MOTION IN CHINA: Social Inclusion of Migrant Workers from Rural to Urban Areas A dissertation submitted to THE DOCTORAL SCHOOL OF SOCIAL SCIENCES UNIVERSITY OF TRENTO in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Doctoral Degree (Ph.D.) in LOCAL DEVELOPMENT AND GLOBAL DYNAMICS Lei Liu October 2018 Advisors Advisor: Prof. Giuseppe Sciortino Università degli Studi di Trento Referee: Prof. Nicholas Harney University of Windsor Referee: Prof. Xing Chaoguo University of Science and Technology Beijing Doctoral Committee Prof.ssa Francesca Decimo,Università degli Studi di Trento Dipartimento di Sociologia e Ricerca Sociale Prof. Paolo Boccagni, Università degli Studi di Trento Dipartimento di Sociologia e Ricerca Sociale Prof. Giuseppe Folloni, Università degli Studi di Trento Dipartimento di Economia e Management 2 3 Acknowledgement My deepest gratitude goes first and foremost to my supervisor, for his constant guidance and encouragement through all the stages of my piled higher and deeper PhD life. I am also grateful to the professors and PhD students of Local Development and Global Dynamic doctoral program for sharing the stressful but exciting PhD life with me during these five years. I also thankful to the couple of Mr. Ma and Mrs. Ma for offering kindly support and hosting me in Fuli village, the same gratitude goes to all the migrant workers who have cooperated with me to conducted the field study. Among them I would like to mention, Dalong and his family, Yanling, Zixiang, Xinjian Ma, Minaka, Gaoyang Shi, Man man, Pingzi, Xiao Lin and the “colleagues” in Zixin Restaurant in Beijing, without their help and support, the thesis would not be possible. It is all of them that I dedicate this work. I am obliged to Dr. Xing Chaoguo from Univesity of Science and Technology Beijing for providing me with institutional support and support me with both the nationwide Data of CHARLS 2011 and the survey on migrant workers in Beijing together with his persuasive suggestions while doing fieldwork in Beijing. When I am writing this thesis, I am also nurturing a new little life, special thanks here go to my daughter Muchen Zou and her unconditional companion during the hardiest but happiest time alone here as an expatriate in Italy. Numerous people here deserve my thanks for their companion in these last five years. I would like to give my thanks first to Chiara D’Arcangelo and Maria Tsouri together with their families in Chieti and Larissa who give me infinitely love all along these years. My thanks then go to San Bartolameo Student house who offers me a comfortable international environment to meet and know various kinds of friends from all round the world. Here goes also the thanks to my San Bar Friends although we are separated everywhere now. Finally, I must acknowledge the contribution and dedication of my parents, grandparents, my brother and my husband whose support offers me power and strength to face the challenge in every moment of my life. 4 Abstract This study investigates what’s known as the world’s largest human migration from rural to urban areas. It examines both the destinations and the origins of the mobility trajectories of Chinese internal migrant workers which is somewhat neglected by current literature. Based on a multi-sited ethnography of the daily life of migrant workers in arrays of social setting (sheds in construction sites, urban villages, factories, restaurants) in their urban stay as well as the well-known left behind population in a rural village, the thesis explores the social and economic changes that this mass regional mobility brought to both rural and urban China. The implication of this work lies in a comprehensive and thorough examination on the regional rural-urban migration. It contributes to a dynamic assess, which deserves to study further, by providing an analysis on all the agents involved in the context of Chinese rural- urban migration: the left behind population in villages, the migrant workers and the urban citizens in cities. This work is divided into two sections with 6 chapters included. The first section examines the economic and social changes brought by current mass rural-urban migration in mainland China. The chapter 2 lays out on three main vulnerable social groups in rural China: the elderly left behind, the children left behind and the wives left behind. Chapter 3 outlines the direct impact of rural-urban migration on rural males’ socioeconomic disadvantage in the rural marriage market. On contrary to the third part of Chapter 2 which merely focuses on the retention of traditional patriarchy within the domain of migrant families with migrant males’ privileges, it explores evaluates the factors impact factors of the sky rocking of bride price concerning on the weakness of unmarried rural males. The second section initiates the issues that migrant workers involved in urban China. Chapter 4 argues that, notwithstanding the enter urban China freely, migrant workers do face difficulties in social inclusion. The chapter examines the social inclusion in the opposite direction with 4 aspects of social exclusion that migrant met in their daily life. Furthermore, the chapter 5 explores the life satisfaction, which is considered as closely related to the concept of social inclusion based on the case study of migrant workers in Beijing. Chapter 6 concludes that, there is an imperative of justice and government and a long way to go for the migrant workers’ social inclusion. Keywords Rural-urban migration Social inclusion Chinese study 5 Contents Acknowledgement ............................................................................................................................................. 4 Abstract .............................................................................................................................................................. 5 Contents ............................................................................................................................................................. 6 List of Tables ..................................................................................................................................................... 8 List of Figures .................................................................................................................................................... 9 CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................................. 11 1. The Context .................................................................................................................................................. 11 2. The Unbalanced Regional Developments .................................................................................................... 20 3. The Fieldwork Sites and Research Methods ................................................................................................ 23 4. Literature Review ......................................................................................................................................... 28 5. Structure of The Thesis ................................................................................................................................ 48 CHAPTER TWO THE RURAL POPULATION LEFT BEHIND .................................................................. 52 PART 1 RURAL ELDERLY LEFT BEHIND: A CASE STUDY OF FULI VILLAGE IN ANHUI PROVINCE .......................................................................................................................................................... 56 1.Rural Elderly Left Behind ............................................................................................................................. 57 2.Literature Review .......................................................................................................................................... 59 3. Quantitative and Quantitative Findings ........................................................................................................ 65 4. Conclusion ................................................................................................................................................... 87 PART 2 TRACING BACK TO THE “DIFFERENTIATED CHILDHOOD”: THE NARRATIVES OF THE NEW GENERATION OF MIGRANT WORKERS ............................................................................................ 90 1.Introduction ................................................................................................................................................... 90 2.Literature Review .......................................................................................................................................... 92 3. Methodology ................................................................................................................................................ 95 4. Findings ........................................................................................................................................................ 98 5. Conclusion and Policy Implications .......................................................................................................... 110 PART 3 FALLING INTO THE PATRIARCHAL TRAP: RURAL WIVES LEFT BEHIND ........................ 113 1. Literature Review on Gender and Migration ............................................................................................. 114 2. Migration and Family Division