Institutional Supply AndBehavioral Logic

Since the reform and opening-up, farmers that bound to the rural areas have began to pour into the cities to work. Affected by the household registration system, they live in the city’s fringes, and their interests are often offended, this triggers various forms of protests, which have negatively impacted on the social orders. Based on this, this paper focuses on the offending of migrant workers’ interests and the resulting protests, furthermore, tries to illustrate what kind of offending may triggers the protest most, how do the migrant workers protest, and in which ways are those protests be generated. The study found that there are various levels of interest offending to the migrant workers, including economic, political, cultural and social level, and the migrant workers’protests can be most triggered by the offending of their economic interests, especially arrears and reduction of wage.The study also found the logic of migrant workers’ protest, normally they seek help from the institution system first, then outside the institution and finally ask for help from the institution again. The migrant workers would first ask for help through institutional channels when their interests are offended, such as appealing to the government. Once the institutional channel is blocked, they would turn to protest outside the institution system, for example, by climbing then declaring to jump down the building or tower crane, which are ways to pressure on the government to pay attention to their appeals.I think this logic of the migrant workers’ protest is a choice made according to their structural and associational power within a certain institutional system.Currently, the structural and associational power of immigrant workers are weak, they still fail to protect their interests from offending by the advantaged capital, therefore, to protect their interest, they need to pursue support from forces that would be more powerful than the advantaged capital. Acted as a market regulator,the government also provide institutional support to protect the migrant workers’ legitimate interests, so the migrant workers would first seek help from the government when their interests are offended. But not all government departments are actively involving into the protect of migrant workers’ legitimate interests, some government departments may support the employers for the consideration of economic benefits and record of achievements. And some escape themselves from the responsibility or take alternative measures, which deviate the institutional practice from the original text. All the above performance generates protest outside the institution. However, the migrant workers have to ask for help within the institution in the end, without the intervention and mediation of government, the protest outside the institution can hardly move forward. Finally, to protect the legitimate interest of the migrant workers, besides the improvement of institutional practice by the government, the migrant workers should be empowered to balance the power between migrant workers and advantaged capital.