Who is Jobless? A Comparison of Joblessness in Rural and Urban Areas in China

Since market‐oriented economic reform was launched in China in the 1980s, unemployment has been recognized by the government. This paper focuses on the differences in joblessness in rural and urban areas between rural migrant workers, peasants, and urban citizens. The results indicate that people in rural areas frequently lose their jobs, which differs from the traditional perception. There is a significantly lower jobless rate in urban areas. In contrast to the results of previous studies, the employment situation of rural migrant workers is closer to urban citizens rather than peasants. Logistic regression results show that the elderly, women, and less educated citizens have a higher likelihood of joblessness, both in urban and rural areas. Minorities have a lower likelihood of joblessness in rural areas and a higher likelihood in urban areas. Chinese Communist Party members and people without dependent children have a lower likelihood of joblessness in urban areas.     

Financial Knowledge and Behaviors of Chinese Migrant Workers: An International Perspective on a Financially Vulnerable Population

ABSTRACT

Making informed financial decisions is crucial to the wellbeing of Chinese migrant workers. Using interview survey data (N = 329), this study examined financial knowledge and behaviors of migrant workers in China. Results showed that participants demonstrated low levels of financial knowledge (51.4%) and beneficial financial behaviors (51.0%). Multivariate results indicated that a modest proportion of the variance in financial behaviors was explained by financial knowledge, attitudes, and socio-demographic characteristics (e.g., marital status and income). Findings underscore the importance of disseminating culturally-relevant educational interventions to financially at-risk, low-paid migrant workers in China.     

Being a desirable migrant: perception and racialisation of Icelandic migrants in Norway

In the aftermath of the financial crisis that hit Iceland in October 2008, increased numbers of Icelanders migrated to Norway to seek employment due to difficult economic circumstances in Iceland. Using critical perspectives from postcolonial studies and critical whiteness studies, the paper explores how these Icelandic migrants in Norway make sense of their new position as economic migrants within a global economy characterised by a growing sense of precariousness, while past inequalities and racism continue to matter. We also examine how these migrants are perceived in Norwegian media, and how social discourses of Icelandic migrants reflect larger Norwegian debates on racism, desirability and cultural belonging. Media discourses in Norway and interviews with Icelandic migrants reveal a hierarchy of acceptability of migrants. Icelanders are positioned as highly desirable compared to other migrant groups due to the intersection of perceived racial belonging, nationality and class. Our discussion contributes, furthermore, towards a critical analysis of the category migrant, by exploring how the term immigrant (innvandrer/innflytjandi) is used in narratives of Icelandic migrants in Norway and in Norwegian media discussions, showing the negative and racialised connotations of the term immigrant and how its understanding is linked with vulnerable positions and discrimination.     

Looking at intra-European mobilities through migrant types: young Spanish and Polish migrants in London and The Hague

This paper echoes the need to further explore the social effects of European Union integration by examining the increasingly complex and diverse scenario of intra-European mobility. Much research has focused on the intensification of East-to-West migrant flows after the enlargements of 2004 and 2007, inspiring a rich conceptualization of migrant typologies. Theoretically, this paper argues that some of these typologies can be extrapolated to better understand the experiences of other European movers. Empirically, it offers a qualitative and comparative analysis of diverse European young adults’ experiences of mobility: 8 Polish citizens in The Hague and 10 Spaniards in London. The analysis is based on four main dimensions derived from the literature: (1) Motivations to migrate, (2) Labour market participation, (3) Attachments and transnational ties and (4) Family composition and future outlooks. Results map individual differences and similarities contextualized by generational, gendered, educational and socio-economic aspects.     

Que faut‐il voir dans les écarts de rémunération entre les travailleurs immigrés des pays du Golfe: l'effet d'a priori patronaux ou la simple conséquence de coûts d'opportunité différents?

Les auteurs s'intéressent aux disparités salariales entre les différents groupes de migrants qualifiés qui travaillent en grand nombre pour le secteur privé dans les États du Conseil de coopération du Golfe. Ils se demandent notamment si la prime salariale des Occidentaux (par rapport aux travailleurs venus d'Asie ou d'autres États arabes) découle d'éventuels a priori des employeurs. L'analyse, qui repose sur des données de 2012–2014 et sur deux méthodes de décomposition classiques, infirme l'hypothèse: les caractéristiques observables relatives à la productivité expliquent entre un tiers et trois quarts des écarts; le coût d'opportunité de la migration, supérieur pour les Occidentaux, explique la portion restante.     

Hesitant Madams in a Global City: Japanese Expat Wives and their Global Householding in Hong Kong

Care work, once a sanctioned labor of love, is increasingly commodified in transnational contexts. The picture of migrant women shouldering the housework and child care of local professonal women may seem like a mutually beneficial arrangement—matching the “needs” of the haves and have-nots—, but the global care chain ultimately works to maintain the traditional gendered division of labor as well as global inequality. To this trend of globalization of care work, Japan has been an exception; however, how much longer it will be so is now in a question, as the government paves the way for importing domestic labor from abroad. This article focuses on Japanese expat wives in Hong Kong in order to locate Japanese women vis-à-vis the global care chain. The narrative analysis on how they decide whether to hire a domestic worker in their home away from home highlights the sociopolitical nature of their supposedly private choices. Some drew on cultural ideal of wifehood and motherhood to rationalize their choice while others referred to racialized or even overtly racist and classist images of foreign domestic workers. A few women spoke against the system itself, showing awareness of its inherent social injustice. All such narratives are never purely personal; their decisions and the rationalization behind them sustain the prevailing discourses of gender, race, ethnicity, culture, and class, which, in turn, envelop their attempts at global householding.     

基于结构方程模型的农民工可雇佣性的决定因素研究——基于中部六省的调查

农民工是中国人力资源的重要组成部分。从智能、技能、体能和心能四个维度构建农民工可雇佣性模型,根据调查问卷收集数据,运用结构方程验证了农民工可雇佣性模型的合理性,研究了农民工可雇佣性及其各维度间的关系。结果表明,各维度对农民工可雇佣性影响程度依次为:技能、心能、智能和体能。农民工因年龄、文化程度不同,在可雇佣能力、技能、心能和智能方面存在显著性差异,但是在体能上没有显著差异。     

城市里想飞却飞不高的小鸟——“90后”农民工的心理困惑及解决对策

现如今，“90后”农民工已经成为了农民工群体中的主力军，是新生代农民工的代表。对比老一代农民工，他们身上有着鲜明的特点和对待城市生活全新的态度。当然他们面临着融入城市难的困惑、内心自卑、孤独的困惑和工作能力不足的困惑等。力求挖掘“90后”农民工身上的特点，分析其内心存在的困惑，进而提出相应的解决对策，让他们在城市里的生活更加充满希望。     

加强新生代农民工培训工作的思考

新生代农民工是提高企业实力、推进工业化发展和促进城市健康发展的重要社群,他们是经济发展的重要力量,其工作合力和能量巨大。提升他们的素质与能力是科学发展的内容与任务,是实现人的全面发展和改善、提高社会质量的重要标志。农民工素质的提升关乎着企业、城市和社会的发展及水平;重视、培训新生代农民工是制造业与社会发展之首务,它有助于提升人口质量、企业品质与企业竞争力,有利于达成包容性增长和全面实现小康。     

城市农民工随迁子女义务教育政策及其完善：以广东为例

文章分析了广东省农民工随迁子女义务教育改革政策和实施情况。广东省基本实现了农民工随迁子女“人人有书读”，但是，农民工随迁子女入读民办学校的比例依然较高，入读公办学校的歧视依然存在，民办学校的教育质量问题依然存在。农民工随迁子女义务教育问题不能彻底消除，根本原因是没有建立起农民工随迁子女义务教育经费的投入保障机制。