Examine The Political Economy Of Chinese Migrant Workers

Peasant-workers refer to the employees involved in non-farming economic activities but whose registered permanent residence is in the countryside. Professionally speaking, the peasant-worker is a worker , while as far as the permanent residence is concerned, he/she is still a peasant. The peasant-worker includes both the countryside-resident ones, who have left the farmland but not the countryside, working in village and town enterprises, and the city-dwelling ones, who have left behind both the farmland and the countryside, being employed by enterprises in cities or being self-employed in cities.In the process of industrialization and urbanization in the whole world, it is a common trend that agricultural labour transfers to industry and rural population to cities, only adopting different forms: tramps in Britain, immigrants in America, liberalized serfs in Russia, double-occupied and commuter farmer in Japan, slum poor in Latin America, and peasant-workers in China. An analysis of these varied forms could reflect the specialties in economic relations and specific path of development for the labourer of every country.The majority of countryside-resident peasant-workers still cultivate certain amount of farmland, making up the income from farmland with their wages from village and town enterprises. Their dual-profession ofworker and farmer brings two forms of income: agricultural management income and wage. To the village and town enterprises, peasant-workers' low wage is their secret weapon in the competition with more powerful city enterprises in the market.City-dwelling peasant-workers also possess the access rights oto small piece of land, but not cultivating it by themselves rather by their relatives or others. City-dwelling peasant-workers in coast cities are mainly employed by private, state, and foreign capital. Capital's robbing usage of peasant-workers is their main form of creating absolute surplus value. They must face low wage and long working time, poor working condition and lack of protection of rights. All these have attracted wide attention and sympathy, posing as a serious social problem.The dual-income of peasant-workers influences each other. Though pretty low, their wages have become a major way to increase their household income and a base to sustain the social stability of the countryside, especially with the agricultural income being quite slow-paced in increase. On the other hand, the existence of income from farmland makes it possible for the wage to remain at a low level for such a long time. The low wage drives capital to scramble for the labour force of peasant-workers with great eagerness.The commercialization of peasant-workers as labour force accelerates the commercialization process of labour products. The wageand money mailed back home has helped to expand the countryside market. The economic role of peasant-workers lies in establishing a new department-one mainly producing consumables with labour-intense production, in realizing the trialism of national economic structure, and in transforming the flow chart of China's economy, creating a new economic chart of social reproduction. This new department is not only the subject to the macro-circulation of economy but also exerts influence upon the latter. The constitution and administration of macro-economic policies could no longer ignore the tremendous role of peasant-workers.The appearance of peasant-workers brings about a new polarization of China's working class. The split of peasant-workers from the class of peasants creates tremendous and far-reaching influence upon the society and economy of the countryside. In cities, the differentiation between the new working class of peasant-workers and traditional workers brings about greater competition within the working class, leading to the unemployment of large amount of traditional workers.Small-scale peasant consciousness is the consciousness of individual peasant under small-scale farming economy. When just splitting from small-scale farming economy and integrating with modern in...