Emergency Response Capacity Of The Migrant Workers And Social Networking

Based on 2006 survey data of rural migrant workers'health and social-economic status, this paper analyzes how migrant workers use certain resources to guard themselves and decrease the shock to their daily life if they encounter urgency and risk in city area. Urgencies such as unemployment and falling into illness are inevitable while workers'formal social security is insufficient to supply enough protection. Under such situation, workers need to allocate a part of income to serve as self security. This paper names it as economic undertaking ability towards urgencies. The ability on urgencies of rural migrant workers varies as age, marital status, wage, family condition changes. The undertaking ability is low for most of the migrant workers. If some urgency happens and they can not afford on their own, rural migrant workers usually ask friends, relatives in their non-institutional social network for help. The loan from social network bases on personal credit and relationship. The loan amount is usually low and there is no interest, no returning date in the loan. Social network also helps rural works getting jobs while it serves as another non-material assistant. Social security, economic undertaking ability towards urgency and social network forms as a kind of tertiary protection mechanism for rural migrant workers to live steadily in city area.