Social Stigma, Social Capital Reconstruction and Rural Migrants in Urban China: A Population Health Perspective

In this study, we examine migrant stigma and its effect on social capital reconstruction among rural migrants who possess legal rural residence but live and work in urban China. After a review of the concepts of stigma and social capital, we report data collected through in-depth interviews with 40 rural migrant workers and 38 urban residents recruited from Beijing, China. Findings from this study indicate that social stigma against rural migrants is common in urban China and is reinforced through media, social institutions and their representatives, and day-to-day interactions. As an important part of discrimination, stigma against migrant workers creates inequality, undermines trust, and reduces opportunities for interpersonal interactions between migrants and urban residents. Through these social processes, social stigma interferes with the reconstruction of social capital (including bonding, bridging and linking social capital) for individual rural migrants as well as for their communities. The interaction between stigma and social capital reconstruction may present as a mechanism by which migration leads to negative health consequences. Results from this study underscore the need for taking measures against migrant stigma and alternatively work toward social capital reconstruction for health promotion and disease prevention among this population.     

Summary report of action research on occupational rehabilitation and community re-integration of migrant workers with work injuries in Mainland China

This article is a summary of an action research exploring the strategies to initiate the occupational rehabilitation and community re-integration of migrant workers with work injuries in Guangdong Province, China. Using two cases of rehabilitation intervention for workers with work injury, a case management model of occupational rehabilitation and community re-integration was illustrated, in the different phases of rehabilitation. Finally, some key elements in supporting occupational rehabilitation and community re-integration for migrant workers with work injury in China were highlighted.     

Migrant and seasonal farmworkers in the United States: a review of health hazards,status, and policy

Although the occupation and associated living conditions of migrant and seasonal agricultural workers in the US pose exceptional health hazards to the workers and their dependents, relatively few occupational health professionals have been involved with this group. This articles examines the basis for this neglect and proposes a definition of the population that should be considered in farmworker health policy. It then reviews existing evidence regarding hazards of 4 major occupational exposures--pesticides, the sun, injuries, and poor field sanitation--and policies that have been developed to address these hazards. The extremely negative health consequences of farmworker living conditions, which are indirect occupational hazards, are also summarized. Numerous policy, planning, and research recommendations are made. Adequate solutions for this impoverished and powerless group, however, will require significant sociopolitical advances, such as are developing with unionization and other forms of political organization.     

Male Honor and the Ruralization of HIV/AIDS in Michoacán. A Case of Indigenous Return Migration in Mexico

The purpose of this text is to analyse the motives of seasonal migrant workers for attempting to get their wives pregnant when they return to Mexico. The meanings attributed to paternity, pregnancy and rearing are analysed from the perspective of the migrant worker and his wife. Ethnographic research was conducted in several Purépecha communities in Michoacán, supported by interviews with indigenous, who travelled to the United States for periods of up to three years, and with their wives, who stayed in Mexico. The migrant workers interviewed consider pregnancy and the paternity derived from it as an important means of male legitimization and sexual control of their wives, particularly valid in their rural communities of origin, where they know they are absentee males. When they return to Mexico they seek sexual relations for reproductive purposes, since they fear their wives will have extramarital relations in their absence. From these findings, it was considered necessary to implement sexual and reproductive health policies with pluri‐ethnic and gender approaches that take into account male beliefs and practices regarding paternity and pregnancy in a rural context. The development of sensitizing policies aimed at migrant males during their stays in Mexico is recommended.     

Resistance to dominant narratives and the construction of identity legitimacy: counterstories of Chinese migrant workers with pneumoconiosis

This study is focused on the pneumoconiosis workers’ illness narratives in Bashan Town in Chongqing. In-depth interviews were used to gather their illness narratives, and a “counterstory” framework was adopted for the critical analysis of the resistance of these texts to the dominant discourse. The results showed that these pneumoconiosis counterstories to be legitimacy narratives that sought four types of legitimacy: medical, suffering, moral, and public. Three opposing identity relations were explored in these narratives: qualified vs unrecognized pneumoconiosis patients, bearers of great suffering vs complainers without cause and neglected within the pneumoconiosis group vs Invisible pneumoconiosis. These identity relations strengthened the pneumoconiosis workers’ confrontation with the illegitimacy of the main social narrative, and they were used in the attempt to construct a legitimized self-identity. The study also identified three narrative strategies used to resist the oppressive dominant narrative, they are revelation, refusal and contestation. Finally, the author proposed that these counterstories consisted a weapon for the weak to voice their legitimacy concerns and offered recommendations for the prevention and treatment of pneumoconiosis.     

"No TEBA...forget TEBA": the plight of Malawian ex-migrant workers to South Africa, 1988-1994

"This article is about the process of socioeconomic transformation in rural Malawi. It examines the survival strategies and enterprising spirit of Malawian migrant workers and their households. It argues that the strategies of these people often went beyond survival in the provision of basic necessities.... In March 1988, the South African Chamber of Mines stopped a century-old tradition of recruiting migrant workers from Malawi. This has arrested and put to a halt a process of accumulation taking place in the households of the returned migrant workers in the rural economy. Thus, the effects of the retrenchment of the workers will spread from the migrant and his family through the economic and social wellspring of all sectors of rural communities and their commercial lives."     

从“他者”到“群我”:城市化进程中随迁子女融入问题

中国"农民工"现象是城市化进程的产物。农民进城务工常态化,其随迁子女城市入学问题随之产生。由于中国社会长期沿袭的城乡二元分割文化体系及其以等级意识进行身份界定的社会心理支撑,使农民工子女城市就学存在制度障碍及跨文化适应障碍。开展社会机制建设,确保农民工合法权益,消除农民工及其子女面临的身份歧视,实现文化调试(跨文化适应)与文明融合,是促进农民工随迁子女学校融入与社区适应的规范路径。     

80后农民工的城市就业现状与对策建议

分析了80后农民工在城市的就业特征,主要从四方面提出了对策建议:建立健全80后农民工就业的社会保障机制;改革创新80后农民工就业培训模式;为农民工塑造良好的工作环境;构建农民工双向流迁就业体系。     

Comparative Study of Life Quality Between Migrant Children and Local Students in Small and Medium-Sized Cities in China

Every child deserves a fair chance in life. However, migrant children are at higher risk of developing mental health problems. The problem of migrant children who have left their hukou registration place for 6 months or longer with their parents from rural areas to cities in China has become a unique social issue in the social transformation of China. However, even up to this day, little is known about life satisfaction of migrant children in small and medium-sized cities. To investigate the current situation of migrant children’s life satisfaction, several scales including Chinese Adolescent Students’ Life Satisfaction Questionnaire, Social Economic Status Scale, Social Support Rating Scale and big five inventory were used to obtain data on 142 migrant children and 165 local primary school students. Results showed that migrant children’s life satisfaction was significantly lower when compared to local non-migrant students. The study also highlighted that subjective and objective support, utilization of support, conscientiousness and parent’s educational level were predictive factors of life satisfaction. Migrant children’ life satisfaction was not optimistic and social support was significantly influencing factors of migrant children’s life satisfaction, so they need a support system of government, school, community, family to help them through difficulties.     

新生代农民工职业化的困境与出路

近年来,农民工中的新生代农民工已经成为新产业工人的主体,但他们面临着自身素质低、二元分割劳动力市场制度、城市歧视性用工政策等方面的困境,这成为制约新生代农民工职业化和市民化的瓶颈。要突破这一困境,一方面要增强新生代农民工的职业意识,建立人力资本投入机制;另一方面要大力发展职业教育,构建职业化的就业体系,在此基础上实现新生代农民工的职业化,促进城乡一体化发展。     

Ergonomics analysis of the activity of boning shoulder in a pig slaughter-house in the city of Ipiranga-SC

The incidence of workers suffering from occupational injuries has alerted health professionals and entrepreneurs. Enterprises are looking for improvements in production systems by investments in quality, technological innovations and in human resources that are capable and committed to the objectives and targets of the enterprise. This research was developed in a pig slaughter-house in the city of Ipiranga-SC, in the labor of boning shoulder of the pig, because this is the activity that presents more registers of complaints of pain and also probability of development of occupational diseases with cause in the enterprise.Tools of Ergonomics Analysis of Work were used, from interviews with workers to the application of LEST method in the activity analyzed. The necessity of immediate intervention in the work station was shown in the results, because of the high risk of prejudice to the health of the workers. Improvement actions must be done to satisfy the ergonomics requirements of NR 17 standard, attending the enterprise interests in the occupational diseases prevention.     

从农民工进城住房入手改革户籍制度

现阶段城市户籍实际代表了三项公共服务:以城市最低生活保障为主的社会救助服务,以经济适用房和廉租房实物或租金补贴为主的政府补贴性住房安排,以及迁移人口子女在城市公立学校平等就学的机会。户籍制度改革的关键,就在于如何通过有效的政策改革方案,为外来人口提供可支付的住房,以及为其子女教育建立有效的融资机制,从而使外来务工人员主要是农民工可以在城市定居下来。土地制度改革可以作为突破口,通过城中村政府和村民有效的公私合作,充分利用市场机制为外来人口提供可支付住房,辅以相关财税体制改革,同时可以有效解决外来务工人员子女的教育问题。在通过土地制度改革和相关财税体制改革有效解决了外来人口住房问题和子女教育问题后,户籍制度改革也就完成了实质性突破。     

法律边疆地区的纠纷解决与职业系统

本文基于对我国农村地区法律服务状况的访谈和参与观察,通过对职业社会学管辖权冲突理论的改造应用,发现在我国的法律边疆地区,包括律师、基层法律工作者、司法助理员、赤脚律师乃至乡镇干部和村干部在内的各种法律服务提供者构成了一个相互关联的、分化成县城、乡镇、村落三层的法律职业层级系统。这一层级系统内部的劳动分工与互动过程不仅构成了国家与乡土社会之间纠纷解决的传导机制,而且塑造了我国农村地区法律职业的基本样态,是律师业在法律边疆地区发展缓慢的一个根本原因。     

劳动权益与精神健康——基于对长三角和珠三角外来工的问卷调查

受富士康事件影响,外来工精神健康状况引起了社会的广泛关注。基于2010年珠三角和长三角问卷调查数据,本文发现,在我们的样本中,14.7%的外来工是精神疾病的高危人群,虽然与普通群体(如学生、护士、普通市民等)相比,其精神健康问题并不特别突出,但是与劳动权益状况密切相关。Logit回归分析表明,超时加班、工作环境有危害和强迫劳动会恶化外来工精神健康状况,社会网络对调节外来工精神健康作用甚微。在当前的用工模式下,我们认为,马克思关于异化劳动损害工人精神健康的分析仍然符合中国现实。我们主张,精神健康是劳动权益的题中应有之义。     

Work rehabilitation for migrant workers with work injury--the magic of Chinese paper cutting

As China has gradually transformed from agricultural economy into industrial economy since 1978, occupational injuries and diseases become a serious social problem in China. For occupational rehabilitation professionals, helping workers with occupational injuries and diseases, return to work and re-integrate to community are the ultimate goals of occupational rehabilitation. This article reports a new indigenous initiative with cultural notions in occupational rehabilitation piloted by Guangdong Provincial Rehabilitation Center. Case studies reflected that by learning and practicing traditional Chinese paper cutting, workers with occupational injury and disease could regain their self confidence, identity their strengths, learn more vocational skills as well as to re-integrate into community.     

Mindfulness,Emotion and Behaviour: An Intervention Study with Chinese Migrant Children

Migrant children in China who move from rural to urban areas face significantly greater emotional and behavioural challenges than their urban peers. In recent decades, western countries have used mindfulness to enhance child psychosocial and behavioural outcomes. This approach has not yet been applied to rural‐to‐urban migrant children in China. This study utilised one‐group pretest‐posttest design to examine the effects of a 4‐week school‐based mindfulness intervention on Chinese migrant children's emotions and behaviours. The results show that mindfulness training significantly improved participants’ mindfulness. The training was particularly effective for those with lower mindfulness at baseline. There was significant decrease in students’ internalising and externalising problems after mindfulness training, particularly internalising problems.     

流动儿童的社会福利现状与发展策略

流动儿童是跟随农民工父母或其他监护人进入城市生活或学习的0-16岁农村户籍儿童。我国流动儿童的各项社会福利已取得显著进展,包括营养与健康、教育机会与教育质量、家庭与社会支持等。但是,流动儿童的社会福利水平仍有待提高,许多福利不平等问题亟待解决。为此,需建立新型的以“常住人口”为服务对象的管理模式,建立流动儿童登记管理制度,建立健全流动儿童社会福利工作协作机制等。     

Does Citizenship Status Matter in Canadian Agriculture? Workplace Health and Safety for Migrant and Immigrant Laborers

This article explores how precarious legal status circumscribes differential inclusion in the agricultural labor market and affects workers' lives through a comparative study of workplace health and safety among temporary migrant guest workers and immigrants in Canada. Original, multimethod research with South Asian immigrant and Mexican migrant farmworkers examines employment practices, working conditions, and health‐care access. We find that both groups engage in precarious work, with consequences for their health and safety, including immigrant workers with citizenship. Nevertheless, migrant guest workers are subject to more coercive forms of labor discipline and a narrower range of social protection than immigrants. We argue that while formal citizenship can mitigate some dimensions of precariousness for farmworkers racialized as non‐white, achieving a more just, safer food system will require broader policies to improve employer compliance and address legislative shortcomings that only weakly protect agricultural labor.     

促进农民工就业,推进城镇化战略

各级政府高度重视农民工就业工作,把转移农村劳动力作为就业工作的重点之一。虽然,对农村富余劳动力进城务工拆除了门槛,取消了种种不合理的限制,但与城镇下岗失业人员相比,农村富余劳动力进城务工在享受政策待遇上仍有不少差别。把符合条件的农业人口逐步转变为城市居民,不是简单地让农民工到城市打工,而是要让农民工融入整个城市,在劳动就业、工资待遇、子女教育、社会保障等方面享受与城镇居民相同的待遇。