to the domestic service. To potential employers, an experienced domestic worker is also more desirable than a trained new one. If the domestic service training, as the above analyses show, is not that helpful in preparing potential workers for their new jobs or enhancing their competitiveness in the labour market, why do many domestic service companies still bother to spend much time and energy on training their workers (which may be so long as three months)? A further and more fundamental question to ask is: since the domestic service is an extension of women’s household roles of wives and mothers and has an easy entry for most of the rural women, are the domestic service training programs still necessary? The following experiences of two informants help illuminate that the training program to new workers is indeed ‘necessary’ and ‘worthy’ from the aspect of domestic service companies. The two informants that I mention are from two of Beijing’s largest domestic service companies, to which I refer as A and S Company. Each company has several 71
branches in different districts of Beijing and owns hundreds of registered domestic workers respectively; both enjoy good reputations among Beijing residents. Xiao Wu from the company A told me that all domestic workers in the company were required to attend a training program before they could be allocated with a job. The length of the training was one month, and all trainees were subject to a training fee of four to five hundreds yuan, which needed to be paid by the trainees themselves. Another informant from the S company similarly attended a training program with a three hundred’s training fee that was also mandatory to all the newly arrived workers. She said that if the new comer did not have enough money at her initial arrival, the fees would be deducted from her first month’s salary. ‘The first month’s salary almost goes for the training’, said this informant from the S Company. From the above cases we see a ‘good’ reason for training the new comers, that it is another valuable source for domestic service companies to increase their revenue. Many newly arrived migrants believe that the good reputations of these big companies would ensure a better employment opportunity and a prettier income, and thus are willing to pay the considerable training fee to obtain a more stable and reliable work. For the companies, the training of domestic service is low-cost, yet highly profitable. Considering the benefit – that the first month’s salary of a domestic workers could be charged for the training fee – these companies would be the most pleased to provide the so-called ‘formal’ and ‘systematic’ training to ‘well-prepare’ their workers. Training for domestic workers, therefore, is a precious source of income for various home-making companies in Beijing. It’s clear that although these companies say that they act in the best interest of workers by offering them comprehensive training and enhancing their working skills, their own interests still come first. To conclude the main aim of the training program using a simple sentence of the informant from the S company: ‘I think they (companies) just want to earn more money’.
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Find An Employer and Sign The Contract After the training, domestic workers are ready to work for their potential employers. They begin to spend most of their time in the companies waiting for someone to hire them, as one’s chance of employment is closely related to her presence in the company when the potential employer comes. Some big domestic service companies in Beijing periodically organize small-scale recruitment meetings through which they introduce a number of new domestic workers to potential employers. In every early morning before such recruitment meetings start, there would be a long queue in front of the service company, made up of local Beijing people who are eagerly to find a helper. The most popular workers, those who have work experiences or who are able to cook, will be selected out and hired quickly. Yet the less desired workers will still find their employers later. One informant who found her job through such a recruitment meeting told me that workers seldom worried about having no body to hire them, as ‘it’s just a matter of time’. In addition to the recruitment meetings, some employers find their potential helpers through the personal visit to the company. The prospective employer visits the company and describes to the staff his or her specific requirements. The employer is then referred to individual files and may ask for an interview with the potential domestic worker. It is important for the waiting workers to give right answers and good impressions in the interview. As told by the informants, experienced workers or the cleverest among the new ones know how to ‘package’ and ‘promote’ themselves. For example, one who is asked to care for infants or children would claim that one’s children are older than they really are or simply exaggerate the degree of confidence one feels about the children care situation at home. Another self-imaged ‘packaging’ is to give employers an impression of stability and long-term security, that one will not need to leave suddenly to take care of some emergencies. If a domestic worker is selected, the company will coordinate the necessary paperwork. In this process, the workers can still negotiate the terms of their contract
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with the employer. Newly arrived domestic workers, who are more subservient and less bold than those who have been in Beijing for years, have very little say for themselves or do not dare to express what they want. Those who have already worked in Beijing for a while know their way around and have a clearer sense of what labour market they are getting into, and they try to bargain with the employer for terms such as working time, holiday, job specification, and so on. I met a worker who even turned down a job opportunity because the employer refused to give her enough rest days per month as she required. Upon the agreement on all the terms, the worker chosen signs a labor contract with her employer through the company. Most of the domestic service companies have their own contract forms, which are fundamentally same and all cover such issues as the period of the contract, the payment, the rest days, etc. A few companies also specify the content of the worker’s service, among which there are house cleaning, baby-care, aged-care, and patient-care, etc. Almost all the contracts stipulate a ‘trial period’ of one month, during which time, many agencies offer ‘free replacements’ for dissatisfied employers. The contract is usually signed for one year’s period, with a minimum duration of three months and is renewable on the agreement of both the employer and the worker. Although either side can terminate the contract at any time, the company charges a penalty over the part raising the issue if the contract has passed its ‘trial period’. Some companies also charge a so-called ‘management fee’ over both sides besides the registration fee, which is usually 20 yuan per month throughout the contract period. After signing the contract with her employer, the worker will bring her small baggage moving to employer’s home, and start the new work. After then, the interaction between the contracted worker and her company will become less intensive, and will be substituted by a more intense relationship with her employer.
‘Learn to Be Smart’ Throughout the process of joining a company, training, and signing a labour
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contract with the employer as have mentioned above, domestic workers are in a rather passive position and most of them are willing to join any companies and accept any jobs that seem to be available to them. Nevertheless they ‘learn to be smart’ in the process by negotiating and dealing skillfully with their companies and employers to gain a better work opportunity or a higher income. Such knowledge of ‘being smart’, as one of my informant expressed, is gained through the intercourses with company staffs and their employers. A most commonly used measure to enhance one’s working opportunities is to build and maintain good relationships with the staffs in the company. A number of informants have emphasized the importance of a good relationship with staffs during the job-searching. It matters most when a staff member is asked to recommend one worker to a potential employer while there are several candidates for this occupation. Here the good relationship works since the staff usually recommends his or her favorite worker to the employer, leaving others to wait for a longer time. One informant said that she benefited from the good relationship with the staff in her company and was even exempted from a compulsory training and the required training fees because she ‘got along well’ with the staff. Another measure taken by live-out domestic workers to enhance one’s job opportunity and to increase possible income is to register at several companies. Technically, a registered worker of a company is not allowed to work under another company simultaneously, but in case that the company could not guarantee its workers full employment, some workers would try to contract with other companies to seek for more working chances. One of my informants stealthily contracted with two companies at the same time, to both of which she paid registration fees. Fortunately, she was also able to manage her time to work for these two companies and thus earning double income. Another informant registered at four domestic service companies while I interviewed. She told me that she had good relationships with staffs in two of the companies so that they didn’t charge her registration fees, and she just paid a small amount of money from her income after each contract.
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The very experienced workers may further disengage from the restraint of the company and work for their own. I met two informants, both of whom used to register at domestic service companies, but later all discontinued the contract and were employed directly by the employers. One of them, Xiao Fu, said: I have worked for the uncle and aunty (her employers) for three years, and we were quite familiar with each other… they trusted me and treated me well… then I thought: why I still had to pay all the fees to company and let them to make money from me? I talked to uncle and asked him whether I could still work for them but not through the company. The uncle said it’s good, because they also paid company for hiring me…so I told the company that I had to go home and I wanted to discontinue the contract, they agreed…now I learn to be smart: I do not register at any companies and I do not pay them fees… As Xiao Fu’s case shows, the advantage of employment without an intermediate company is obvious: that both the employer and the worker don’t need to pay the fees charged for job introduction and files-keeping. Yet for the newly arrived workers who rely greatly on the companies for job-hunting, their chances of direct employment without a job agency is limited. In the contrast, workers who have worked for years ‘learn to be smart’ through the accumulated experiences of interacting with both companies and the employers. Some of them are able to ultimately disengage from the companies and work for their own, not letting the companies ‘make money’ from them any more. The above cases illustrate the active measures taken by domestic workers to enhance their working opportunities and incomes in the job-hunting process. These cases show another facet of the interactions between domestic workers and the companies, that domestic workers are not all submissive and passive in dealing with companies and employers; rather, they learn from the relationships, and are actively involved in various measures to maximize their interests. While one can argue that to build good relationships with staffs, to join several companies and to seek employment without job agencies can all be regarded as forced choices of domestic workers to withstand the disadvantages that they have, undoubtedly, these measures
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are also positively taken by them to circumvent rules of the company and to gain benefits for themselves. From another aspect, the fact that some workers could benefit from the favorable relationships with the staffs and the circumvention of rules in the company also demonstrates the lack of standardized-operation in some companies. The more relationship-based operation of a company could benefit some workers who are experienced and ‘smart’, however, it could also harm the others who are less sophisticated.
Obtain Required Certificate in Cities Intending women migrants in Beijing are required by the municipal government to obtain several certificates for their initial settlement, among which there are: temporary resident card, in-coming labour work permit and the certificate to verify women’s marriage and child-birth situation. Married women migrants are also subject to pregnancy examinations which are held three-times a year throughout their stay in Beijing. In particular, domestic workers are required to submit a health certificate in order to work in employer’s household. While numerous studies have pointed out the negative influence of the certificate system on floating population’s entry and settlement in destination places (Knight, Song & Jia, 1999; Yang, 2002, etc.), findings of this research partly support this argument; a new trend of the system’s development is also noticed. Firstly, narratives of the informants show that the control over floating population’s movement through the certificate system is not so effective to domestic workers. Almost all the informants expressed that they were able to move to wherever they liked without being limited by the certificate system in both the original and destination places. Coming to Beijing, quite a number of them did not bring the certificates required from the original government; even more didn’t go to the municipal government to obtain the required permits. But still, they were able to find an employer and secure a job without these cards.
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The particularity of domestic worker’s working location partly explains the certificate system’s less effectiveness over them. This is because that as the core of the certificate system, the ‘temporary resident card’ cannot be roundly implemented among the reside-in-domestic workers. According to the regulation over floating population, rural migrants are bound to apply for the temporary resident card if they want to rent a house to live, but since all the reside-in domestic worker are provided with a place to live by their employers, they have much less incentive to apply for the card. Especially when issuing the temporary card costs a relatively big amount of money, even fewer workers are willing to pay and get the card. Consequently, very few of the informants obtained the required temporary resident card while I conducted the interviews. The second point that can be extracted from informant’s narratives in regard to the certificate system is that the problem of overcharging fees through the system, which has been frequently mentioned in both public media and academic press, still exists. Again, take the temporary resident card for example: through both Beijing government’s official regulations and the interview with the policeman issuing the card, I got to know that a temporary resident card valid for one year costs 5 yuan only. However, several live-out domestic workers who rented house by themselves reported to have paid much more in order to get the card. Some informants issued the card through their landlords and paid twenty to 15 yuan; in another case, the informant was charged an extra ‘sanitation fee’ that was fifteen yuan per month while applying the card; in a most extreme case, the informant was charged 120 yuan for the card, which was more than twenty times than what was regulated. As such, the system seems to have the purpose of generating revenue for some relevant bureaus rather than restricting migration in cities. The final point to make here, which could be a piece of good news for the floating population, is that the receiving government’s control over them through the certificate system has gradually released. A number of informants clearly stated that they had felt the relaxation of the certificate system during the past years. The biggest change, as told by some informants, could be felt after the year 2002, since 78
‘it seemed that the card was not required then’ and the fees charged ‘were not that much any more’. Such a dramatic change felt by the informants can be a response to the announcement jointly issued by the State Planning Commission and Ministry of Finance in 2001 regarding the reduction of fees charged on rural migrant labour. Here the accounts of informants shed light on how the policy is actually experienced, and the resulting impact that it has on the well-being of its recipients. The accounts of the informants show that government’s endeavor to ease the fees on floating population did bring on some favorable results: that it lightened the burden over rural migrants and correspondently facilitated their initial settlement in cities. More importantly, the positive result of the announcement regarding the certificate system is rather encouraging to the later reforms on migration policy. Although 24 cases in this study is far inadequate for the policy analysis, it at least demonstrates some successes gained by government to protect and enhance floating population’s status in the cities. Hopefully in near future more favorable policy environment for floating population could be achieved by the joint effort of both labour sending and receiving government.
Summary This chapter depicts and discusses the major events happened in the Transit Stage for domestic workers. In general, compared to the migration across a country’s boundary the duration of the transit stage for floating population in China is relatively short and the process is comparatively simple. Especially, the social network of newly arrived migrants greatly facilitates their initial settlement by providing temporary accommodations and helping one to secure a job, or at least introducing a familiar job agency. However, it is also noticed that the function of social network gradually decreases after one’s each movement. Experienced migrants tend to choose their own job agencies, housing and employers without the help from their friends. In this study, particular attention is also given to domestic service companies and their interactions with the registered domestic workers in the transit stage. Findings 79
show that although hundreds of domestic service companies in Beijing are the important sources of employment for rural women migrants, the workers and their employers are also the major revenue resource for these companies through submitting ‘registration fee’ and attending the expensive and compulsory training programs. In addition, the problem of lacking standardization among various companies is obvious in this study. The problem can be demonstrated by the arbitrary fees collected by different companies on their workers, and the relationship-centered operation mechanism in some companies. The experience of domestic workers in this stage also has its positive facet. Through the accumulated experiences dealing with companies, experienced workers also developed some strategies to circumvent regulations of the company and to enhance their work opportunities and income levels. Such measures are also discussed in this chapter. In the end of this chapter, a brief summary is given on government’s attempts to exert influence on floating population in this stage. Narratives of the formants show that although the problem of overcharging fees through the certificate system still exists, the certificate system in destination places is not so effective in controlling migrant’s movement. Experiences of the informants also indicate some successes gained by the government in easing the burden over floating population and facilitating their initial settlements.
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Chapter Eight Post-Migration: Sweet-bitter Stories The final stage of the migration is Post-Migration Stage, which is, as its name implies, the phase after migrant’s physical movement and the initial settlement in the destination places. The post-migration stage is where the biggest differences could be found among individual migrants. For domestic workers, they have the same problems as most of the floating population in the post-migration stage: they need to adapt to new working and living environments; they also have the problem of housing, children’s education (for live-out workers) and in the long run, the final settlement. However, the special working location of domestic service – the isolated individual households – also distinguishes their migration experiences from other floaters in this stage. Domestic workers are expected to have much more intense relationships with their employers; the invisibility of their work to public scrutiny may also enhance their vulnerability. These two factors will inevitably influence both their work effects and life qualities of domestic workers. In this chapter, the working and living experience of domestic workers in the Post-Migration Stage is explored. The key variable factors such as local government and job agency and their influence on domestic worker’s migration experience are also examined. The accounts of informants in this stage are valuable qualitative data as these hidden stories of domestic workers have long been ignored or out of reach by mass media and academia.
Intense Relationship with Employers After the initial settlement, domestic workers move to employer’s home and start their new jobs. For them, adapting to the new working environment seldom turns out to be a big challenge as most of the informants reported that it wouldn’t cost them more than one week to familiarize the working environment and learn the basic 81
working skills. However, to get along with their employers and maintain a good relationship, which are crucial to both their work and lives, seem to be a more important working skill that needs to be learnt for their whole working period. The unique working conditions of domestic work make such differences. Unlike industrial and other service work, domestic work is performed in the isolation of the individual household and in employer’s personal and private domain. Domestic worker’s workspaces and living spaces are virtually indistinguishable and they spend not only their working hours but also most of their rest time with their employers. Thus, the relationship between a household worker and her employer is potentially far more intense than the relationship between other migrant workers and their employers. Such an intense relationship imposes strong influence on domestic worker’s experience in both the work sphere and daily life, which can be demonstrated by informant’s frequent mention to their employers during the interviews. In this study, there are very few informants who stated that they enjoyed a very close and even family-like relationship with their employers; but more often, the relationships between a worker and her employer seemed to be rather tense and not enjoyable. A great share of the informants complained to me when they talked about their employers, and not surprisingly, most of their employers seldom knew such unfavorable relationships as many informants chose to hide their true feelings, especially the complaint and discontentment from their employers. In the following, diverse aspects of the intense relationship between domestic workers and the employers are examined. While the thesis does not intentionally focus on the negative side of the relations and exaggerate the problems that informants had in getting along with their employers, narratives of the informants do show that the unfavorable experiences with the employers account for the majority of domestic workers’ sentiments.
Everyday Form of Power and Control 82
The argument about power and control in domestic service sphere is not a new one. In old China, domestic workers used to be reserved for wealthy families or senior officials only, when the relationships between the employer and worker were purely master and servant, control and obey. Even several decades ago, hiring a domestic worker was still the indication of one’s high economic or social status in China, and to a certainty the employer and the worker would come from quite differential social classes. Nowadays, although domestic workers have gradually become common even among ordinary families, the long-existing ideology of master and servant, control and obey could still be found among the employment relationships. An evidence of such an ideology among current employers is that the quality of ‘obedience’ is still one of the key criteria for choosing a potential worker. In other words, despite their working skills, for domestic workers, the easier controlled, the more desired. In addition, the power and control within the domestic service differs from those of other employment in that they are less direct but more pervasive and more in an every-day form. On the very day of entering a household, domestic workers are found to be subject to all kinds of rules and disciplines that may be not so stark as in factory but may involve the requirements to the details of personal lives. The most common control that the employers exert on their workers is through the daily work. A number of informants complained that their employers tried to ‘direct all the details of all the housework’. The workers were asked to do the housework ‘all following the employer’s ways’: from how to clean the room, to the procedure of washing clothes, and even to the way of placing the plate on the table. While some rules were acceptable, others looked ‘ridiculous’ to some informants. One informant who cared for an infant said that she received calls from the baby’s mother every two hours for making sure that the worker had fed and cared the baby as required. ‘I wrote down all the details about the baby everyday so that she wouldn’t bother me’, said this informant. As shown, an employer’s controls over his or her helper’s daily work are not 83
simply directed at the content and product of their labour, but also at the way she does the work. Several informants complained to me such ‘excessive’ and even ‘ridiculous’ controls. One said that ‘as long as we finish the work well, how it matters that through what way we do it?’ The tight control may not bring desired effects since the informants under such control often expressed a ‘hurt’ feeling that they ‘were not trusted’ or that the employers ‘don’t have faith’ on them. Some also said that they would feel more comfortable and would work efficiently if they could do the job in their own ways. Employer’s power over their workers is also through economic controls, that they restrict workers on ‘even petty things’ for economic concerns. The quite common economic controls, as reported by the informants, include: limit the time of using the phone, ask workers to hand-wash clothes and even bed-sheet when washing machine is available. In a couple of cases, phones were even locked to prevent workers from making long-distance calls. These controls, although increasing worker’s workload or bringing them inconvenience in the daily life, are still acceptable, while at most the employers were called ‘stingy’ or ‘mean’ stealthily by their workers. But some economic controls would be regarded as a humiliation to the workers. For example, one employer provided two sets of bath articles in the washroom – that the family used more expensive ones and the worker used much cheaper ones of low quality. In another case, an old woman insisted her worker to use the toilet immediately after she used, no matter whether she needed, so that she could flush for only once and save some water. Such economic controls went to such an extent that the workers found themselves ‘offended’ and ‘unbearable’. In addition, control of employers may extend to worker’s personal lives and private domains. Some employers required their workers to report where and with whom they had been for the rest days. Others put strict control over worker’s outing time during the rest day, although the workers were legally entitled a whole day’s rest for their own use. Some workers were also asked to obey their employer’s rules even at night and in their own rooms. They may be told when to bathe, what time to go to bed and what book to read. Moreover, the worker’s appearance, her personality, her 84
voice, and her emotion were found to be subject to her employer’s controls. One informants recalled all the ‘suggestions’ that their employers gave, such as ‘you should wear this, not that’, ‘you should speak gently’, ‘you shouldn’t get along with that maid’, so on and so forth. Thus, from the way of doing housework, to the consumption of both work and rest time, and to the most private spheres of personal appearance and behavior, domestic workers are confronted with all sorts of rules and disciplines through which their employers impose inconspicuous but strong controls over almost every aspect of their work and lives. One informant described such firm controls as a ‘net’ that entrapped her and bereaved her freedom. This was not an unique statement of her own, as almost half of the informants regarded the lack of freedom and the time of their own as the biggest problem in their daily lives. In addition, since the problem is mainly about the informal relationships between the employer and the worker, most of the workers who suffered from all forms of controls found it both hopeless and helpless to solve the problems through formal channels. What they could do, therefore, is to quit from the job and find a more benevolent employer, or keep on enduring, as most of the informants do.
Conflicts Worker’s relationships with certain family members may be close, but some fairly typical conflicts can develop through daily life. According to many informants, food is always a major source of conflicts. Whether having the same food as their employers is a key criterion of domestic workers to evaluate the treatment that they have received. One informant told me unhappily about her former employer’s bad treatment to her: ‘they ate fruit but not letting me to eat…they each had an egg and a glass of milk in the morning, but I only had a bowl of congee…’ She also emphasized that it’s not the food that she actually cared; it’s the ‘way they treated me’ that mattered. Her statement was echoed by a number of informants.
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Also, some domestic workers had the problem of not having enough food. They explained to me that it’s natural for people from rural areas to eat more than urbanities do since they used to do labouring work and were used to eat much for their whole lives. But in urban households, their employers gave them just ‘a bite of’ or ‘a mouthful’ food. When they ate much, their employers would indirectly show their disapprovals: ‘they said that what I ate equaled to that of the whole family’, ‘they say that I am fat because I eat too much’. The workers felt embarrassed hearing so and consequently, many domestic workers forced themselves to eat less even they were hungry. One informant told me that she ate much less now because her stomach ‘has become as small as the urbanities’. In addition, some informants complained that their employers gave them overripe fruit and leftovers that ‘no one else wanted’. One informant from Sichuan Province proudly told me that in her hometown, people never eat food left after meals, since all the leftovers would be given to chickens or pigs raised by the households. However, in cities she was asked to eat the noodles and dishes from the last meal, which could be rather unacceptable to her. ‘We were treated even worse than animals’, said the informant indignantly. In the conflicts induced by the foods as have mentioned above, sometimes it’s difficult to judge which side of the contentions is with reasons, since the fundamental disagreement may lie in the tremendous differences between rural and urban China in regard to people’s living habit, life style and value system. So even both as Chinese people, rural domestic workers and their urban employers may develop many conflicts due to such heterogeneous cultures. Their languages, their ways of communication and even a very small gesture could be offensive to others and could be a potential source of conflicts. For example, one informant found that ‘rural (people)’s languages are offensive sometimes; on the opposite, urban people are not sincere, they don’t tell people what exactly they think’; another told me that ‘I don’t feel good about those (urban) persons, they speak bad about someone at one’s back…I’d like them to say it directly, that will make me feel better’. Another two informants also figured their employers as ‘insincere’ and ‘fake’. The above 86
statements all demonstrate how the tensions in the relationship between a worker and her employer can be developed by the different cultures between rural and urban people. Besides all the conflicts raised by cultural differences, the child that a worker cares is also a major source of conflicts. If a worker has a very good relationship with the child and the child is fond of her, the mother may become jealous and try to undermine the relationship. However, on the other hand, the workers cannot discipline the child harshly because ‘whenever you criticize the child, others would say that you maltreat him/ her’. Caring young child also lays big responsibilities on the worker and she is expected to take all the faults and blames whenever anything bad happen to the child. As one informant said, ‘When the child (I cared) fell, or became darker by the sunshine or even caught a heat rash… her mother blamed me’. So there are always many problems in the relationship between a worker who cares for a child and her employers, especially the mother of the child. All in all, as we can see from all the cases listed above, the conflicts between employers and domestic workers are quite common and have various causations. While conflicts occur even between family members who spend all their time living together, the ones between a domestic worker and her employer have different natures. In their conflicts, domestic workers are at a considerable disadvantage due to their identity as employees. Being afraid of losing jobs, they seldom argue with the employers to confirm their rights, and are even less willing to directly express their discontents to raise any potential conflicts. So for most of the workers, endurance is the golden rule of getting along with the employers, which actually further increases their disadvantages in the relationships.
As A Family Member? Not all domestic workers resent or complain about the controls placed on them by their employers; neither do all of them involve various conflicts mentioned above. In the study, a few informants also claimed to have close and harmonious
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relationships with their employers, though in a quite minor percentage. Most of the informants who were satisfied with their jobs worked for intellectual or white-collars families, and it is not surprising to notice that many prospective workers intent to work in a teacher’s family while searching for jobs. Xiao Yan, for example, worked almost five years for an old couple who were both college teachers. She said that ‘the sentiments grow as you spend time together…there’s no big difference, I regard them as parents who company me. Sometime, I even feel closer with them than with my parents…we spend everyday together, no matter happiness and sadness, they all see and know’. According to Xiao Yan, this couple also regarded her as their own family member since they were actively involved in the marriage matching for divorced Xiao Yan while I conducted my research. Other cases in which the employer and the worker have close relationships are accountable. Xiao Fu, from Henan province, also worked for an old couple from Education Bureau in Beijing. When Xiao Fu was sick, the eighty-year-old employer accompanied her to see the doctor at night. The ‘uncle’, as Xiao Wei intimately called her employer, also helped her daughter at home village to choose a college to enter. Another case of this kind is Xiao Wu. Although she has worked at her current employer’s home for less than a year, she has developed deep affections with all the family members. Xiao Wu told me gratefully about her employer ‘She (the hostess) always told me that we are the same and I should not regard myself as someone inferior…when she’s at home, she helps me to do the housework…seeing that I don’t have much work, she even helped me to find a part-time job in the community’. Xiao Wu was also able to budget her own time to go to churh for worship on every Sunday. The family-like relationship between Xiao Yan, Xiao Fu and their employers, the trust and understanding that Xiao Wu’s employer showed to her, however, are far from typical and are beyond the imagination of most domestic workers. In contrast, more than 80 percent of the informants in this research depicted their relationship with the employers, if not purely master and servant, as ‘only employment relationship’. A typical statement from a worker regarding her relationship with her 88
employer is ‘it’s just the employment relationship, all are the same…someone has worked in a family for years, isn’t it just a second that they dismiss you? And you regard yourself as a family member? Never. To the essence, you are an outsider’. The statement is not an exception, as most of the informants commented their employers with negative words such as ‘control’, ‘high and hard to be close’, ‘frequently scold’, ‘demanding’, ‘inconsiderate’ and ‘critical’. In contrast, when talking about themselves, workers usually used words like ‘cautious’, ‘patient’, ‘endure’, ‘submissive’ and ‘humble’. Needless to list more, the contrast between these two clusters of words unfailingly demonstrates the factual relations between the employer and the worker, which is more likely to be a pure employment rather than the family members. Another evidence against the family-like relationship is the eating arrangement within a household. The eating arrangements vary greatly: some workers eat with their employers and others eat separately in the kitchen. In most of the families, worker’s bowl and chopsticks are separated from those of her employers, and the dishware is always required to be placed separately in different cupboards. During the meals, family members all serve themselves from the main dishes, but some place domestic worker’s food ahead of time in a small dish next to her bowl and ask the worker to eat from the small dish only. This is a clear manifestation of the different identities of the worker and the employer in the family, since eating from the same pot always serves as a symbol of sharing an identity among family members. Further more, many informants indicated that they lack communication with their employers, not to mention to have a conversation or get along as family members. ‘Except for ordering, they don’t communicate with me’, ‘I am talkative when I am with others but with them, no – it’s not because we do not have anything to say, it’s because we rarely talk’, said the informants who seldom communicated with their employers. Also, the communications between the worker and the employer turn out to be superficial and imbalanced. Some informants described themselves as the subject of employer’s emotional outburst, that whenever their 89
employers have any problems outside, they vent angers on their workers. Many employers take their emotional outburst on their workers for granted, but at the same time they think that the worker’s anger, frustration, and other emotions should be concealed and repressed. Here we see the very typical interactions between the worker and her employer, that the burden of patience and flexibility is always placed entirely on the domestic worker, who is expected to adjust to her employer, not vice versa. To summarize, although some domestic workers may develop deep sentiments with their employers, the family-like relationship between the worker and the employer is still like a fairy tale that appears only in an extremely limited households. In majority of the households where a worker is hired, from employer’s lack of trust and consideration, from the separated eating arrangement, from the insufficient and imbalanced communication between the worker and her employer, one could tell that the relationship is far from family-like, and is ultimately the paying and paid, the employment relations.
‘I am a Prisoner’ If you ask domestic workers what is the unhappiest thing in their work and life, most probably they will answer you that it is the ‘lack of freedom’. The unique work conditions of the domestic service – the overlap of work and living space, the blurry boundary between work and rest time, and the physical proximity of a domestic worker to her employer – trap domestic workers in a small isolated household, depriving them of much free time and freedom that are accessible to other migrants workers, and making them particularly vulnerable to exploitation that is beyond the public scrutiny. ‘I am a prisoner’, this is the voice from many domestic workers. In this section, the hidden stories of domestic worker’s unfavorable working experience are unfolded, which suggest that domestic workers are facing less visible but sometimes more rampant exploitations over their labours.
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Overtime Work Household work cannot be measured and work hours would be impossible to enforce, therefore, the phenomena of overtime and overload work may not be easily distinguished in domestic worker’s daily life. In this study, it is found that the long work hour is a quite common problem among all the informants. The following narratives of Xiao Yao show the problem. That’s the third household I have worked for. I was busy for the whole day at that time. I got up at six o’clock and could not go to bed until eleven o’clock at night – for the whole day, I did not have a minute to sit down and have a rest... they (the employers) think that they hire you for labour not for someone who’s idles at home. They kept asking me to do this and do that...at that time I was so tired that some time I felt in sleep when I was standing, washing dishes…I just felt tired all day. Another informant who cared for a child and did all the other housework had the similar experience of overtime work. In her case, she was too so busy for the whole day to sit down and have a meal. Every morning, I got up early to prepare breakfast for the family: first the child’s and then the adult’s. I could not have my own breakfast after the child finished his, because I needed to do other work. If I had my breakfast, the child would bother his mother and his mother would shout at me: ‘you only know eating everyday, don’t you?’ So I had to stop and begin working…after the breakfast I cleaned the room, played with the child and did all the other work… Once I was tired and just sat on the sofa for no more than ten minutes, then his mother saw and said: ‘why you sit there? In your eyes there is no work!’…Sometime they give me money to take the child to MacDonald’s or KFC for lunch, but they didn’t give me enough and I could not eat…it’s even more tiring at night: when his mother went to shower, I prepared the bed for her, cleaned the bathroom after she finished the shower and I hand-washed their clothes everyday. Sometimes I could only have my dinner until 11 or 12’o clock; sometimes I was hungry for the whole day. The above cases show the extremely long work hours (from the early morning to the midnight) during which time the workers were required to keep on working. For domestic workers whose duties include care of infants, small children, or sick or 91
elderly family members, work hours may even extend through the night. Not all the domestic worker I interviewed worked for such a long time daily, but it is quite clear that it is more difficult for them than factory workers to distinguish work time on and off. Long work hours have become such a common phenomenon for them that it even does not deserve a particular mention. What’s more, the quite common ‘non- idleness’ principle of many employers also leads to worker’s overtime work. ‘I hired you for a worker, not someone who’s idle at home’, ‘I didn’t pay you to sit there and do nothing’, ‘even I worked so hard outside, how can you just sit there watching TV and enjoying yourself’?’… these are the typical statements of employers who regard their workers should always be engaged in the work. After completing assigned tasks, domestic workers should either ‘find’ more work to do or redo what they have done and they should never appear to be idle at the presence of their employers. Such a principle increases the working hours of domestic workers and meanwhile it puts workers under great pressure and tension. Besides the problem of long work hours, domestic workers also have fewer rest days and holidays than other migrant workers. Although reside-in domestic workers are entitled to 2 to 4 days’ rest per month and 3 day’s statutory holidays during both May Day and the National Day according to the labour contract, in practice, such regulations are rarely put into effect. In this research more than half of the reside-in domestic workers interviewed indicated that they had continuously worked for more than three months without a single rest day during the past year. In an extreme case, one informant caring a sick old lady worked for one year with only 3 day’s rest. The reasons for why so many domestic workers have much less rest days than that has prescribed in the contact vary. The problems can be mainly ascribed to employer’s long-standing needs on the presence of a worker in their daily life. In particular, if a worker takes care of an infant, sick or elderly family member who needs accompany and care all the time around, she is always required to spend as much time as possible in the households. Take the informant who rested only three days throughout the year for an example. She cared an old lady who could hardly 92
move by herself and the informant ‘dared not go out’ because she was afraid that the old lady might hurt herself while she was away. As a result, she spent all her time in her employer’s home and the longest time she had been out during her work was half an hour when she went out to dispose garbage. ‘The sunshine even hurt my eyes’, said this poor worker who had spent months indoor. Another informant described herself as ‘in a jail’. She was originally given 2 day’s rest per month, but later her employer reduced her rest day to one day. She said: ‘the master said so and I obeyed…I feel like I am in a jail: after entering the door, I couldn’t leave…for the whole month I am expecting for the rest day ’. Of course, blames are not all on the employer’s side. Although workers were somewhat forced to spend all their time at home and they resented the lack of spare time, they could also gain extra payment if they work on the rest days, which is usually ten to thirty yuan per day. As a result, some workers would not disagree if their employer asked them to work for extra days, partly because of their unwillingness to disobey their masters and more importantly because they want to earn more money, even at the cost of sacrificing their free time. Working long hours in workdays and having very few rest days, these are the major problems encountered by many domestic workers. In addition, even workers are promised to get extra money for working in rest days, they still have problems of underpayment and in some cases, refusal of the payment. Here we see that the working conditions of domestic workers are not better off, or can be even worse, than factory migrant workers. Due to the invisibility of their work to public scrutiny, their overtime-working situations are even less reported and noticed. Therefore, domestic workers are trapped within an environment designed solely to exploit their labours. As such, it’s no wonder that some workers called themselves ‘prisoners in the jail’.
Do All the Indoor Works Besides the problem of long working hours, domestic workers also suffer from overloaded work that is caused by the lack of specification in household service. A
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number of informants have pointed out the problem of ‘doing all the indoor works’. One informant complained to me that her employer used her like a machine, and she cooked, cleaned, hand-washed clothes, taught basic math knowledge to the child, and even cared for the dog of the family. Another informant was asked to clean her employer’s house only, which sounded to be easy. However, she found herself ‘cheated’ after arriving at the house because the house had two floors and was almost 300 square meters’ large. Besides, she was also asked to cook ‘when she’s free’. ‘They paid me only four hundred yuan for a job that needed at least three persons to do’ said this informant angrily. Domestic workers who have contract that regulates the content of the work may not be better off than those without it. In some labour contracts, the duties of domestic workers are specified, among which there are: cooking, cleaning, childcare, patient care and the elderly care, etc. When hiring a domestic worker, the employer also clarifies the principle duty that the worker will perform. But in practice, many domestic workers perform a combination of duties that are more than it is required in the contract. The following case of Xiao Yao is an example. Xiao Yao said: I cared for an eight-month-old boy. When they (the parents) found me in the company, they said that the child’s grandma would always stay at home and that I just cared for baby…it’s also written clearly in the contract what I should do, and it’s said that I could refuse if they asked me to do more than it’s required… But after I went there, all was different. I found that the child’s grandma was a doctor and she went out to work everyday! Whenever they all went out for work, they left all the housework to me. So I cared for the eight-month-old boy while cooking and cleaning at the same time. I was so exhausted then… The problem of overloaded work illustrated by the above cases partly owes to the difficulties of specifying the contents of domestic work. While the duties performed by domestic workers could be simply summarized as the ‘chores inside a household’, the term ‘household chores’ or ‘domestic duties’ are vague, and the work content and workload of individual workers can vary greatly. The ambiguity of domestic work’s content leads to the easy exploitation of domestic worker’s labour
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since the employer can easily prolong a worker’s work time and increase her workload as long as the work is within the sphere of indoor household. The cases also reveal that the rights ostensibly guaranteed by domestic worker’s contract may fail to be realized in practice. The real workload of the worker has far exceeded what was prescribed in the contract. From the aspect of employers, as accurately pointed out by a staff of the job agency interviewed, employers always want to ‘spend the least money to do the most things’, that they want their workers to do as much as possible with the same payment. Meanwhile, even facing some excessive requirements, domestic workers themselves are found to rarely report. All the informants mentioned above endured the heavy workload without appealing because they regarded it as their ‘bad luck’ that they ‘accidentally encountered a bad employer’, but seldom as the exploitations or the violations of their rights.
Lack of Respect and Violation of Dignity In describing their complaints, domestic workers often injected their hurt feeling about employers who shouted, scolded at or even humiliated them in and out of the work. Domestic workers are subject to various verbal abuses. Employer’s insultingly appellations of ‘just a maid’ or ‘only a poor rural woman’ are common for domestic workers. An informant told met that her employers kept calling her ‘stupid’ and ‘idiot’ whenever she made any mistakes or failed to follow their ways doing housework. Another worker was confronted with ‘very dirty’ and ‘uncontrolled’ taunts from her male employer in a dissension. When she tried to explain and talk back, she was scolded even more fiercely. In her situation, her vulnerability to the taunts and the inability to directly communicate with her employer exacerbated her sense of oppression. The oral abuse will be more unbearable if it happens outside the household. A young worker once discontinued the contract with a household because the hostess always scolded her in public areas in front of many people. She told me that she once
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felt extremely ashamed when her employer shouted at her so loudly on the street that everyone passed by all watched at her. On the next day she resigned from this family to show her indignation to the employer’s lack of respect. In another case, the informant heard her employer described her as ‘a pregnant elephant good at eating’ on the phone to another person. She was so much hurt that she also discontinued the work on the next day. In some cases, workers also come up against physical abuses. An informant who cared for a mentally retarded child described herself as subject to frequent physical attacks from the child. The child often pinched and kicked her when she helped him to eat or dress. She also got wound on her arms by the beat of the boy. To her great surprise and chagrin, when she showed her wounded arm to the parents, they ‘had no responses’. The child’s mother only excused for her son and asked the worker to be more considerate; the child’s father even ‘felt a little happy’ because it demonstrated that ‘at least his son could do something’. The callous reaction of the employer greatly enhanced the worker’s feeling of hurt and helplessness. However, when I interviewed her, she still worked and endured in that household. Above all the oral and physical abuses, domestic worker further suffer from distrust, lack of respect and various unwarranted accusations. For example, one informant was suspected by her hostess for ‘covertly eating the fruit for the child’. While the hostess didn’t believe the worker’s explanations, it finally turned out that the child’s father ate one pear when nobody noticed. However, the undeserved worker didn’t get any apologies from her employer. Another domestic worker had a more severe accusation of theft. This live-out domestic worker cleaned the house for her employer on every Wednesday and Sunday. One day she finished the work and took up her bag as usual to leave. But her employer held her up and asked her to open her bag to inspect. ‘Some cash disappeared in the house last week, and they thought it’s me’, said this worker chagrined ‘I told her that even as a servant, I had my own credit and I hadn’t touched anything expensive in your house, but she didn’t believe’. Although the worker felt it ‘very offensive’ and ‘really unacceptable’ to open her bag for check, finally she still did as her employer required in order to show 96
her blamelessness, and as she said nothing belonging to the employer was found in her bag. Also, the employer didn’t apologize to this worker, either. Such unwarranted accusations on the informants are too numerous to list one by one. The distrust that domestic workers experience happens almost everyday and pervades to the details of their lives: employers lock up the drawer where cash is stored when they leave the home; they watch carefully over their belongings to prevent their workers from ‘gaining extra advantages’ from the household; and whenever anything is going wrong in the household, domestic workers will always be the defaulted troublemakers whom are firstly suspected. Domestic workers feel most uncomfortable facing such distrust and unjustifiable accusations because they are seldom given a chance to explain, or even they explain, their employer won’t listen. And since most of the accusations are over those ‘petty things’, employers may not ask the worker to leave nor do they show the suspicions directly; instead they ‘display long face’ or say something equivocal at the back of the worker, which make workers even more upset. Such treatments to workers, which can be regarded as voiceless oppressions, sometimes are more devastating than the overt exploitation. Workers under the voiceless oppression may feel extremely offensive and vulnerable for the lack of vents to confirm their rights and express their feelings. In addition to the physical abuse and unwarranted accusations, in some cases, the employers treat their workers in such an explicitly humiliating way that it significantly violates the human dignity of workers. The following cases are examples, but not the exceptions. Xiao Wang, a young woman from Shandong Province, firstly arrived in Beijing in 2002 and worked for a ‘fairly rich family’ as she called. After she worked for several months she found that the employer didn’t obey the regulations on the labour contract, that she was given less rest days and her salary was fifty yuan’s less than it was prescribed. But hoping to earn more money for her family, she endured her mean employer and just wrote all her discontents and grievances in her dairy. However, to her great surprise, her endurance did not bring her any benefits, and her dairies actually caused her a big problem. The following 97
narratives of Xiao Wang indicate her unforgettable experience: I was wiping the floor, the madam came and said in a strange tune: ‘You miss your family?’ At beginning I didn’t pay attention to her and didn’t respond. Then she continued: ‘You think we treated you bad? Why you said that you didn’t sleep well in the night? Did we give you too much work?’ Suddenly I realized that she peeked into my dairy, because what she said was exactly the same as that in the dairy. I said: ‘You looked into my dairy?!’ She didn’t admit. I said: ‘If you didn’t see, how can you know the things in my dairy?’ She equivocated and still didn’t admit. And she teased me: ‘You missed you boyfriend very much? Why not go back to him?… You remember that you are just a maid! We give you money and you should work hard, and don’t think about those messing things!’ Xiao Wang said that she hadn’t been humiliated like this ever and forever. She cried at once because she ‘felt so offended and ashamed’ for all those very private things, especially her intimate words to her boyfriend was looked into and publicized by the hostess. She was even more angry because the hostess did not apologize but blamed Xiao Wang for expressing her dissatisfaction in her own dairy. Xiao Wang said angrily that ‘So what they are rich? They are rich so they could disregard other person’s feeling?’ After the accident, Xiao Wang couldn’t sleep for several nights and finally she quit from this job. Even two years’ passed when I interviewed her, Xiao Wang still felt deeply hurt when she told me the story. She said ‘I won’t forget this for my life’. Another extremely insulting experience was from Xiao Chen, a middle-aged woman from Gansu Province. Xiao Chen migrated to Beijing by herself in 2004. When I interviewed her, she has just left her first job and started to work for the second employer. She suffered a lot from the first household and was still sick when I met her. The first job really tortured me and I was almost collapsed. I took care of an old woman who was ill… The house was stinky but she didn’t allow me to open the windows – even the window in my room. That smell made me want to vomit all the time… And she treated me very badly. She went to bed early and she forced me to go to bed at the same time as she did. After that, she forbad me to use light even in my room; she got up very early in the morning and if she’s earlier than 98
me, she would yell at me: ‘You, get up, lazy pig!’…the worst thing she did to me was forcing me to eat rice on the floor. Once when she ate, her hand shook and some rice dropped on the floor. I was just about to clean it, she told me: ‘Don’t sweep it! They are still eatable. You eat it’. Then I ate it…after worked for her for four days, I got very sick and I told her that I must leave… Later I found this employer and she treated me well. I told her: elder sister, you have saved me, if there was not you, I would die. The immerse humiliation that Xiao Wang and Xiao Chen experienced went to such an extent that it significantly violated their dignity. Although not all domestic workers are confronted with violations of dignity, one can expect that as a whole, domestic workers are more likely than other types of migrant workers to be subject to various humiliations from their employers, because both their physical proximity to the employer and the intense relationship between a worker and her employer all put domestic workers in more vulnerable positions. In other words, their particular working conditions partly leads to domestic worker’s common problem being humiliated. To explore further, a more nuanced understanding of why domestic workers are so often confronted with disrespect, abuse and humiliation requires a particular attention to their double disadvantaged status in the labour-receiving areas. On the one hand, like other rural migrants, domestic workers are by definition temporary residents of cities, and their ability to deal effectively with various problems is limited by their status as outsiders. On the other hand, the social stigma associated with the service industry and common acceptance of domestic service as chore rather than skilled work also intensify domestic worker’s disadvantages and expose them to the frequent disrespect and insult. As such, domestic workers are in particular disadvantages in cities. The hidden stories regarding domestic worker’s daily life stated in this section demonstrate one facet of such disadvantages. The findings also reveal the need to introduce regulations to improve the working and living conditions of these women migrant workers.
Who Stick Up For Their Rights? 99
As previous sections indicate, domestic workers have very unfavorable working conditions: they commonly suffer from the long working hours; they enjoy much less rest days than other migrant workers even in the statutory holidays; many of them also face the problem of doing ‘endless’, all kinds of ‘indoor works’ that far exceed the work content stipulated on the contract. Their unfavorable experiences are extended to daily lives, too. They are subject to various oral, physical abuses, disrespect and even humiliation from their employers. All in all, the findings show that the domestic workers are trapped in an isolated environment where their labours are rampantly exploited and their dignity are frequently violated. As so, a set of questions naturally follows: if domestic workers are in such disadvantaged status, why don’t they resist? Who appeal for them when their rights are violated? And from whom they could seek for help? These are the questions to be answered in this section. In the following, the paper firstly looks into the possible resources from which domestic workers could draw help and support. The analysis will be focused on the municipal government and the professional domestic companies, who act as intermediates between domestic workers and their employers. After that, the paper further examines a combination of reasons explaining why domestic workers themselves seldom appeal when they are treated unfairly.
Protection from the Local Government While the government’s protections towards migrant workers are fundamentally through their labour contracts, the following paragraphs look into two questions: firstly, can the employment contract guarantee domestic workers’ basic rights as it is supposed to? Secondly, in case that the terms of the contract are violated, through what formal channels can workers appeal for their rights. To begin with the examination on labour contract for domestic workers, the official employment contract for a domestic worker is governed by general labour laws and also by less formal policies introduced by the industry association – Beijing Homemaking Service Association (BHSA). A typical employment contract for a
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domestic worker covers items such as work content, contract period, worker’s salary, the obligation and the responsibility of a domestic worker, of her employer and the intermediate company, and the conditions of changing and terminating the contract, etc. While the contract seems to have covered almost all the aspects of domestic worker’s daily life, most of the regulations are broad and lack of clarification, therefore, it fails to protect even some basic rights of domestic workers. Take the regulations on worker’s accommodation for an example: it is regulated that employers should provide ‘suitable and safe accommodation’ to their workers, but what accommodation can be regarded as ‘suitable and safe’ remains unclear.. The lack of specification partly accounts for the unfavorable living environments of some domestic workers. Several informants in this study indicated that they slept on the sofa of the living room; lived in extremely congested store room; or even in the dark and humid basement without windows. What invites particular attention here is that for a worker whose ‘bedroom’ is the living rooms where the family watches television until late or is the child’s bedroom, she may theoretically be ‘allowed’ to go to bed whenever she wishes, but she cannot go to sleep until the rest of the family does, due to the noise, interruptions, or lack of privacy. Another problem that tends to be induced by the lack of specification in labour contract is long work hours of domestic workers. The contract stipulates that employers should guarantee their workers to have enough sleep, but it says nothing about the work hours per day. The domestic service industry association takes essentially the same position as the labour department: that household work cannot be measured and that work hours would be impossible to enforce. The lack of efforts from both departments to limit domestic worker’s work hours exposes workers to the easy exploitation of their labours. Theoretically, the employer can force a worker to work for 16 hours per day besides the 8 hour’s rest that is regulated by the contract. The common problem of informant’s long work hours demonstrates such a potential problem. Examining the regulations regarding the termination of the contract, one can further find that it also fails to protect domestic workers in case of terminating the 101
contract in advance of its period. As regulated, either the employer or the worker can terminate the contract before the period ends, provided that a 3 days’ notice as well as an amount of compensation are given by the one who raises the issue. In practice, it is found that for whatever reasons, most of the contracts are terminated by employers. While employers can easily terminate the contract and pay the penal sum, workers are less likely to afford or are not willing to pay the compensation fee. As so, they often choose not to terminate the contract even they want to. From this perspective, one can say that the contract actually encourages workers to endure the unfavorable working conditions. In addition, a quite number of employers didn’t give any notice to their workers before terminating the contract. In this study, four informants have been suddenly fired and forced out of the house by their employers without the notice required. Workers were in extreme vulnerable positions when they encountered the sudden loss of the jobs. Some of them could only live totally depending on the kindness of their town-fellows when they were fired. The last contract item that I want to examine is the medical provisions for domestic workers. Most of the domestic service companies in Beijing do not have any regulations concerning domestic worker’s medical provisions in their contracts. So far, the most serious effort to promote the medical provisions for domestic worker’s is taken by the BHSA. In the ‘Industrial Regulations’ that the BHSA proposes, all the domestic service companies are advised to take out a collective medical insurance policy for its registered workers to cover occupational or work-related illness or injuries that a domestic worker might experience; it also recommends the service company to encourage employers to join the insurance scheme and share the responsibilities, too. The actual medical provisions for domestic workers are still far from enough. Among roughly ten domestic service companies that I have interviewed, only one had a collective medical insurance scheme for its registered workers through the labour contract. The staff in this company told me that the medical insurance scheme had only begun to carry significance after the frequent report of a Shanghai domestic worker’s accident appeared in the media from early 2004. In the accident, the worker fell from the 102
fourth floor while she was cleaning the window and was severely injured. So among all the informants, except for a couple of domestic workers from the company mentioned above, none of the others has any form of medial insurance. I was told that in case that a domestic worker is sick or get injured in the course of her work, the employer would probably pay a small amount of compensation. However, if a worker’s illness and injury is not attributed to her work, in other words, that she is sick ‘for her own sake’, she will be very lucky if her employer is willing to cover her medical treatment and pay her salary when she is sick. But more often, the worker herself is supposed to pay the medical treatment and she is highly likely to lose her income for her sick days. Finally, if the worker has been seriously sick for several days, very likely that she will be fired and lose her job without any payment from her employer. As can be seen from the above description, domestic workers are particularly disadvantageous when they experience sickness or injury in the cities: they not only have to pay the expensive medical treatment fee from their small incomes, they also face the potential threats of losing payment or even jobs because of the sickness. The lack of formal regulations regarding the medical provisions in the labour contract brings about such problems. Also, domestic worker’s less access to the medical provision shows the imbalance existing in the urban social security system where the rural migrant workers are largely excluded from various welfare supports. Moving from the insufficiencies of the labour contract, I try to answer the second question raised in the very beginning of this section: in case that the terms of the contract is violated, through what formal channels can a domestic worker report her grievance and appeal for her rights? The answer is not hard to give, as according to the labour law, all kinds of workers can file a complaint with the Labour Department or claim to Labour Tribunal to realize the rights guaranteed by their contrast, and for workers who cannot afford the law processing fees, they could ask for legal aid from the municipal government. The regulations ostensibly guarantee domestic workers’ right as such they are applicable to both urban worker and rural migrant labours. However, in practice, 103
domestic workers seldom draw any help from the formal channel when their rights are violated in the work. This is because: for one thing, rural domestic workers are by definition temporary residents of Beijing, and their abilities to deal effectively with work-related problems are limited by their ‘outsider’ status. For example, as regulated, if a migrant worker wants to file a complaint with the Labour Department, he or she is required to present the work permit card and other identification certificates, otherwise the case will not be processed. The regulation is particularly unfavorable to domestic workers as many of them are working without work permits due to their isolated working conditions. In addition, rural migrants have their own disadvantages in reporting the grievance. Due to their relatively low education attainment and insufficient knowledge on various regulations of the municipal government to protect them, they may be unaware of their rights or of how to get support from the formal channels. Especially for domestic workers, trapped in the isolated households, they have even less access to the outside world as well as the channels to voice their rights. All in all, domestic worker’s ability to deal effectively with work-related problem are limited by both their status as temporary residents and their own limitations. As a result, even the formal resources are open to them, domestic workers can still hardly get the help from the labour receiving government.
Help from the Intermediate Companies To explore further from the perspective of domestic service companies – which function as intermediate between the contracted workers and the employers – can the company advocate for its registered workers when conflicts between the worker and her employer occur or when the rights of workers are violated? As have been pointed out in the previous chapter of Transit Stage, domestic service companies run for their own interests. Although the companies help domestic workers to secure a job and help to solve the problem when conflicts occur between a worker and her employer, to the essence they intend to make profit from workers as
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well as their employers, and the supports that a company gives to its registered workers are quite limited, if to say that there are any. The following experiences of Xiao Zhao and Xiao Yao exactly show that a worker’s registration at a company does not guarantee her a more protected stand in the conflicts with her employers or in case of rights being violated. Xiao Zhao once worked in a family who was very harsh to her. She did much housework and was the subject to frequent oral abuses. Xiao Zhao worked for the family for only three days and was kicked off by the employer without payment. The employer said that she was ‘slow and insolence’ and should not get the pay at all. When she returned to her company for help, the staff asked her to show the working note, which was delivered by the company to employers to verify a worker’s service hours. Xiao Zhao told the staff that she was forced out in a sudden and didn’t take the note. The staff then refused to deal her case nor appeal for her, saying that ‘we can do nothing without the note’. The staff further persuaded Xiao Zhao not to argue with the employer because: ‘you cannot win, and you will be scolded again’. As a result, Xiao Zhao didn’t get any help from the company and she lost her three day’s salary. ‘They (staffs) are so cold to me’, said Xiao Zhao Another informant Xiao Yao has an even worse experience dealing with her company when she suddenly lost her job for an unwarranted accusation of ‘badly treating’ the child she cared. Xiao Yao returned to the company indignantly and expected to receive some comforts from the staffs. To her surprise, the staff refused to hear Xiao Yao’s explanation and scolded her harshly, calling her stupid for losing such a good job. Finally, Xiao Yao got to know that the employer called the staff in advance and spoke ill of her. From this experience, Xiao Yang concluded that staffs in the companies ‘only believed employer’s words’ and ‘always thought we (domestic workers) are slow and stupid’ We see from Xiao Zhao and Xiao Yang’s experiences that when conflicts occur, the domestic service companies are more likely to stand on the employer’s side, rather than speaking for the more vulnerable workers. As most of the companies are more interested in how to recruit new workers and make profit from them, little 105
efforts have been made to enhance worker’s disadvantaged status or better protect their rights. As a result, when domestic workers are confronted with work related problems or unfair treatments, they can expect hardly any help from the domestic service companies. Actually, since a worker’s shift of employer increases the time and labour cost of the company and meanwhile decrease its income by discontinuing a contract, the company ‘does not advise workers to change employers too often’, told by a staff of the service company that I have interviewed. In addition, to prevent such loss, many companies charge extra fees, varying from 10 to 30 yuan, on either side who wants to discontinue the contract. Both the statement of the staff and the ‘fine’ regulation over contract termination imply the same gesture of the companies, that they want their workers to be submissive and tolerant. While the 10 to 30 yuan’s fine matters little to most of the employers who can easily dismiss a worker, it may prevent workers from leaving the undesirable working condition and actually encourage them to suffer the unfair treatments.
Domestic Worker’s Own Reluctance to Resist In the interviews, I am always impressed by the informants’ endurance and toughness when they face various unfair treatments from their employers. The cases from the former section have clearly shown the rampant exploitations that domestic workers experience, and they urge us to ask: why don’t they resist and appeal for their rights? Admittedly, domestic workers perform some resistances such as circumventing the employer’s rules and negotiating with the employers to affirm their rights, the details of which will be gone through in the next section. However, by and large the resistance of domestic workers remains in a limited scope and on discursive level, expressed quietly and as a form of personal release. For the majority of the domestic workers, especially the newly arrived workers, they are found to be reluctant to report and appeal the violation of their rights. The reasons for their endurance are
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complex and different for individual workers. In the following, a number of accounts from the informants illuminate the reasons from one important perspective.
‘Give me more money, I could endure whatever bitterness.’ (Xiao Ying) ‘The former family gave me three hundred and fifty, this family gives me four hundred…it’s higher so I endure…my family needs the money, I say that if I can add some (income to the family), I will do… my brothers are still attending school and they also need the money.’ (Xiao Yao) ‘Who want to separate from their families and come here to be controlled and suffer? No one. What we have done are all for the family.’ (Xiao Yang)
As one can see that domestic workers are overwhelmed by the needs of their family, and this concern restrained their capacity to appeal and confirm their rights positively. For these workers, what matters most is the increase of family’s income. As pointed out by Xiao Ying, as long as they have a job and employers pay them salaries, they could endure ‘whatever bitterness’. As such, many workers are afraid to resist or assert their rights because they do not want to risk the loss of job and the income. Even they could change another employer, the process requires time and opportunity cost, which also indirectly reduce their income. As a result, unless the exploitation and humiliation are to the extreme unbearable extent, domestic workers would endure the unfair treatment rather than resisting. Domestic workers, furthermore, may be unaware of their rights or of how to report their grievances. When I asked them what they would do in case of underpayment, violation of dignity, and other unfair treatments, some told me that they ‘could do nothing’ other than taking it as their own ‘bad luck’ such as regarding it as ‘being sick’, ‘losing money on the street’ or ‘spending the money on gambling’, etc. One informant said that she could do nothing facing the unfair treatments because ‘I cannot go to rob my money back, can I?’ To her, the only viable way to solve the problem is through one’s own limited force. Her statement also showed a similar unawareness among the informants of realizing their rights through formal channels. What’s more, even some informants firmly stated that they would complain 107
those who violated their rights through various channels, when asked further to whom and how they would appeal, most of them were out of their wits, saying that ‘I don’t’ know exactly where’, ‘I heard that I could call a number for help, but I don’t’ know what number’. Among all informants who have received unfair treatments from their employers, only one had appealed to the Ministry of Labour and Social Security once and succeeded in getting back her underpaid salary. In addition, domestic worker’s ability to deal with the work-related problems in cities is also restricted by their comparatively low educational attainment. For example, the above informant who claimed that she could ‘call a number’ to report grievance was actually an illiterate and could not obtain relevant information from either newspaper or pamphlet handed out by the municipal government for rural migrants. Another account of one informant pinpointed the problem caused by domestic workers low education levels: ‘we are not the intellectuals, we do not have such skills to argue with others…I cannot speak it out and I don’t know how to express myself clearly’. Due to such a disadvantage, domestic worker’s ability to appeal and solve the problem through formal channels is significantly reduced. Even if domestic workers know about their rights and the official recourse open to them, many choose not to act because the personal and financial costs involved in filing an official grievance against their employers often outweigh any benefits they stand to gain. A large number of rural migrants, including domestic workers, hold the principle of ‘the less affairs, the better’ (duo yi shi bu ru shao yi shi)’ and are not willing to get themselves into troubles through lawsuit. One informant who was underpaid by her former employer told me that definitely she wouldn’t appeal because: ‘how can I afford the time and money to go to court? Hundreds yuan is not a small amount to us, how can we strangers fight those local people…I would prefer to work hard to earn more in stead of engaging in a lawsuit’. Therefore, for a combination of reasons listed above, domestic workers themselves seldom report their grievance even when they face wild exploitations over their labours. They have neither the financial resources, the time, nor the confidence to pursue their claims. They are further held back by their own 108
disadvantages and their unwillingness to solve the problems through relatively complicated official channels. Also, informant’s narratives imply their lack of faiths on the municipal government, since they believe that they ‘strangers’ could not fight ‘those local people’ and they are afraid that the local government won’t stand up for their migrant’s rights. Finally, to summarize what have been discussed in this section, the paper examines the possible resources from which domestic worker can draw support and help. It is found that, for whatever reasons, both the local government and the domestics service companies could provide little protections to domestic workers when their rights are infringed. As a result, in most of the cases, domestic workers could only depend on their friends and relatives to get through various difficulties. On the other hand, it is also noticed that due to their own disadvantages and less access to formal help, domestic workers themselves seldom report their grievance. This further increases their vulnerabilities in their destination places.
Learn, Grow and Upward Mobility The above sections describe the unfavorable work and living conditions of domestic workers. However, the lives of domestic workers are not all passive. For every domestic worker who expresses a sense of being oppressed by circumstances, there are others who stress the lessons they learned, the knowledge gained and the new perspective created during their stays in Beijing. This section focuses on these positive facets of domestic worker’s experiences.
Learn and Grow Nearly all the informants agreed that the bitterness they had gone through in the cities taught them to be strong; also, the life in Beijing itself can be a classroom imparting the new knowledge that can never be learnt in their home villages. In their work, domestic workers gradually learn to explain their stands and affirm their rights through unfavorable experience such as underpayment, unwarranted accusations and 109
other forms of unfair treatments. One informant Xiao He described herself as ‘submissive’ when she first came to Beijing, but after she was humiliated by her employer for several times, she realized that she could not always keep silent and be a ‘poor victim’ and she began to voice her opinions and to reason with her employers when conflict occurs. Now, as she told me, she ‘fears nothing’ and can always vindicate for herself. Xiao Yong’s case is as another example. Xiao Yong has worked in Beijing for more than six years and has changed employers for several times, some of whom underpaid her. She told me that by working with these ‘bad’ employers, she had become stronger and can defend herself when her rights are violated. She said: When I was in the first family, I tried to talk as less as possible, tried to avoid any quarrels with the employer…anyhow, I just endured and endured at that time. When the first family underpaid me, I said nothing but cried by myself. But now, I learnt many things, and I become stronger…once another family wanted to cheat me to pay me less money, I said no! They threaten to fire me and wanted to drive me out, I said: no, if you don’t give me money, I won’t go; even you call the police, I won’t go…Finally they had no ways and they gave me the money. As their stories show, Xiao He and Xiao Yong both changed from timid victims to ‘bold’ workers who can talk back to their employers to affirm their rights. The unfavorable working experiences of them taught them to deal with unreasonable employers and strive for their rights. A number of informants also experienced such changes. Actually, as can be found in the study, one of the biggest differences between the new and experienced domestic workers is their different reactions to the unfair treatment imposed by their employers: while more often the new ones suffer without complaining, experienced workers begin to openly express their discontentment and to defend for themselves. Many informants regarded such a change as ‘the most precious lesson’ that they have learned in the work. Also, experienced workers learn to perform various resistances in their work to protect themselves from potential conflicts and hurts. ‘Rise up, people who don’t want to be the slaves’, quoting the words from the National Anthem, one informant 110
depicted their resistance as the inevitable result of the frequent exploitations over their labours. Domestic worker’s resistances vary. Most of the experienced domestic workers have their ways of circumventing employer’s rules to gain themselves more freedom, and sometimes they even practice subtle forms of ‘sabotage’ of their work. When domestic workers in a same residential community gather, they compare their employers, air grievance about them, and supply advice on how to deal with them. Many domestic workers also studied the employer’s body language and their ‘hidden feelings’ to develop ‘strategies’ to ‘cope with’ them. One informant proudly told me that she had an effective strategy to ‘cope with’ her employer, which was to ‘pretend to be deaf and dumb’. As can be noticed from the above cases, similar to the employer’s less institutionalized and more pervasive controls, domestic worker’s resistance by and large remains on a discursive level, expressed quietly and always as a form of personal release. Only in a few cases, individual workers performed direct resistances, that they discontinued the contract actively and endeavored to find a ‘better’ or more humane employer who might be less demanding of their surplus labour producing potentials. However, there is no collective or organized resistance initiated by the rural domestic workers. As several informants told me, they didn’t have the ‘ability’, the ‘energy’ and the time to organize a protest or other forms of resistances; their diverse origin places are also said to be a factor preventing them from uniting and cooperating to perform organized resistance. Whatsoever the resistance may be – at the indirect or direct level, performed individually or collectively, domestic workers benefit from the resistances because they provide workers with at least a temporary sense of empowerment, satisfaction or pleasure. The resistances, although are more likely to be indiscernible to the employers, may also transform situation and bring worker physical rewards. In addition to the work sphere, domestic workers also learn and grow through their daily lives in Beijing. As indicated by quite a number of informants, an important lesson learned through their stays in Beijing is to deal with different kinds of people and to get along with them. This is the skill that they can rarely learn from 111
their relatively simple relationships in the home villages. The young informants unanimously told me that they became more mature after coming to Beijing. They described themselves as ‘timid’, ‘rash’ and ‘self-willed’ when they were in the home villages, however, after spending some time in Beijing, they learned to ‘talk in a more implicit and proper way’ and ‘consider things comprehensively’. A young domestic worker who has worked in Beijing for five years told me that when she returned to her home, her villagers all praised her to have become much more ‘open and decent’ than the girls remaining in the village. Her family and herself also felt happy for such a growth. Such a change involving a person’s growth is not limited to young domestic workers only. Several middle-aged informants shared with me the similar feelings of learning and growing. One informant said: ‘I learnt many things here, especially from communicating with all kinds of people I met in the company. I got to know what kinds of people are very wicked, to whom I should be very careful. This is very important…although I won’t become that bad person, it broadened my horizon’. Another informant told me that she learnt to behave easy and relax while facing emergencies. She also said that she would teach her children this when she returned to her home. To very few lucky domestic workers who have some free time as well as the access to abundant culture activities in Beijing, living in the capital city itself can be the most exciting and precious experience that greatly broadens one’s horizon and changes her mind. Among all the informants, I have met such a young domestic worker Xiao Xu, a twenty-year-old girl from Anhui Province. Xiao Xu claimed herself to be the luckiest domestic worker who has met the best employer. During her two years’ stay in Beijing, her employer has taken her to watch quite a number of domestic or even international concerts and other performances in some rather famous theatres in Beijing. The influence of such exposure to the outside world on this young rural woman is obvious, and she easily distinguished herself from all the other informants. She talked with me in an easy and even graceful manner; she emphasized her choice in 112
selecting the way of life that she wanted; she had quite a clear vision for her future, basing on careful weighing of her own advantages and disadvantages. The most impressive thing about her was her determination to ‘maximize the pursuit for the knowledge and minimize that for the physical life’. While it is hard to believe that such words were from a rural domestic worker who received junior high school’s education only, Xiao Xu’s growing insight into the meaning of life clearly demonstrates the dramatic changes that she had undergone through her particular experience in Beijing. Of course, the case of Xiao Xu is far from typical, as most of the domestic workers even do not have time or cannot afford to visit the parks, temple fairs, scenic and historic sites in the nation’s capital city, not to mention to gain knowledge and ‘improve’ themselves through Beijing’s cultures. However, as we can find from all the discussions in this section, even having no access to outside world, domestic workers also learn and grow in other aspects of their lives. From their unfavorable working environment, they gradually learn to affirm their rights and perform various resistances to gain themselves benefits; from their daily life, they learn skills to get along with different kinds of people and to deal with things more flexibly and ‘comprehensively’. One can say that all these changes mentioned above can be domestic worker’s strategies to adjust themselves to the unfavorable urban work and living environment. The lessons and knowledge they gain also show their own pursuit for better lives. Domestic worker grow to be stronger and smarter in the tough and comparatively complicated urban life, and the knowledge they gain can also become the treasures for the rest of their rest and will be rewarded in the future. As such, although domestic workers are confronted with many difficulties and humiliations some time, they nevertheless benefit from the migration experience in Beijing.
Subtle Change of the Life Style Besides the knowledge and skills gained from their work and life, living in the
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urban household also exerts subtle influence on rural domestic workers’ life styles, imparting them the knowledge of ‘modernity’, which, as regarded by some informants, is also a ‘big improvement’. Such influences may involve the changes to the very details of a worker’s life. For example, one informant told me that she had become ‘a person who likes neatness’ by living with urban residents who had ‘better life habits’. This informant indicated that ‘now whenever I saw anything a little dirty, I feel uncomfortable. So on the second day (after I cleaned the house) even the floor is not that dirty, I will still clean it completely, or I will feel uncomfortable myself’. Her statement was supported by several informants, who similar claimed themselves to have developed good hygiene habit during their stays in the city. Someone even felt it hard to readapt to their rural lives when returning to the hometown, because of the poor sanitation conditions in the countryside. Some domestic workers, especially the younger ones, also developed the ‘sense of modernity’ during their stays in Beijing. These rural women who have spent a period of time living in cities are exposed to quite different modern life style. For the first time of their life, they feel the dynamic and prospering urban community through numerous high skyscrapers, big shopping malls and overcrowded streets. More influentially, living within an urban family they become aware of even the most intimate details of their employers’ lives: domestic arrangement, home furnishings and consumer durables are all things important to their lives. They see a different model of marriage and family interactions, which inevitably influence their own ways of thinking and living. The dramatic difference between rural and urban areas creates among them an awareness of the ‘modernity’ from which they have long been excluded, meanwhile it also reminds them of the backwardness of their places of origin. The developed ‘sense of modern’ involves a changing attitude to consumption. A live-out domestic worker once told me that her relative in the home village criticized her for ‘being extravagant’. ‘They said that I had become a Beijing people’, said this middle-aged woman, ‘they can’t believe that I spent more than a hundred yuan on a 114
blanket and over a month’s salary on my son’s glasses’. However, the informant took her relative’s negative comments as a compliment rather than the criticism because ‘at least it demonstrated my ability to afford these things’. She further pointed out her inapprehension to her relative’s ‘extreme economization’, for it ‘affected the life quality’. From the difference between the informant and her relative, we see the subtle changes undergone by this domestic worker, that she has developed the idea of ‘life quality’ as well as the new standard for consumption durables during her stay in Beijing. Also, it can be noticed that the informant even felt somewhat ‘superior’ to her rural relative for her more ‘modern’ consumption attitude. Besides the changing attitude toward consumption, some deeper influences induced by the notion of modernity take place on young domestic workers, affecting their criteria for choosing a potential husband. When talking about the future marriage, almost all the single informants indicated that they wanted to find a partner who had the similar outing migration experiences as they did. One informant Xiao He, who have just failed in an arranged marriage matching by her parents, told me her problems of getting along with the boys in her village: ‘the boy in my village is kind, but I don’t like the way he talks and behaves…he looks a little bit…rube…I just cannot fall in love with such a person and we don’t have many things to talk about…and I think he doesn’t have the aspiration to make progress – why doesn’t he come out and do something big other than hanging around at home?’ The changes to Xiao He’s attitude about marriage and the potential husband are quite typical among all the single informants. Being exposed to quite different modern life styles, they find it hard to accept the boys staying in the home village, because these boys talk and behave in a relatively ‘rube’ way and they lack the ‘aspiration to make progress’. All these characters are undesired or even disdained by young women migrants. Moreover, looking from the views of the men remaining at rural villages, a young rural woman with migration experience can also be too bold, too adventurous and too trendy to be a good wife. As so, a girl who has worked in cities for a period of time seldom marries to a rural man without migration 115
experiences. In this study, the informants who married after they migrated all married with the men with the similar migration backgrounds. In this sense, we see that migrating to and working in the cities can be the most critical events for a young rural woman, whose life course will be greatly influenced by such experiences. Another major change to the young women migrants regarding their marriage is that they are now more actively involving in their marriage decisions. Many informants expressed their envies for the freedom and independence that urban women enjoy, including their freedom in the marriage decisions. Influenced by such a ‘modern’ marriage style of their urban counterparts, a lot of single informants clearly showed their desires to meet and marry the ‘Mr. Right’ by themselves, without matchmakers or the involvement of their parents. Even one is introduced by her parents to meet her potential husband or to marry at a certain time, she can still play active roles in fixing her own husband. In the case of Xiao He, she turned down the boy introduced by her parents, realizing her own wills in the marriage; in another case, the young girl Xiao Shen changed her job from a live-in domestic worker to a live-out worker because it enabled her to ‘meet more friends’ and ‘find the right person’ by herself. Both cases show these rural women’s determination to manage their marriages independently. As one can expect, their migration experience will continue to enable rural women migrants to establish relationships without intermediaries and to perform more independence in their marriage. For married domestic workers, the modern life style in cities and the notion of modernity may not exert so strong influences on their lives as that to young single rural women, but similarly, they experience the big differences between the urban and rural life, which also create among them a desire for different lives. Here let me quote a narrative from a 47-year’s old domestic worker from Sichuan Province to show such changes. This informant Xiao Xie told me:
People living in the cities have much entertaining life than we rural people have. I see women of my similar age here in Beijing – their lives are much better than mine and they can do many things in their off hours… And the old people, they are much happier, when they have finished the dinner, they 116
come out and take a walk or chat with others. In my village, all (the young people) have come out to cities, leaving old people at home. They have to care children and do farm work, too…. Some times I just feel envy of these urban people. In particular, Xiao Xie stressed the different ‘fates’ for rural and urban women based on her observations and experiences in the city. In rural areas, as long as a woman gets married, her life’s over. All she can do is to care children and do housework…and even they are unhappy, it’s much more difficult for rural women to divorce than women in the cities. For them, when they divorce, their children will be given to the husbands; because they are married to the husbands, the house will be the husband’s, too. It means that they have nothing. So many rural women, if they divorce, they will come out to work in cities. Those who don’t divorce, they can only suffer, for the children and for themselves – they endure all these. As Xiao Xie’s narratives show, she was greatly impressed by the ‘much entertaining’ life style in cities during her stay in Beijing. Getting to know the ‘happier’ life of women and advanced people in cities even made her feel ‘envy’. The most distinguished difference that she has noticed was the quite different life styles for married women in rural and urban areas: while urban married women enjoy much freedom and independence, married women in the rural areas have much less opportunities to change their disadvantaged status rather than enduring and suffering. This sentiment was echoed by several informants who told me that rural women are ‘poorer’ compared to their urban counterparts and that they felt sad being incapable to change their ‘fates’. Furthermore, women migrant’s awareness of the dramatic difference between the rural and urban life also poses demands and expectations on them. As a married informant pinpointed: ‘when I spend all my time in my home village, I seldom think about coming out, and I don’t know how the outside world is – if you rarely see the world outside, you won’t think much…even people say that the cities are good, for the children I still prefer to stay at home…but after I come out, even I haven’t done anything big, I see many things and my horizon is broadened. You see the world outside and you want more changes’. Such a view of ‘see more and want more 117
changes’ can be found from almost all the narratives of informants, indicating the huge influence of the urban life on women migrants. So for domestic workers, regardless of single or married, living in cities all imposes strong influence on their own ways of thinking and living, subtly changing their life styles. So far, the thesis has discussed various facets of such changes: from the improvement of personal hygiene, to the changing attitude toward consumption, marriage and the desired way of life, etc. The huge influence of the urban life and the awareness of big difference between the rural and urban areas also create among women migrants a sense of dissatisfaction and the desires for changing their ‘poor fates’. The following section will look into domestic worker’s endeavors to commit upward mobility and to change their disadvantaged status in cities
Upward Mobility For domestic workers, the upward mobility can be of two forms: one is the mobility within the sphere of domestic service industry – that the worker changes a job that provide higher salary, better accommodation, or better working conditions; another form of the upward mobility involves the movement out of the domestic service into more prestigious occupations. In this study, it is found that for various reasons, both forms of the mobility are in quite limited scales and the movement within the industry predominates the mainstream of the mobility. As stated in the previous section, in most of the cases when a domestic worker changes a job, it is the employer who discontinues the contract and fires the worker. However, in very few cases, several domestic workers also actively perform the job-hopping and are able to find better employers who are willing to require fewer hours of work or to give them better pay and better accommodation. Xiao Cheng’s case is an example illustrating the successful upward mobility within the domestic service. I first met Xiao Cheng in a residential community in early August 2004 when she cared a child. She was quite open and talkative. For the second time I visited the community, I noticed that she was caring another child. Xiao Cheng
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happily told me that she had changed to a different family who was ‘nicer’ and who paid her higher salary. She told me her experience of changing a ‘better’ job. I always want to find a better family. The last family was not good and I don’t want to work for them…to find another family is not very hard – there are always some residents in the community asking our maids whether we have friends or relatives in the hometown who can come (to work as domestic workers). I have paid attention to these residents for a while…but I cannot discontinue the contract before I find the next family, can I? It’s too risky…I was also lucky. I met this family. Their worker has just returned home and they wanted a new one. I asked them how much they pay – they pay fifty yuan’s higher than the last family, even for the first month. So I told them I could work for them…I discontinued the contract with the last family immediately…now I get five hundred a month and they allowed me to rest. Xiao Cheng’s lucky, as she said, because she met a ‘better’ family in the community when she just wanted to change a job. However, one can say that her success in committing the upward mobility also attributes to her own efforts. Firstly, she had a clear idea of what kind of labour market that she was in – that although many domestic worker endure poor working conditions, as a whole it’s a seller’s market in that ‘to find another family is not very hard’ as Xiao Cheng observed. Secondly, Xiao Cheng was patient and cautious while she was waiting for a chance for job-hopping: she paid attention to potential employers but refused to take a risk before she was completely sure of a better position. So Xiao Cheng finally succeeded in moving to a better family as she wished. Although the increase of her salary was not that much, the job changing still provided Xiao Cheng with an opportunity to commit upward mobility in the industry. In fact, one can argue that such a job-hopping can be the fundamental strategy for a domestic worker to promote their working conditions. In addition to the upward mobility within the domestic service industry, many young women migrants are making great effort to move out of domestic service into more prestigious occupations after several years’ stay in Beijing. For them, Beijing as a destination place has extra advantages than other cities, because it affords numerous opportunities to embark on a formal course of study for a degree or earn a 119
certificate in a particular technical skill. A number of young informants had such a dream before they came to Beijing. In addition, for those who planned to pursue self-study, domestic service is valued for it seems to provide relatively quiet accommodations, the leisure time in which to read or attend classes, and the money to invest in study materials. Xiao Wang, for example, was lucky to get support from her employer for her self-study and was reading a college degree majoring in accounting when I interviewed her. She moved from Shandong Province in 2002 when she was 19 year’s old. As she told me, originally she did not plan to take any courses or get a certificate before she came to Beijing – at that time she just ‘wanted to earn some money for the family’. After staying in Beijing for months, however, the exposure to the outside world and the realization of her ‘own insufficient education’ urged her to purse a tertiary level degree in accounting. At the time I interviewed her, Xiao Wang had passed all the 14 courses for a qualification certificate in accounting and was taking further classes for her college degree on every Saturdays. She told me that she had to negotiate with her employer for the whole day’s free time in order to study in every week. ‘I am tired some times’, said this young girl, ‘but I feel good being busy and tired, the more tired, the more meaningful the life is’. It will take Xiao Wang another three years and quite an amount of money to get her college degree, however, she showed confidence in obtaining the degree and gaining herself a better future. She expressed with a little excitement that she planned to obtain a certificate in accounting first, then she would learn some knowledge on computer technology, and finally, to learn the hotel management and to be a manager. Since Xiao Wang was still pursuing her self-study while I finished this research, whether she could realize her dream and move out of the domestic service sphere to become a manager as she hoped remains unknown to me. However, one thing can be sure of is that attending these various formal courses and obtaining certificates in a particular technique greatly increase these rural domestic worker’s bargaining power in the labour market and thus enhancing their chances of committing upward movement to more prestigious industries. If to say that the domestic service is still an 120
occupation that requires little skills and experiences, taking these courses provides domestic workers a channel to become a skilled worker and gain higher economic and social status. So far, we have discussed two forms of upward mobility of domestic workers. While an experienced domestic worker can learn to be ‘smart’ as Xiao Cheng and find themselves some chances to commit upward mobility within the domestic service industry, how many domestic workers can be as lucky as Xiao Wang to have both time and favorable environment to pursue self-study and move to more prestigious occupations is still a big question. In fact, one could argue that the particular working conditions of domestic worker and the various restraints on rural women migrants against their upward mobility as a whole actually provide domestic workers with very limited space for economic betterment. Therefore, as also can be found in this study, for most of the domestic workers, in particular married and aged ones, the domestic service may become their only career during their stays in the cites, and their chances to commit any form of upward movement are very scarce.
The Way Ahead The cases illustrated in this chapter reveal both the positive and negative facets of domestic worker’s life in Beijing. To individual rural women, working in Beijing as domestic worker is a mixed bag of sweet-bitterness experience. On the one hand, they suffer from poor working and living environments and they are confronted with frequent humiliations from their employers. On the other hand, however, lives in cities increase their access to money, knowledge and other resources that can be hardly reached in their home villages. Exposure to modern life styles also exerts subtle influence on these rural women and further pulls them from their comparatively backward rural lives. Therefore, for rural domestic workers who plan for their futures, there are always two choices in front of them, that is either to return to hometown to live a relatively simple life, or to continue to stay in cities to enjoy better payment and the access to various resources but suffering from poor working
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conditions. Both choices have their advantages and disadvantages, and they may be hard to choose from. This is the dilemma confronted by the rural domestic workers. It also explains why that most of the informants were so confused and unsure when talking about their futures. When I asked the informants how they planned for their futures, most of them could not give me a certain answer. Several informants said that they had no specific plans and they just wanted to ‘let it be’ or ‘think about it later’. In addition, among all the married informants, only two indicated that they might return to hometown because both of them had built new houses in the villages, using the money earned in Beijing. Others, although hesitant to express their ideas about the future, unanimously showed their desires to stay in Beijing. ‘I thought about living in Beijing and doing some petty business’; ‘if I can stay (in Beijing), it will be great’; ‘only if I can move my family here’; ‘I hope I can rent a small house of my own in Beijing and do some small business when I am old’… Comparing to the married domestic workers who are more practical and cautious about their plans of futures, young and single ones are more ambitious about their futures. During their stays in Beijing, they have generated various perspectives and dreams, among which, there are: ‘to learn some knowledge on computer and work for myself’, ‘to find a job in a factory’, ‘to learn some skills of hairdressing and open a small haircut shop’, ‘to open a small drugstore in Beijing’, etc. Also, young domestic workers show their strong desires to move out of the ‘low’ domestic service industry and to find a more ‘decent’ job. As one informant said: ‘I feel very inferior when my former classmates call me and ask me what I am doing…I think it’s somewhat hurt to my pride – I’m still young, but I am a maid. Isn’t it sad?’ Her low valuation of the domestic service was echoed by a number of young informants, who similarly insisted that domestic service would not be their careers and they still wanted ‘more money’ and ‘further development’ by moving to other industries. Above all these dreams envisioned by the informants, however, they also expressed their lack of confidence and ability to realize these dreams, and in particular, the dream of settling down in Beijing. While their concerns differ, a 122
common problem that seemingly prevents them from committing any changes including the up-ward mobility is their low educational attainments. Some married domestic worker indicated that they are ‘too old to learn’ or to make any progress; young domestic workers also felt it very challenging to improve their educational levels through the formal courses due to the various restraints; quite a number of young informants also showed the similar doubts on their own ‘limited forces’ to make big progresses. In addition, there are more practical barriers against migrant worker’s permanent settlement in cities. The most obvious disadvantage is their low wage – that they cannot afford decent living conditions. As have been mentioned by almost all the informants, to settle down in Beijing first requires a place to live, but even to rent a proper apartment in Beijing is far beyond migrant worker’s affordability, not to mention to buy a house and settle down. The low wage and poor living conditions considerably rule out the possibility of the entire household moving to the destination area. For some live-out domestic workers and other rural migrants who moved with their families, children’s education problem in the destination places turns out to be another major obstacle against their settlement in cities. The problem can be illustrated by the following cases of Xiao Wei and Xiao Pu. Xiao Wei complained to me her problem of sending her son to the local school in Beijing. The school that my child attends is not very good. It charges 6000 to 7000 yuan every year, which is several times of my monthly salary. But we have no other ways, it’s all for children… It’s a private school especially for migrant children. There are no Beijing local children in the school. Although it is said that the school is for migrant children, the tuition fee’s not cheap, and we are always required to submit this fee and that fees…but if you want to go to a better public school, the ‘supporting fee’ would be even higher: for the high school’s three years, at least 25,000 yuan…the supporting fee is too much. We cannot solve this problem. The major problem of Xiao Wei is the unaffordable supporting fees, which may be several time’s higher than the education fee in rural areas. The reason of the local
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school to charge extra fees over migrant children is mainly based on their temporary resident and outsider status. Without the permanent resident’s hukou, migrant children are subject to a large sum of fees to use the limited education resource in cities. Xiao Wei’s case also reveals the problem existing in the policy implementation process, that although the municipal government of Beijing has issued a pilot regulation to reduce the extra education charge on migrant children by 50 percent during the year 2002, at the time of 2004 when the research was conducted, tuition fees and so-called ‘supporting fee’ still cost hundreds to ten thousands of dollars per year in various schools, which effectively excludes a large number of migrant children from proper educations in the destination place. Besides Xiao Wei’s case, the experience of informant Xiao Pu unfolds migrant children’s education problem from another perspective. As Xiao Pu told me: Frankly speaking, the schools in my hometown are of higher quality than those of here. Teachers in my child’s current school (which is also a private school for migrant children) do not teach that well. But I think my child’s teacher treats my child well. Not like in public schools, they treat local students and migrant children differently, and they don’t pay much attention on you…another problem is that my child’s English is too poor. Those Beijing children, they start learning English when they are very young. But my child, he didn’t touch English until he came here. Sent to Beijing’s local schools, he will have many difficulties and will be laughed at. We see from Xiao Pu’s narrative that even if rural migrants can afford extremely high education charges in the local schools, their children still face the further problem of integrating to the local schools. The migrant children are subject to potential exclusion and discrimination from both local students and teachers; they may encounter a greater challenge to overcome the sense of inferiority caused by their second-class status in cites. For a combination of reasons like these, many rural migrants chose to move with their children staying back at home village, as long as the relatives in the village can care the children. And for those who move with the family, the majority of their children in cities are still attending the private schools that are set up especially for migrant children, which are found to suffer from lack of
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supplies, poor conditions and untrained teachers. What the housing and children’s education problems mean to rural migrants, I argue, is that it is not only detrimental to the life quality of individual migrants in the cities, but more importantly it adversely affects family migration, preventing the entire migrant household from moving to the destination place, and thus negatively influencing the whole migration process in the long term. If examining from the cultural perspective, one can find that the connection of rural migrants with their home village also discourages rural migrants to settle down in cities. Most of the rural migrants working in cities still keep pieces of land in the place of origin to which they can fall back in case of failure in the migration; many also build houses in the home village using the money earned in cities. Since it’s hard for rural migrants to cut off all these economic and social connection with their hometowns, it’s very unlikely that they can uproot from the rural areas and move to cities. However, many of them, especially young migrants, are not willing or find it hard to go back to countryside. As some informants have pointed out, returning back to rural areas and living the life as before often needs further readjustment and re-adaptation. Some informants told me that they could hardly be used to the countryside life again after they spend some time in the cities, because of the poor sanitation conditions, the quite ‘boring’ and ‘inconvenient’ life in the village. Also, they are estranged mentally from agricultural production and its traditional cultures. Many of the rural migrants, especially the ones who migrated out when they are very young know little about farm work and they disdain the ‘dirty’ and ‘tough’ agricultural production. In particular, as far as the rural domestic workers are concerned, living in the urban household exert the strongest influence on them and meanwhile creating among them the demands and expectations for different life styles. Knowing and directly feeling the dramatic difference between the urban and rural life, the returnees may experience particular difficulties in resettling in the countryside and re-accustoming themselves to many things that have been taken for granted for most 125
of their lives. Such a process is always accompanied by the feeling of ‘frustration’ and ‘disappointment’, according to several informants. And as so, some returnees chose to move again after a period of stay in the home village. To summarize the situations faced by the rural migrants in cities: they want to stay in the more prosperous cities, yet being restrained by both their own disadvantages and the institutional barriers from settling down; they are tightly connected with their hometowns by various economic and social linkages, yet finding it hard to return to the relatively backward countryside – these are the dilemma confronted by the majority of rural migrants in China. As a result, most of the rural migrants keep ‘temporary’ and ‘pendulum’ movement between their rural origin places and cities, forming a particular group of people who are detached from both social systems. From this aspect, these rural migrants are worthy of the name ‘floating population’. It is highly likely that such a large-scale rural-urban migration will continue to exist throughout China’s process of urbanization, drawing even more rural labours from their origin places. As long as floating population are still provided few opportunities to commit up-ward mobility and to integrate into the destination places, as long as the huge differences between the rural and urban areas sustain to pull rural labours to cities and discourage them to return to origin places, these rural labours will keep ‘floating’ between the rural and urban China.
Summary This chapter reveals the migration experience of domestic workers in the Post-Migration stage. The first section looks into an important facet of domestic worker’s life, which is the relationship between a worker and her employer. Such a relationship is more intense than that between other migrant workers and their employers, and it greatly influences a worker’s experiences in the Post-Migration Stage. Findings show that domestic workers are confronted with everyday form of power and control that are imposed by their employers in both their work and daily lives. The control of employers may also extend to worker’s personal lives and
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private domains. In addition, some typical conflicts developed between domestic worker and their employers, and workers are always in disadvantages. Although some domestic workers may have deep sentiments with their employers, from numerous cases examined, one can tell that the family-like relationship between a worker and her employer is still far from typical. In regard to their work conditions, it is found that like other migrant workers, domestic workers suffer from long work hours and overloaded work. In particular, trapped in isolated households, they are deprived of much freedom and they are particularly vulnerable to the exploitation of their labours and sometimes the violation of the human dignity. Even facing unfavorable work conditions, however, domestic workers seldom report their grievances or appeal for their rights for various reasons. Meanwhile, the help from both municipal government and the worker’s job agency all tend to be limited. As such, the worker’s informal networks with their town-fellows turn to be the most important source of help in their destinations. Despite the unfavorable experiences, domestic worker’s life in Beijing has its positive facet. Living in the capital city has taught them lessons that could never be learnt from their relatively simple lives in the home villages. They also benefit from the experience by increased access to money, knowledge and other resources. In addition, working in cities enables them, especially those young ones, to commit upward mobility, challenging the socially constructed constrains on rural women. In the end of this chapter, accounts of informants in regard to their future plans are given. Findings show that although like most of the floating population, domestic workers intend to stay in the more prosperous cities, their own disadvantages, the institutional barriers and the unwelcoming social attitudes all restrain them from permanent settlement in the destination places. On the other hand, these women migrants find it hard to return to the relatively backward countryside. As a result, they have to keep pendulum ‘floating’ between the origin and destination places, and suffer the exploitation over their labours, as well as the temporary and indecent living conditions in the thriving urban communities.
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Chapter Nine Conclusion: Time for a Policy on Migrant Workers Set in a larger context of the massive rural-urban migration tide in contemporary China, this study looks into the migration experience of a particular group of floating population – the female domestic workers in Beijing. To give a holistic picture of the research, this final chapter provides brief reviews and discussions of the major findings in previous chapters. In particular, the potential implications of this study, in terms of theoretical framework, policy and practice will also be outlined.
A Stage-of-Migration Framework to Understand Migration Experiences This study looks into the individual migration experience of a particular group of women migrants – the domestic workers – through case study and in-depth interviews. This study is also a policy research, in the sense that by tracing the individual migrant’s experience, especially the difficulties and needs of domestic workers in their migration processes, it is hoped to reveal some common problems encountered by the floating population in their migrations and to come up with problem-oriented suggestions to meliorate the current policy regarding the floating population and to make their migration process less stressful and easier. To understand the dynamic migration process and personal experience of domestic workers, a modified framework of three-migration-stage is adopted in this research. More importantly, based on both previous researches on migration stage and the data collected in the fieldwork, the study develops two series of background variables fitting China’s circumstances of pendulum internal migration. These variables involve the factors at both origin and destination places, at all levels of macro (government), meso (employment agencies) and micro (individual migrants),
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all of which are supposed to impose influences on one or more migration stages and on the personal experiences of ‘floaters’ as well. In particular, the variables ‘migration policy’ and ‘social attitudes towards women migrants’ further help to understand the broader context of policy and cultural environments, from which the migration takes place. Such an integrative approach benefits the data collection and data analysis. On the one hand, the stages model makes the research more practicable and it greatly enhances the researcher’s capacity of obtaining detailed and in-depth information about individual’s migration experiences throughout the migration process; on the other hand, the variable clusters help the researcher to be more sensitive to conditions, circumstances, interactions, and consequences of each migration stage. During the data analysis, the framework helps order the conditions and consequences into themes; helps distill the commonalities and differences that individual faces in migration and helps develop propositions from a mass of information collected. In a word, the modified framework succeeds in defending against the overloaded work in the data analysis. The three-stage migration model, together with the background variables, provide a holistic approach for the future study on internal migration in China. The stage framework, although dividing the migration into three distinguishable phases, actually emphasizes the ongoing, interactive and dynamic migration process, rather than regarding it as a disjunctive and stationary one. The innovatively identified two variable clusters break down the dichotomy of macro and micro approach of previous research on migration, and they get over the restriction of explaining migration process through single perspective. As such, the coming research can examine the internal migration in China from a more comprehensive perspective. Finally, the framework has specific and general usefulness. Although the migration experience differs for individual ‘floaters’, the model of migration stages and the background variables are applicable to all the migrants. In other words, the framework can be applied to both individual migrant and to migrant groups – regardless of a single domestic worker, a group of domestic workers, or other types 129
of floating population – their needs, experiences and circumstances can all be examined through this framework. In addition, since the research is about domestic workers as a particular group of women migrant workers, the framework is especially applicable and facilitating to the understanding of women migration process as well as the institutional and socio-cultural constraints that they face.
Experience, Voice and Need of Domestic Workers Domestic worker in Beijing is a part of the larger rural-urban migration flow. These rural women, aged from the highteen to the late forty, move from the relatively poor provinces of China to the capital city either by themselves or with their families, for economic betterments or different life styles. Similar to other types of the floating population, domestic workers’ movements also take on a form of pendulum – that they occasionally discontinue the work and return to home for marriage, child-birth or to fulfill other socially assumed roles and responsibilities in the households. Yet, due to the extended needs of their presence in employer’s home, domestic workers return to home less frequently than other ‘floaters’. In accordance with the previous research on the floating population, in this study it is noticed that the persistent urban-rural income gap is still the strongest impetus for rural residents to move out to cities. The study also points out the importance of a gender perspective in examining the motivation for migration. Due to their socially assumed gender roles and status in household and society, both single and married rural women present different reasons for migration from their male counterparts. What this means to the research on floating population is that, it emphasizes the collection of information on women migrant’s household structure as well as the responsibility division within it for the understanding of their movement decisions – the influence of which tends to be as strong as the economic stimuli on rural women’s initial movements. The physical departure and transit process last relatively short time for domestic workers. This is partly due to the fact that the movement is within a
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country’s boundary and that the state has gradually loosened its control over rural resident’s movement. Still, on the other hand, we see the important roles of both social network and inter-government’s cooperation in facilitating the migration process. In fact, in this research, the majority of the informants came to the city with a job already secured by either their town fellows or the employment agencies, or at least, their town-fellows or the agencies enable them to locate a job within a short time. The domestic service industry in Beijing is also a seller’s market, in which the rural women have their own advantages. For a combination of reasons mentioned above, it is comparatively easy for prospective rural domestic workers to move to city and find the first job. However, even having an easy entry into the domestic service industry, domestic workers still have various problems in their movement and initial settlement. Some major problems can be attributed to the lack of standardizations and regularities among hundreds of domestic service companies in Beijing. For one thing, The charging standard of a company to locate a job for domestic workers can vary greatly – a newly arrived worker may pay twice or even more to secure a job than another worker. For another thing, a few workers also report to have been overcharged by the company or been charged without allocating a job for a long time. It is also noticed that a number of companies make profit from the domestic workers through mandatory and costly training programs, some of which turn out to be ineffective in preparing trainees for the new job. The irregularity of domestic service companies and its negative influence on the workers can also be found in the inconsistent and ambiguous labour contracts issued by various companies. Different companies usually have their own forms of labour contracts. In some of the contracts, several basic rights of domestic workers, such as food, accommodation, working hours and rest days, are not clearly or not at all listed nor guaranteed; even if some companies do have their regulations regarding the basic working and living conditions of domestic workers, they still face the problem of ineffectively implementing the written rules into practice. The failures of implementing the rules is partly due to the weak supervision on the implementation 131
process and partly due to domestic worker’s own reluctance to report the grievance and the violation of rights. Lacking the protection from the labour contract, many domestic workers suffer from long working hours, overloaded work and all kinds of humiliation and the violation of dignity in the isolated urban households. In addition, domestic worker’s identity as temporary residents and outsiders in cities also reinforce their disadvantaged status. This is because, as outsiders, they have less access to formal channels, which greatly limited their abilities to deal effectively with work-related problems. Therefore, facing unfair treatment, these rural women could do little rather than tolerating the rampant exploitation over their labours or seek for quite limited help from their personal social network. In their daily lives, domestic workers, especially the live-out workers, also face the problems of lacking access to institutional resources and government channels. Housing is a big headache for live-out domestic workers as other ‘floaters’; to attend the local schools, their children are still subject to exorbitant fees levied by urban schools; domestic workers are also ineligible for local social security and welfare resources. Moreover, they are confronted with a more pervasive yet stronger barrier against their integrating into the urban society, for the existent segmentation between local people and floating population is not only economically, but also socially. Locals and rural migrants have their own styles of social activities and social network, seldom interfering with the other. It is hard for rural migrants to enlarge their network across the border of social division between outsiders and local insiders. Such segmentation of social life reinforces urbanities’ stereotyped opinion on the ‘insiders’ and ‘outsiders’, leading to further discrimination toward peasant labours. With all the institutional and informal barriers mentioned above, one could expect an unfavorable social environment for floating population to settle down in cities. Despite all the difficulties that domestic workers encounter in their transit and the post-migration, the migration itself also produces some benefits. Firstly, the migrations broaden these rural women’s horizons and increase their access to money, 132
knowledge and other resources. Secondly, migration increases the visibility of their labour, thereby enhancing their status and strengthening their bargaining power in the household. Finally, migration exposes these rural women, in particular those young ones, to a wider set of possibilities and give them the impetus to challenge socially constructed constraints on their choices. To summarize the migration experience of individual domestic workers, this study shows that the migration is a mixed bag of sweet-bitterness experience for domestic workers from rural areas. On the one hand, domestic workers are subject to less institutionalized but more pervasive forms of exploitation: their work and living environment is unfavorable, and their dignity is easily violated. Similar to other floating populations, they are also excluded from various welfares in the destination place. Moreover, the Beijing public continues to consider rural women migrants – by virtue of their gender and outsider status – most appropriate to perform degrading, yet necessary household work. On the other hand, rural domestic workers also benefit from the experience through increased access to money, knowledge and other resources, through enhanced bargaining power in household. To look forward, domestic worker’s institutional inferiority as rural residents leaves them with few options for economic betterment and the improvement of their social status in the cities.
Policy Implications While there are very limited empirical studies on the personal experiences of floating populations in China, this study provides invaluable source of qualitative information on the individual-level meaning and experience of rural migrants. The study also sheds lights on the difficulties, the exploitation, the discrimination that floating population confront in the destination places. Such knowledge provides both policy-makers and practitioners with background information associated with migration, which in turn has implications for policy making as well as the program planning. In addition, the three-stage migration model and the emerged variables that 133
influence the personal experiences at different levels enable policy-makers and practitioners to come up with process-oriented strategy and problem-focused coping to make floater’s migration process more smooth and favorable. In the following the policy implications of the study and some suggestions are put forward. To make the presentation more organized, the following section will follow the three-stage framework, linked by major themes identified in the research.
Pre-Migration The findings about the pre-migration stage echo the previous study on China’s rural-urban migration, that the economic stimuli continues to be the strongest force that draws rural residents out to cities. As so, it is reasonable to say that the unstoppable migration process and the number of people involved will inevitably accelerate as the urban-rural gap in China is actually increasing (Wan, 2004). Such a proposition has at least two implications for the policy-making regarding the rural-urban migration. The first point is that, the issues of internal migration and the well-being of the people involved will keep to be of the utmost urgency and importance in China’s following years, and that how to properly direct the migration flow will also keep to be a big challenge for the government at various levels. The second point to make here is that the findings point out the importance of solving the problem of large-scale ‘disordered’ migration from the labour sending areas. While the effort should be made by the labour receiving government to facilitate the movement as well as the settlement of the floating population, probably more fundamental and important is the development of the rural areas and the increase of the income of rural residents. As so, a revamp of the fiscal flow between rural and urban China is needed. In essence, the central government must commit more resources to stimulate rural development. Poverty alleviation policies should also be fully integrated into the macro-economic policy framework to improve the rural livelihood. In particular, supervision mechanism should be established to fight against any tendency that runs counter to the policies or violations of laws and regulations so as to safeguard the 134
rights and interests of the rural residents. Only by doing so, the income gap between urban and rural China, which is the major reason for migrant’s movement, could be gradually reduced and that more rural residents could be held in the origin places.
Transit Process As far as the migrant’s transit process is concerned, the government should acknowledge the significant facilitating role of the formal programs and services in migrant’s movement and initial settlement. Although the majority of the domestic workers move through personal contacts, this research has also found that some informants were very vulnerable at their first arrival in the city because the capacities of their informal networks were very limited. In this regard, the government should play a more active role in organizing collective migration and providing more resources to initiate or expand social services for newly arrived rural migrants. In the labour export and import programs, particular attention should be given to the follow-up service after a job has been located to the newly arrived migrants. This is because, for these migrants who move through formal programs, their chances to obtain assistance from informal resources are greatly reduced. Out of the protection from the original government, they can be even more vulnerable if they lack the access to formal channels in the destination places. One informant in this research has encountered such problem. Therefore, the receiving government should be more involved in the initial settlement: both the recruitment agency through which the migrants find the job and the local government should keep contact with these new arrivals after they find a job and should make sure that they have access to formal assistance when it is needed. In addition, more efforts still need to be made to reduce the restriction and the inconvenience induced by the certificate system against migrant’s initial settlement. Admittedly, there have been some good indications that the government is reforming the system in favor of the rural migrants. For example, an announcement regarding easement of seven fees charged on rural migrant labour in 2002 represents a real
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commitment of the central government to ease the burden over floating populations. However, in the research we still see the problem of charging the officially abolished fees or overcharging fees on migrants. To solve these problems and to facilitate the initial settlement of migrants, stronger laws need to be established to avoid the levy of arbitrary fees on floating population without providing accordingly service. The process of issuing the certificate should also be simplified. In a word, the certificate system should function more like a registration procedure for floating population to obtain basic social service, rather than a mean of generating revenue by local officials. Finally, there is still a lot to do to standardize and regulate the recruitment and management process of domestic service companies in Beijing. While the domestic service companies are playing more and more important roles in migrant’s initial settlement as well as the later phases, they are also a major source of problems due to the lack of standardization within and among various companies. Many cases in this study demonstrate such problems. Meanwhile, although the Beijing Homemaking Service Association as the industrial association has endeavored to standardize the recruitment and management of domestic service companies by promoting a series of agreements and regulations, due to the fact that these regulations do not have force and effect, they have weak implementations, many companies still have their own standard of recruitment, fees charging and labour contract, etc. To overcome these problems, the standardization and regularization of domestic service companies is urgently needed. The individual companies can be granted some extent freedom to recruit and manage their registered domestic workers, but the charging standard for training, for registration and for job finding, the salary level, the basic rights and service that the workers enjoy in the company should all be clarified and standardized. In addition, stronger regulations by the local government should be stipulated to prevent company from violating domestic worker’s rights. Above all these, a strong supervision mechanism should also be established by the joint effort of both labour receiving government and the industry association. This is to guarantee that the regulations could be effectively implemented. 136
Post-Migration This study has pointed out the very unfavorable working and living environment of domestic workers in the post-migration phase. However, due to their isolated working conditions in individual households, their extremely vulnerable status has long been ignored or beyond the visibility of public scrutiny. To change such situations and to improve the quality of life of domestic workers, it is strongly recommended that the Beijing authorities should seriously look into the living and working conditions of domestic workers. More importantly, specific regulations in terms of working hours, rest days, wages, performing duties, conditions of terminating the contract and the protection of domestic worker’s dignity should be stipulated and clarified in the labour contract. Such efforts aim to guarantee the basic working and living conditions of domestic workers, which is currently the most needed for improving their disadvantaged status in the cities. Findings in this research also reveal a common but serious problem of the ineffectiveness of the policy implementation. It is a general proposition that the implementation of policies and regulations is as important as their enactment – without effective implementation, a deliberately designed policy cannot achieve its desired results. However, a number of cases in this study indicate that even some specified regulations are stipulated in the labour contract, they still face the further problem of not being accordingly realized in the practice. The vacuum in the supervision and responsibility systems can be a big problem that may lead to violation of the legal rights of domestic worker by both their employers and the job agencies. So besides the efforts to make favorable regulations for domestic workers, the municipal government should also endeavor to reinforce the implementation of these regulations and strengthen government’s supervision on it. Examining further from domestic worker’s own perspective, we notice the strong ties between the former domestic workers and the newly arrived ones. While such connections greatly facilitate domestic worker’s movement and settlement, most of them are informal and have no official status, and thus, its capacity to represent
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domestic workers and to advocate for them is greatly restricted. To help domestic workers realize their own strength and to make their voice heard by the public, the development of their own association should be encouraged. Domestic workers should be allowed and encouraged to establish some officially acknowledged groups to link these women migrants together and to represent their interests. The local government and the industrial associations should also help them to develop leadership qualities. Such groups and associations can benefit domestic workers in at least two ways: firstly and most directly, these women migrants can obtain friendship, support and assistance in case of need in the destination places. In particular, the experienced domestic workers could help newly arrived ones for initial settlement. Secondly, such groups could help domestic workers to share their resources, emotions and information and help to make their voice and options heard so as to influence policy-making. From another aspect, the strong ties and the bounded solidarity emerged among domestic workers also suggest their marginalized status in the cities – that they are poorly integrated into the destination places. There is a clear insider-outsider distinction between the locals and migrants, which makes the forming of ties between local citizens and rural migrants very difficult. This social division may impose negative influence on rural migrant’s integration into the destination place. So, besides facilitating the establishment of self-organized associations, the government should also help to strengthen and extend communications and interactions between local citizens and rural migrants. This would help bring about mutual understanding, respect and decrease prejudice and discrimination against rural migrants. From individual domestic worker’s perspective, the informants are found to be reluctant to report their grievance, party due to their lack of knowledge of and access to formal channels. As so, the labour receiving government should help newly arrived rural migrants to know the potential resources from which they can get formal assistances and services. The knowledge of the rights of the rural migrant 138
workers and to whom and how they can report the grievance should also be informed. Booklet and handbills with the names, addresses and contacts of different agencies or governmental departments could be distributed. In particular, considering that a number of rural migrants are illiterate, the handout should be easily understood yet informative. In this way, the rural migrants can be more familiar with the receiving government and social services, thus can be prepared for their settlement in the cities. More importantly it enables them to be more aware of laws and policies and help them gain knowledge to protect their own rights.
Beyond The Individual Migrants The understanding of domestic workers’ migration experiences, in particular the various difficulties that they have encountered in the migration, forces us to focus our view on the larger picture of the dualist nature of China’s society. Rural migrants may be aware of certain structures of power, and we see that they endeavor to challenge the socially constructed constraints on their lives by moving to cities and by trying to commit various upward mobility. But the problem is that despite the economic betterment that individual migrants can achieve, the overall structural position of rural migrant workers remains relatively unchanged. In other words, individual migrant’s efforts and protests do not come close to touching or addressing the more pervasive social and institutional structures of China’s society. As long as the migrant labour as a whole is still treated unfairly and excluded from the receiving areas, one can expect that individual rural migrants including domestic workers will gain little improvement in their economic and social status. From the policy-making perspective, generally speaking, the urban bias has to be addressed head on. The need for a fundamental change to address these inequities is urgent and the government needs to re-order its priorities in favor of the rural sector in general, and of agriculture in particular. Policies and institutions have to promote improvement of livelihoods of rural residents. In regard to the rural-urban migration, the discriminative policy based on one’s
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household registration status need to be gradually abolished. Labour receiving governments should advocate the development of a comprehensive migration policy that requires equal treatment of and equal opportunities for rural migrants. A more flexible and welcoming policy towards the urban employment of rural people would to some extent both reduce and offset the effects of urban-biased policies. The local government should also distribute more resources when providing services and to provide more opportunities for rural migrants to be socially active. As to the social service and welfare provision, the government should re-valuate the current eligibility criterion, which is mainly based on the household registration status and which has seriously excluded the rural migrants from enjoying various benefits. It is urgently needed that the rural migrant’s have more access to mainstream social welfare provisions, specifically the housing, education and medical care, etc. Furthermore, effort should be made to make the formal assistance and the social service more accessible and user-friendly to relatively poorly educated rural migrants Meanwhile, more and more training programs should be open to rural domestic workers to expand their job opportunities and upgrade their labour status. Finally, more attention from both academic world and public media should be given to rural migrants so that rural migrants could have more formal or informal channels to voice their subject feelings and to fully participate in society.
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157
Appendix 1. Interview Guideline (English Version) 1.
Personal Particulars and Family Characteristics
1.1 Personal Particulars Name Age Place of Origin Educational Attainment Marital Status Nature of Employment (reside-in / non-reside-in; informal employment / contract worker in domestic service company) 1.2 Household Characteristics Household Size Number of Dependent Children Husband’s Occupation Whether migrate together with husband or other family members
2.
Variables Relating to Migration Experience Time of Migration (first time, second time, etc.) Duration of stay in Beijing after arrival Previous working experience as domestic workers
3.
Personal Experience throughout the Migration Process
3.1 Pre-migration Stage ¾ What has motivated you to work as a domestic worker in Beijing? Why Beijing and why domestic worker? ¾ What is your major concern in making the decision? ¾ Did your town-fellows or relatives help you to introduce or secure a job position before you move? If yes, how? 3.2 Transit Stage ¾ How long did it take for you to obtain the job and finish initial settlement? ¾ Through what channels did you find this job? 158
¾ Did you get help from relatives or town-fellows during the moving process before settle down? If yes, what kind of help? ¾ What difficulties did you encounter during this period? 3.3 Post-migration Stage ¾ How do you feel like your working and living in Beijing? ¾ What difficulties did you encounter while working and living in Beijing? ¾ How is your relationship with your employer and the company (if applicable)? ¾ How do you think of the urbanities? Have you ever come across the situation of being discriminated against? ¾ Do you have any future plans for your life? Why? ¾ Are there any critical events during each stage? If yes, what?
4.
Migration Policy’s Influence
4.1 Pre-migration Stage ¾ Does your local government organize labor-exportation? If yes, how? ¾ Does your local government provide other regulations that may encourage people moving out? If yes, what polices? 4.2 Transit Stage ¾ How many and what kinds of certificates are required in both origin and receiving areas before you can occupy a job as well as legal accommodation in Beijing? ¾ How long and how much does it cost to obtain all the required certificates? ¾ Did you encounter any difficulties in obtaining these certificates? ¾ Does the municipal government provide any form of program to help you secure a job? If yes, do you think they are helpful? If no, what kinds of program do you think is needed? 4.3 Post-migration Stage ¾ Do you have any form of social security insurance? ¾ When conflicts occur between the employer and you, or when your rights are violated (such as extended working without sufficient payment, delaying payment, etc.), on whom you will fall back? 159
¾ In case of sickness, work-related injury, unemployment and other emergency situation, who would you relay on to overcome the hardship? ¾ Does the municipal government provide any form of service helping you to better adjust to new urban life and working environment? ¾ How do you feel like municipal government’s attitudes towards floating population (welcome, discriminate, exclude, etc.)? What kind of help do you think the municipal government should provide for domestic workers to improve their living quality in Beijing?
160
Appendix 2. Interview Guideline (Chinese Version) 訪談提綱 1． 個人和家庭資訊 1.1 個人基本資訊 姓名 年齡 來源省份 受教育程度 婚姻狀況 工作情況（長工/ 小時工；非正式雇傭/ 家政服務公司的簽約工人 ）
1.2 家庭基本資訊 家庭成員人數 被撫養子女人數 丈夫職業 是否隨同丈夫或其他家庭成員一起外出 2． 外出打工經驗 外出打工次數（第一次，第二次，等等） 本次來京時間長短 以前是否有做家庭保姆的經歷？如果有，第幾次？ 3． 外出流動體驗 3.1 流動前階段 ¾ 爲什么從家鄉出來北京做保姆？ 爲什么會選擇北京？爲什么會選擇做保姆？ ¾ 在你作決定來北京的過程中，主要考慮的問題有哪些？ ¾ 你的親戚朋友或老鄉在你來京前有沒有幫助你介紹工作？如果有，怎么幫助的？
3.2 流動階段 ¾ 來北京後你大概花了多長時間找到第一份工作、住的地方以及安頓下來？ ¾ 你是怎么找到現在這份工作的？ ¾ 在你來北京找工作、找住處、以及安頓下來的過程中，有沒有得到親戚朋友的幫助？ 如 果有，他們是怎么幫助你的？ ¾ 在來北京後最初的安頓過程中，你遇到過什么困難嗎？
3.3 流動後階段 ¾ 你覺得自己在北京的生活工作怎么樣？適應北京的生活嗎？ ¾ 作爲外來人口，你覺得在北京和生活工作有什么困難嗎？最大的困難是什么？ ¾ 你和雇主以及和你簽約的保姆公司（如適用）的關係怎么樣？ 161
¾ 你對｀城裏人＇的印象怎么樣？有沒有碰到過被歧視或是被欺負的情況？ ¾ 你對自己今後的生活有什么打算嗎？爲什么？ ¾ 在你做決定來北京，在你剛剛離開家鄉到達北京，以及在北京安頓下來後的過程中， 有沒有印象中特別深刻的事情呢？ 4． 移民政策的影響 4.1 流動前階段 ¾ 你家鄉的地方政府有沒有組織勞務輸出呢（組織本地閒散勞動力去外面打工）？如果 有，是怎么組織的？ ¾ 你們當地政府有沒有制定什么政策規定鼓勵本地的閒散勞動力外出打工呢？如果有， 是些什么條例呢？
4.2 流動階段 ¾ 要想在北京找到一份合法的工作和住處，你需要在家鄉和北京辦理多少個證件？都是 哪些單位負責辦理這些證件？都是哪些證件？ ¾ 辦理這些證件大概一共要花多長時間，一共花多少錢? ¾ 在辦理這些證件的過程中有沒有碰到什么苦難呢？ ¾ 據你所知，北京市政府有沒有爲來京的流動人口提供特別的服務幫助他們找到工作或 是住房呢? 如果有，你覺得這些服務有幫助、有效嗎？如果沒有，你覺得市政府應該 提供哪些服務可以幫助你們儘快的在北京安頓下來？
4.3流動後階段 ¾ 你知道北京政府規定了農民工應該享有哪些形式的社會保險嗎？（比如說，養老保險， 工傷保險，失業保險，醫療保險，等等）你現在有參加什么社會保險嗎？ ¾ 如果你和雇主之間産生矛盾，或是你的正當權益被侵犯的時候（比如說你應該得的工 資被克扣，或是工資被拖欠時）你會找誰幫忙呢？ ¾ 如果你碰到了生病、工作中受傷，或是被解雇等緊急情況，你一般會找誰幫忙渡過難 關？ ¾ 據你所知，北京市政府有沒有爲來京的農民工提供任何形式的服務幫助他們更好地適 應城市的工作和生活呢？ ¾ 你感覺到的北京市政府對待農民工的態度怎么樣？是歡迎，不歡迎，歧視，排斥，還 是其他？爲什么這樣覺得？你覺得要提高農民工在城市裏的生活質量，市政府應該爲 你們提供什么樣的服務？
162
Appendix 3. The Profile of 24 Informants No. 1
Name Xiao Wei
Age Origin Place 37 Anhui
Education Primary
Marital Status Married
2
Xiao Shen
36
Anhui
Illiterate
Married
3
Xiao Ying
24
Anhui
Primary
Single
4
Xiao He
24
Anhui
Junior High
Single
5
Xiao Jiang
36
Anhui
Primary
Married
6
Xiao Pu
31
Sichuan
Senior High
Married
7
Xiao Guo
27
Anhui
Senior High
Married
8
Xiao Zhao
39
Hebei
Junior High
Divorced
9
Xiao Yao
18
Gansu
Junior High
Single
10
Xiao Wu
36
Guizhou
Senior High
Divorced
11
Xiao Xu
20
Anhui
Junior High
Single
12
Xiao Yong
27
Gansu
Illiterate
Married
Household Structure Husband: a trimmer in Beijing 1son studying in Beijing Husband: a trimmer in Beijing 1 daughter studying at hometown Parents farm at home All 5 siblings moved out Parents farm at home Young brother works in Beijing Husband: a woodworker in Beijing 1 son studying at hometown Husband: a plumber in Shandong 1 son studying in Beijing Husband farm at hometown 1 son at home 2 sons with ex-husband Parents and two elder brothers farm at home 1 son with her mother at hometown Parents farm, older sister reads at hometown, younger brother works Husband: no stable work at Beijing 1
Employment Non-reside-in helper Informal employment Non-reside-in helper Contract Worker Non-reside-in helper Contract Worker Used to be a reside-in helper Non-reside-in helper Contract Worker Daytime helper Contract worker Reside-in helper Contract worker Reside-in helper Contract worker Reside-in helper Contract worker Reside-in helper Contract worker Reside-in helper Informal employment Reside-in helper
First Movement 1984 while 18 1986 while 18 1998 while 18 1997 while 17 1988 while 18 1993 while 20 2004 while 27 1997 while 32 2001 while 16 1996 while 28 2002 while 18 1997
13
Xiao Wang
22
Shandong
Senior High
Single
14
Xiao Hong
20
Shaanxi
Junior High
Single
15
Xiao Zhang 20
Junior High
Single
16
Xiao Xie
47
Inner Mongolia Sichuan
Senior High
Married
17
Xiao Mu
44
Sichuan
Primary
Married
18
Xiao Zheng 18
Sichuan
Junior High
Single
19
Xiao Yang
37
Sichuan
Primary
Married
20
Xiao Fu
39
Henan
Junior High
Married
21
Xiao Yan
34
Henan
Junior High
Divorced
22
35
Shanxi
Junior High
Married
23
Xiao Cheng Xiao Chen
36
Gansu
Illiterate
Married
24
Xiao Gui
41
Heilongjiang
Primary
Divorced
1 son, 1daughter at home Parents at home, One elder brother attending school Parents and two elder brothers at hometown Parents & older brother do business, younger sister studying at hometown Husband farm at hometown 1 daughter studying in Beijing Husband farm at hometown 1 son studying at hometown Parents farm at home Younger brother idle at home Husband farm at hometown 1 daughter studying at hometown Husband farm at hometown 1son studying at hometown 1 son with her mother at hometown Husband farm at hometown 3 children studying at hometown Husband farm at hometown 2 children studying at hometown 1 daughter with her brother at home
2
Contract worker Reside-in helper Contract worker Reside-in helper Contract worker Reside-in helper Contract worker Reside-in helper Contract worker Reside-in helper Contract worker Reside-in helper Contract worker Reside-in helper Contract worker Reside-in helper Informal employment Reside-in helper Informal employment Reside-in helper Contract worker Reside-in helper Contract worker Reside-in helper Contract worker
while 20 2002 while 19 2003 while 20 2004 while 20 2002 while 45 2004 while 44 2004 while 18 2000 while 33 1999 while 34 1999 while 29 2001 while 32 2001 while 33 2004 while 41
Appendix 4. Informant’s Reasons for Migration No.
Name
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22
Xiao Wei Xiao Shen Xiao Ying Xiao He Xiao Jiang Xiao Pu Xiao Guo Xiao Zhao Xiao Yao Xiao Wu Xiao Xu Xiao Yong Xiao Wang Xiao Hong Xiao Zhang Xiao Xie Xiao Mu Xiao Zheng Xiao Yang Xiao Fu Xiao Yan Xiao Cheng
23 24
Xiao Chen Xiao Gui Total
Economic Stimuli + + + + + + + +
Desire for Different life + + + +
Idleness
Marital Problems
Others
+ + (1)
+
(2)
+ + +
(2)
+ + + + +
+ + +
+
(1)
+ + +
(3)
+ +
+
+ + + +
+ + + 17
8
+ 10
Note: 1) Prospective employer is a relative or friend of the family 2) Having been forced to leave school 3) Daughter is studying at a university in Beijing
5
5
Appendix 5. Informants' Means of Locating the First Job
No. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24
Name Xiao Wei Xiao Shen Xiao Ying Xiao He Xiao Jiang Xiao Pu Xiao Guo Xiao Zhao Xiao Yao Xiao Wu Xiao Xu Xiao Yong Xiao Wang Xiao Hong Xiao Zhang Xiao Xie Xiao Mu Xiao Zheng Xiao Yang Xiao Fu Xiao Yan Xiao Cheng Xiao Chen Xiao Gui
Job Agency Recommended by Inter-government Town-fellows Cooperation
Social Network + + + +
+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + 8
9
17 Total
2
7
7
