The Study On The Survival Strategy Of Self-Employed Migrant Workers From The Perspective Of Rational Choice Theory

Since the reform and opening up,the agricultural labor force has been liberated again,the rural surplus labor force has.been transferred to cities,and large-scale employment in cities has occurred.In order to avoid engaging in manual labor that is only at the bottom of cheap remuneration,migrant workers chose a low-input,low-threshold,flexible way of livelihood,and a financial return in a short term——engaging in self-employment.Their transformation of survival strategy change from"migrant workers" to "businessmen".In the Internet era,self-employed migrant workers at the bottom of the city stay in low-tech industries with low value having to deal with the challenge of market changes.In the process of market change,self-employed migrant workers have to choose from different kinds of survival strategies.Some migrant workers choose to withdraw from the market and turn from "migrant workers"to "businessmen";Some migrant workers choose to survive through the "Semi-working and semi-business" model;Some self-employed migrant workers choose to jump out of the low-tech survival mode,improving anti-risk ability and market competitiveness.What are the differences between the different strategies of self-employed migrant workers under the same market risk?What is the logic of action behind the strategic choice of self-employed migrant workers in response to market risks and pressures?self-employed migrant workers are the "economic man" in the trading market,and they are also the "social man" from rural to urban areas in China ’s urbanization.Coleman’s rational choice theory takes the theoretical basis of economics as the basis of his social theory,and transfers the method principle of rational choice in economics to the method principle of sociology."Rational man" shows natural affinity for the study of the behavior choice of self-employed migrant workers.Therefore,the author tries to use the theory of rational choice combined with the reality of this survey to build a theoretical framework to show the rational logic behind the strategic choice of self-employed migrant workers in response to market risks and pressures.Based on the social facts and Professor Wen Jun’s analysis framework of Coleman’s rational choice theory,this paper divides rationality into four dimensions.This paper will explain the strategic behavior of migrant workers from the four dimensions of survival rationality,economic rationality,social rationality and development rationality.It is found that the economic rationality of migrant workers plays a leading role when they enter the market turning from "migrant workers" to "businessmen".At this time,their human resources and social resources are at a low level,but there is a certain accumulation of economic resources.Migrant workers will first ensure the safety of economic capital,and use their own economic resources to pursue more economic benefits.Survival rationality is a kind of rational distribution when individual strength,resource value and control distribution of resource information are at a low level.Returning from "businessmen" to "migrant workers" reflects the impact of the market impact and individual vulnerability,self-employed migrant worker give up the maximization of interests in order to maintain survival,and tend to minimize the cost and avoid risks.The social rationality behind the "Semi-working and semi-business"livelihood model is the rational distribution when the economic resources of the actors are at a low level,but the social capital and human capital are at a high level.Self-employed migrant workers will make full use of the network built by social capital and human capital as an elastic cushion to cope with market and social risks,so as to achieve an overall balance and stability.When human resources,social resources and economic resources are at a high level,self-employed migrant workers have good upward development conditions,tend to have a strong desire for development,developing rationality will play a leading role.Developing rationality will stimulate the self-employed migrant workers to pursue more sustainable development,improve competitiveness and personal value through transformation and upgrading,and further complete the accumulation of wealth and the promotion of class status.In fact,many migrant workers can only stay in low-tech industries,or engaged in low industrial chain,it is difficult for them to achieve the accumulation of wealth and rising status.There are few self-employed migrant workers who can really move to high-value and competitive industries.Developing rationality is what they want to pursue but are very lacking.The realization conditions of rational development of self-employed migrant workers,in addition to the accumulation level of economic capital,human capital and social capital of self-employed migrant workers,also need to consider the identity of self-employed migrant workers to urban society,the acceptance degree of urban society to individual households of migrant workers,and social system support and other macro factors.