Chinese Migrant Workers in the Global Financial Crisis – Reaction and interaction among the government, vulnerable groups and other stakeholders

Ying Yu

University of Nottingham

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Abstract

As for crisis management to deal with problems of Chinese migrant workers in the times of global economic recession, this paper will, firstly present a top-down perspective, in which Chinese government is the main actor while high-profile stakeholders are playing their roles in providing solutions, advancing short-term policy changes and long-term institutional reforms related to migrant workers. Secondly, the grassroots movements including the mobilization of migrant workers and other seemingly low-profile stakeholders will also be examined as a bottom-up approach to react to the problems. Finally it will try to grasp a budding but promising trend that reconciles the state and the vulnerable groups, establish interactions between the two flows, while actively engaging all the responsible stakeholders in a localized, law-based and participatory way. The mediation of civil society will be paid particular attention during the process of public policy discussion, reconfiguration and implementation for migrant workers.

Presented at the UNRISD conference on the “Social and Political Dimensions of the Global Crisis: Implications for Developing

Countries” 12 – 13 November 2009 – Geneva

Introduction   

The global financial crisis in 2008 has been a great challenge for China’s economy in this interdependent international market. Such economic impact has hastily rippled to the social-political dimensions. The slowing down of GDP growth rate and the recession of export-dependent industries has directly contributed to the torrent of unemployment, enlarging income discrepancy and social-political instability. However, at the bottom of the hierarchy of victims are still previously deprived, disadvantaged and marginalized groups of people – peasants, migrant workers and the urban unemployed. The Chinese government admits that migrant workers have been hit the hardest during the crisis because of the decline of international market demands and bankruptcy of labour-intensive manufacturers in east coastal areas, Pearl River delta and Yangtze River delta. Counted for 225 million by the end of 2008 (BBC Chinese, 25/3/2009), migrant workers, who are granted freedom to leave their land, seek job and better life in towns and cities thanks to the reform and opening since 1978, and who are also the contributors and cost-bearers to rapid urbanization and economic development, have now faced the fate of returning to the countryside without jobs. About 70 million joined the waves of ‘returning home’ before Spring Festival in 2009, though 80% flowed back to cities after February, there are still 23 million of them struggling around with gloomy hope of re-employment and little intention to farm at home (BBC Chinese, 25/3/2009). More disturbing are the facts that 13% of these retuning and jobless migrant workers have been affected by wage arrears due to their employers’ closure; 5.7% have their salaries deferred as a result of staff cuts; about 1.38 million even have no lands to cultivate, which means they’ve been deprived of the last resort to be a farmer again (National Bureau of Statistics, 25/3/2009, China CRS, 31/3/2009). The problems attached with migrant workers are not new in China. Though the administrative restrictions for rural-urban migration and mobility have been largely lifted since the reform (Forbes and Linge, 1990), the powerful institution of hukou (a registration system to divide and manage rural and urban population since 1958) still exists and discriminates against these migrant workers, who have a rural hukou, in many basic aspects of life (Yang, 1997; Wang, 2005; Naughton, 2007; Chan, 2009). Their problems have become acute and significant in recent years: their grievances of poor working condition and housing, unpaid wages or compensations, absence of social welfare, lack of human capital and social capital, restriction in children’s education, conflicts in identity, difficulties in community integration and other social-economic issues are gradually exposed to the mass media, policy-makers and a number of stakeholders, becoming an dissonant chord in the symphony of China’s reform. The global recession has undoubtedly worsened the status quo of this vulnerable group, intensified diverse contradictions and conflicts, and alarmed the authorities of the deep social-political implications and potential instabilities behind the above-mentioned statistics.

This has become a crucial time to test the capability of crisis management at both the official and popular level. On one hand, the central and local governments have actively responded to this global financial tsunami and dealt with migrant workers’ problems through stimulus package, policy adaptation, other proactive and responsive strategies. There has been a further involvement of corporate sectors, civil society organizations, academics, foreign governments and international organizations in cooperating and promoting such top-down endeavour. On the other hand, there have emerged national-wide contentious activities from migrant workers themselves and grassroots service provision for them in response to their old problems and the worsening situation. Their own spontaneous organizations such as laoxianghui (township-based community groups), other grassroots civil society organizations and human rights activists have been the major forces to lead such bottom-up attempts to address and defend migrant workers’ rights. However, in practice and in perspectives, there has been an increasingly evident tendency to coordinate efforts from both directions, to initiate a broader multilogue among different stakeholders including the vulnerable groups themselves, to strengthen the capacity of the government in communication, self-reformation and innovation, to expand the influence of social mediatory forces from social service provision into policy advocacy, and to turn the negative instability and vulnerability of migrant workers into positive and constructive forces for a harmonious society that is desired by both the authorities and the populace. This paper will, firstly present a top-down perspective, in which Chinese government is the main actor while high-profile stakeholders are playing their roles in providing solutions, advancing short-term policy changes and long-term institutional reforms related to migrant workers. Secondly, the grassroots movements including the mobilization of migrant workers and other seemingly low-profile stakeholders will also be examined as a bottom-up approach to react to the problems. Finally I will try to grasp a budding but promising trend that reconciles the state and the vulnerable groups, establish interactions between the two flows, while actively engaging all the responsible stakeholders in a localized, law-based and participatory way. The mediation of civil society will be paid particular attention during the process of public policy discussion, reconfiguration and implementation for migrant workers. The main methodology of this paper is documentation based on journal articles, media reports, activity reports and project documents of civil society organizations, literature about migrant workers in contemporary China and literature about community participation technology.

Top­down players 

The major player for policy making and implementation is the central and local

governments during the time of crisis management. It can be summarized that four models are active in solving the problems with migrant workers in a top-town manner.

Governmental policy input

The first model is a direct large-scale governmental policy input. In order to boost domestic consumption and create jobs, Chinese government has launched a massive spending program contained within the 4-trillion-yuan ($586 billion) stimulus package focused on 10 major areas, including low-income housing, rural infrastructure, water, electricity, transportation, environment and technological innovation (Tan, 2009; Cha, 2009). The provincial and city governments have been both actively and passively responding to the sharp economic downturn, since the central government is providing 29.5 percent of the funding for the overall stimulus program, with the remainder coming from local governments and other sources (China Daily, 22/5/2009). Besides the stimulus package for job creation, local governments have launched numerous initiatives designed to ameliorate the concerns of the migrant labourers. The fate of being laid off indeed indicated the low educational/skill level, lack of training and shortage in human capital of those jobless migrant workers. 82.9% of them have an education of only junior school or below (National Bureau of Statistics, 25/3/2009). On the other hand, for those who returned home and sought business opportunities in local villages and towns, financial deficiency can be the major problem. Vocational training and entrepreneurship are then adopted and regarded as the two most prominent panaceas to the problem of mass unemployment (O’Brien, 2009). In a broad range China’s labour-exporting provinces have used preferential policies to help returning migrant workers, including job-training programs, offering micro-loans and tax incentives to help migrants start small businesses at home (Xinhua News, 14/9/2009). For example, Henan Province aimed to provide vocational training for 2/3 of the 3 million migrant workers who were staying at home after the Spring Festival and has put aside 1.5 billion yuan of small-volume loans to encourage about 100,000 peasants to start businesses (Xinhua News, 25/2/2009). Aid has come in many different, flexible and strategic forms as well. In the most difficult times of unemployment, local authorities have also handed out food coupons, and distributed vegetable oil and other essentials (Cha, 2009). Horizontally and vertically, party and governmental departments, trade unions and other government-sponsored organizations have planned or involved in providing aiding programmes. China’s Central Communist Youth League and the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security have jointly issued a circular to initiate a two-year training plan for young migrant workers coming to work in cities. China Staff Education and Vocational Training Association, China Home Service

Association, China National Household Electric Appliances Service Association, and the China Cuisine Association have cooperated in offering training courses and job-seeking service after the training. In addition, youth leagues and human resource departments at local levels are asked to contact the relevant industry associations to arrange the training programs in their regions (CCRS, 22/5/2009). Official media is also participated in the campaign: with the support from the National Propaganda Department and the Ministry of Education, China Education Television is opening a new channel to offer vocational training and educational services to the masses, with some segments designed explicitly for migrant labourers (Lu, 2009). All China Federation of Trade Unions (ACFTU) is another powerful associational chain from central to locality sponsored by the government. It has decided to allocate a certain percentage of its poverty elimination fund and arrange special funds to help migrant workers to find employment and provide for their subsistence. Meanwhile, trade unions of all levels have been required to make full use of their resources and make innovations to help migrant workers. There are up to 3,096 aid centres in China at levels higher than local counties. 100 national trade union employment training centres have also been set up from 2009 in provinces with the largest number of migrant workers (CCRS, 20/2/2009). Besides the severe situation of unemployment that demands immediate policy responses, social welfare for migrant workers is another problematic policy area that is deeper-rooted. The fact that this group of urban “rural” poor, unlike the urban “urban” poor, are mostly excluded from the “urban” welfare and social security system (Chan and Buckingham, 2008) has become more aggravated and alarming. Welfare reforms have come into being since early 2000 and received more central official attention, financial support and resources especially from the recession. According to the National Bureau of Statistics (15/9/2009), great achievements have been made: migrant workers who joined the pension insurance amounted 23.8 million, 41.53 million joined the medicare insurance, 15.18 million unemployment insurance, 50.54 million injury insurance until 30 June 2009. The hidden long-term institutional problem behind the welfare distortion is still hukou. Chinese hukou residential registration system has uniquely made rural migrants’ movement and citizenship totally separate, which becomes an institutional barrier for them to get access to the local urban citizenship-based services and welfare such as public housing, health insurance, unemployment insurance, pension fund, housing provident fund, children’s education etc. (Chan, 2009; Zheng et al., 2009). Their “temporary” nature has also rendered them easily expendable, disadvantaged, vulnerable, and often subject to exploitation and labour abuses. Partial and experimental reforms have also been made from the abolition of custody and repatriation system in 2003 to a relaxation of standards and conditions for migrant workers to settle down in small and medium-sized cities from October 2008. There are other governance innovations such as rewarding 1000 “National Excellent

Migrating Workers” at the end of 2008 by qualifying them with a hukou of the city where they work (Wen, 2009).

Strategic response to contentions

If the abovementioned policy inputs are proactive strategies for crisis management in preventing potential social unrest, then this model of strategic response is about how different stakeholders are cooperated in responding effectively to the actual contentions of migrant workers. From the viewpoints of the authorities and the top-down perspective, these stakeholders include central and local governments, governmental departments, trade unions, corporate sectors, law enforcement institutions. An effective response means to strategically keep contentions in low profile and non-confrontational status and avoid small cases turning into riots; project the positive image of government in problem-resolution, pacify any conflicts and minimize any threats against social stability. The most common and visible trigger for migrant workers’ discontent and contention is still the unpaid or delayed wage, severance, subsidy or compensation, which has been worsened since the times of global financial crisis. Labour disputes and protests over lost back payments have surged regularly and fiercely, igniting fear in both central and local officials concerning social unrest. Guangzhou, one of the largest harbours for migrant workers as well as for China’s exports, reported not only a sharp decline in GDP and export growth, but also 10% more mass labour disputes1 in the fourth quarter than the third quarter in 2008 and 4.4% more in January 2009 than in December 2008, recorded by Guangzhou Stability Maintaining Office (Xinhua News, 25/2/2009). The “bread and butter” demands of migrant workers are not difficult to meet and the government has been enthusiastically addressed and represented the people’s interest. Every year just before the Lunar New Year, there was a nationwide campaign, sponsored by the government, to help migrant workers recover their wage arrears (CCTV.com, 2007). As for the newly emerging severity of unpaid wages, the government makes greater efforts to be more accountable and responsible. If bankrupt factory bosses skipped town before payday and stirred up contentions, local officials then helped to pay arrears, offer retraining and help to find new jobs. However, there were so many wrongs to be righted. Shenzhen, whose government was required by law to provide back pay for failed factories and had one of the best track records, covered only about 80 percent of what was owed (Huang, 2009). Facing a wave of marches, sit-ins and general unrest triggered by the deteriorating financial environment, government officials are forced to respond with a mixture of pay-offs and crackdowns on leaders of the movements (Cha and Fan, 2008). On the other hand, a new labour contract law took effect from the beginning of 2008. According to the

1 “Mass” labour disputes are defined as involving more than 30 workers.

law the boss has to pay compensation, one month’s salary for every year the worker served for him, if he stops employing the worker (Labour Contract Law, 2008). Provisions on mass layoff and collective dismissals were recently reorganized, so that firms looking to lay off more than 20 people or 10 percent of their workforce need to explain to trade unions or all their workers 30 days in advance (Xinhua News, 25/2/2009). The official ACFTU has also realized that the rights-defending contentions of migrant workers are generally short of organizational and legal support. Its initiative national campaign to offer aid to millions of migrant workers also includes support in rights protection. In addition, ACFTU has also encouraged the forming of trade unions through the plan to add more than five million new migrant worker members to trade union membership (CCSR, 20/2/2009). The trade union itself has been more aggressive in not only unionising a growing number of companies but also striking collective bargaining agreements with the likes of Wal-Mart for the US retailer’s Chinese operations (Mitchell, 2009). However, for the authorities there is a balance to be kept between defending the rights of migrant workers and easing the challenges facing the enterprises due to the economic downturn and a new labour contract law that makes it much harder to hire and fire workers. There is circumstance that ACFTU was reined in because of the government’s concerns over the economic outlook. In November 2008 Kong Xianghong, vice-chairman of ACFTU’s Guangdong branch, told the media that “Since most companies are having a tough time at present, we will temporarily stop collective bargaining. It will be resumed depending on the economic situation.” (Mitchell, 2009) There are also cases that court fined employer for dismissing worker without notifying trade union (Chengdu Commercial Daily, 2009). More cooperation is needed among labour dispute arbitration departments, trade unions, corporate sectors and law enforcement institutions in solving the interest conflicts and the fluctuation. As for the local confrontation during the contentions, the central government is more aware of the perils caused and public anger triggered by local officials’ improper handling of mass incidents. To improve local officials’ capacity to deal with conflicts, the Ministry of Public Security launched a program to train about 3,000 county public security directors in Beijing in early 2009. They had lessons such as “maintaining social stability and handling emergencies” and learned “how to neutralize rallies and strikes before they blossom into so-called mass incidents.” (Xinhua News, 25/2/2009; Jacobs, 2009)

Academic advocacy

Another model for policy input is the collaboration of statistic bureaus, policy-making agencies, academic and research institutions and the media: the goal is to make

consensus in policy research and discussion while publicising such consensus. Information collection and empirical research is the first step to identify the concrete problems and draw up a policy blueprint. National and provincial bureaus of statistics, as government organs, have played important roles in mobilising resource and obtaining preliminary and up-to-date data about migrant workers. Based on the authoritative figures, leading policy makers such as Liu He, deputy director of the Office of the Central Leading Group on Finance and Economy, were then able to prioritise items like “providing occupational training and education for the migrant workers” to top the policy agenda at the moment. As he said to the media, in the short term, the employment problem could be cushioned as the government was to channel some of the jobless migrants back to their homes and encourage them to start farming by offering subsidies and professional training. In the long run, the strategic arrangement should focus on revamping China’s industry and income distribution policy. The government should continue to support labour-intensive industries and increase domestic consumption to create more jobs for migrants. In addition, migrants should be given urban household registration rights and the same social welfare as city residents (Fu, 2009). Social scientists engaged in such policy discussion have become opinion leaders and public intellectuals in offering perspectives, suggestions, arguments and evidences to shape the policy orientation. They have been regularly quoted by the official and mass media. Zheng Zizhen, director of the Institute of Sociology and Population in Guangdong Academy of Social Sciences, said, “The training can help sharpen their competitive edges so that they can get better jobs after the global financial crisis... After all economic competition is the competition of human resources. But the training has to meet the migrant workers’ real demands or market demand.” (Xinhua News, 25/2/2009). Wang Chunguang, a researcher on migrant workers with Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, thought that most peasants going back to their rural home was not a long-term solution. He said, “It’s a way to tide things through the crisis, but China will have to have the migrant workers integrated into cities during the country’s modernization, since China’s urbanization rate is even lower than the world average.” (Xinhua News, 25/2/2009) There is also a wide range of submits and symposiums involving both policy makers and scholars to discuss about China’s social policy during the global financial crisis with either governmental or academic initiatives. A case in point is the recent one organized by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) in Beijing in June 2009. Experts suggested the Chinese government should consider launching a second stimulus package focused on social welfare, including social security and education, in response to the global financial crisis, which was “far from over”. Directors, experts and professors from China National School of Administration, Nankai University, the Development Research Centre of the State Council, crisis was an opportunity for China to improve upon its social policy. There were arguments that the Chinese government’s intervention during the crisis focused too much on

economic issues and infrastructure construction, but it did not chalk out ways to “promote long-term sustainable development”, “setting up substantial social systems” and “powering up human capital”. Experts also brought forth that China could get some good ideas from social policies adopted in other major economies (Tan, 2009).

Global partnership

The fourth model sees an emerging tendency of international and multinational partnership between Chinese governmental agencies, NGOs and global players including governments and NGOs. The World Bank 4-year project – “the Rural Migrant Skills Development and Employment Project for China” approved in June 2008 aims to support the transition of rural workers to urban areas to access better to employment opportunities as well as law and justice. There are four components to the project. The first one is the skills development. It will (a) enhance capacity of the project provinces to deliver training to potential migrants; (b) improve the quality, relevance, and flexibility of the training offered, consistent with migrant and market needs in receiving areas; and (c) improve functioning of the training market. The second component is the employment services. It will improve the provision of labour market information and public employment services for rural migrants, and further develop policies and institutions for employment services and support the development of the market for employment service provision. The third component is the worker protection. It aims to improve the employment condition of migrant workers; and increase awareness of worker right and support legal services for migrants. Finally, the fourth component is the policy analysis, monitoring and evaluation, and project management. It will (a) support a policy-oriented research program and the sharing of information and knowledge concerning rural-to-urban migration; (b) help improve the monitoring of government programs in skills development, employment services, and worker protection and conduct impact evaluations of selected policy interventions; and (c) support project management and build capacity in general management and planning (The World Bank, 2009). A piloting project starting from January 2007, entitled “Enhancing Legal Aid Service for Migrant Workers in China,” has brought together national and international partners of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the Belgium Government, the All China Lawyers’ Association and the China International Centre of Economic and Technical Exchange (CICETE) under Ministry of Commerce, as well as local lawyer firm and voluntary lawyers. This project, accomplished and disseminated in Beijing in April 2008, has successfully established a network of working stations that provide professional legal aid to migrant workers in over 20 provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions in China. Through services of these working stations, thousands of migrant workers, women and men, got easy access to free and professional legal aid such as legal consultation and case presentation. As a

result, millions yuans’ of defaulted wages and other compensations were paid back to migrant workers. Capacity of migrant workers to protect their own rights was also developed through training and awareness-raising sessions conducted by the working stations. Policy issues, such as non-government organizations’ role in legal aid and how to better give voice to migrant workers in the revision of related government regulations, were also tackled through this project by ACLA’s policy recommendations to relevant ministries of the Chinese government. This initiative was regarded as an important catalytic role to mobilise additional Chinese resources in nurturing the ownership of the solution to this issue by all the Chinese competent actors (United Nations in China, 2008).

Insufficiencies

The biggest problem with such top-down mobilisation is redistribution, implementation and supervision. China’s government and public sector actually redistributes benefits toward locations and population groups that already are advantaged, since the vested interest groups are still powerful. It is also criticized that much of the bailout is going on government-driven projects, reinforcing the government’s rent-seeking. In some places, labour reforms – which protected workers but also raised costs – seemed to have taken a back seat. Officials have grown more lax about enforcing 2008 laws that strengthened rules on contracts and social-security payments (Huang, 2009). Though there is an increasing involvement of high-profile non-governmental agencies, some are international, they cannot form an effective supervisory institution while the government still dominates the cooperation. The well-intentioned policies cannot actually reach the locality. The deficit of elite and intellectual collaboration lies in the paralysis of effective action plans, because major players in policy discussion are identifying problems and proposing solutions without engaging migrant worker as equal partners. The immediate policy or strategic responses to problems and contentions have often failed to see the whole picture and deep causes. The local handout programs are limited with only temporary effects (Cha, 2009). The government paying compensation for runway or bankrupt factory bosses is indeed a makeshift method. The short-term training programmes may miss the point of migrant workers’ own inferiority in education and inequality in education opportunities, behind which the stubborn institution of hukou still plays an important role in shaping the unequal life chances across the urban-rural divide. The number of migrant workers joining the social security system is on a constant increase; however, the rate of coverage is admitted to be still very low. Many migrant workers have even withdrawn from the pension system because of their own mobility, instability of employment and the glooming economic environment (Chen, 2009). Their helpless rationality behind such irrational behaviour still needs further exploration. How to include all migrant workers who are excluded before still requires an endeavour to pacify different interest conflicts and coordinate different stakeholders.

Bottom­up participants 

The bottom-up approach of crisis management mainly indicates on one hand migrant workers’ contentions and activism in defending their rights, and their self-organization and self-help in reaction to the difficult times, on the other grassroots help and service provision for them in response to their old problems and the worsening situation in recession.

Migrant workers’ networks and protests

The main organizing principle of migration chains is on the basis of kinship and native place. Blood tie and native tie – such elements of traditional agricultural society as ‘differential pattern’2 as form of human relations and social capital – still determine the conception and behaviour of migrant workers facing grievances and solve problems. These township-based community groups (Laoxianghui) in nature are fraternities, but they have taken up various functions that formal institutions did not cover or failed to respond to. Statistics show that migration operates at a very low organizational level: 93% of migrant workers are seeking jobs through families and friends or by themselves, only 7% being introduced through organizational labour output or labour market (Fan, 2005). The percentage of contracting labourers and trade union membership is even lower, which makes it difficult to defend their rights and pushes them to resort to Laoxianghui when being injured, deceived, deducted or delayed wages or ill-treated without formal contracted or organizational protection. In this way Laoxianghui has become the main organizational and leadership resources for the fragmented contentious activities of the weak against the powerful. ‘Laoxiang (people with native ties) should help laoxiang’ is a traditional concept for migrant workers’ self-organization and self-help. Laoxianghui would also represent for them to negotiate with the workplace managers as an imformal trade union if encountering problems. Generally these negotiations have a high possibility of winning: sometimes the leader led a group of members to the workplace and won the game by quantity and even violence, at other times the representative got the advantage and attention over the dialogue by the strong identity of such representation Besides negotiation, they occasionally led the strike and mass protests of migrant workers in front of the companies or local government buildings. As stated above, labour disputes have multiplied during the economic recession especially in the export-related manufacturing industries. Migrant workers have learnt that collective protesting action is effective through the occupation-based 2 Based on Fei Xiaotong’s ‘Peasant China’, differential pattern refers to a social relationship is traditionally defined by the distance to, and affiliations with, one’s family line and relatives (Fei, 1947; Wu, 2007).

mobilization and township-based spontaneous organizations. Cases were spreading all over China. In November 2008, workers ransacked an office at the Kader company’s (Hong Kong-based toy manufacturer) Dongguan factory after management chose not to renew 400 staff contracts (Mitchell, 2009). In February 2009 over 2,000 workers in China launched a two-round protest including strike, sit-in, blocking the traffic after their employer, an Italian maker of luxury sofas, delayed the paycheck and finally closed down the factory and fled away in Shenzhen (AFP, 4/2/2009). In April 2009 closure and job losses at a Baoding textile factory (Hong Kong-based) sparked an unprecedented attempt by over 1,000 workers to mount a mass protest march of 140 kilometres to Beijing to present a petition. Though the local authorities talked the protesters out of the march after they had gone several kilometres and provided buses to bring them back to Baoding, demonstrators were still sceptical of the sincerity of officials for problem solving (AFP, 3/4/2009). The wave of factory shutdowns is taking place at a time when migrant workers are more aware of their legal rights and know how to put pressure on local governments thanks to the new labour law, which require companies to pay severance and give out more long-term contracts (Wong, 2008). Petitioning at the labour bureaus or related governmental departments, sit-ins, kneeling, parades, strikes, blockades, threats and violence against the managers, destruction of property and so on are not uncommon phenomena. Moreover, the unwritten rules of contention of these disadvantaged groups is that making big trouble will earn a complete settlement of the problem, mild trouble partial settlement, no trouble no settlement. They have been developing the strategic and delicate way of contention to satisfy their demands while keeping the action within the bound of state toleration.

Corporate, charitable and individual help

Besides the migrant workers’ self endeavours, there surfaced a wide range of support and help offered by corporate, charitable and individual actors. The corporate social responsibility is emphasized and merited in the tough times through exemplification. For instant, while most electronics companies are busily cutting staff, Chinese electronics retailer Gome has announced plans to hire 20,000 migrant workers for its four subsidiaries in China. They will recruit unemployed migrant workers to work in departments such as home appliance distribution, installation, and maintenance. At the same time, these companies will offer pre-job training to these migrant workers to improve their working skills (CCSR, 3/3/2009). Such effort is widely publicised by mass media and highly appreciated by the authorities and populace as responsible and philanthropic. Wealthier citizens are trying to fill the gap between what the government is offering and the need they see in their neighbourhoods, by starting soup kitchens and other charitable endeavours (Cha, 2009). The annual, epic-scale mass movement of humanity in China during the Lunar New Year interlude known as “spring movement”

(chunyun) involved more migrant workers returning home in early 2009 (Chan, 2009), some of whom were already laid off and most uncertain about future employment. There were good-hearted people and charity organizations in Guangzhou and Shenzhen helping migrant workers without the money to return home for Spring Festival by providing them with train tickets, cash and essentials (NetEase, 9/1/2008). There were also volunteers visiting homes of poor migrant worker children, as Chevrolet Charity Teaching and Shanghai Youth Media volunteers did in Shanghai through the “Red Collar Movement” with the slogan that “Whether you are blue collar, white collar, or grey collar, as long you have a caring heart, you are a red collar!” (NetEase, 4/10/2008) Legal support is still a rare resource for migrant workers A few grassroots legal aid centres, rights-defending (weiquan) lawyers and human rights organizations were more ready in providing legal services in labour disputes caused by the recession. The internet is also regarded as an effective channel to mobilize popular sympathy, support and resources.

Insufficiencies

The bottom-up grassroots movements are still dominant by the spontaneous contentions and rights-defending actions by migrant workers themselves, complemented by a small amount of external help by corporations, civil society groups and individuals. Though the contentions have received positive responses from the authorities, the equal negotiation and dialogues are usually missing. The fact that migrant workers were disadvantaged within the labour-capital relations is hardly changed. On the other hand, the migrant workers have less intellectual, economic and social networking resources than the local population, and their ability to get new access to these resources is also limited. When migrant workers were fighting against problems such as unpaid wages, unfair contracts and unjust redundancies an individual, collective or Laoxianghui basis, the lack of formal organizations and necessary legal support and channels would lead to unnecessary conflicts and social unrest. The government is still cautious about the human rights groups and rights-defending lawyers. For example, Han Dongfang, who was imprisoned for seeking to organise an independent union during the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests, was now the director of the Hong Kong-based China Labour Bulletin and was recognised by Beijing. However, they have apparently been told to take a softer line during the time of crisis and their website was not accessible in Chinese mainland (Mitchell, 2009). Generally the voice of migrant workers is weak and soft within mainstream society, migrant workers are still not well heard and understood by the outside world. The internal identity crisis has been reinforced by the global financial crisis that for migrant workers the city is merely a place to work but not to live. When the job opportunities are gone, migrants have few options other than to leave the city (Zheng et al., 2009).

There have been inequalities and misunderstandings between migrant workers and the government as well as between migrant workers and other social groups or strata in the cities. A new approach to bridge and surmount such cleavages is in great demand.

A localized, law­based and participatory approach   

As for this migrant workers’ scenario, though the grassroots forces are weak and fragmented, an increasing involvement of various social activisms and wider international attention has created more opportunities for progressive policy and institutional reforms from top-down. The civil society groups including global NGOs have played an important intermediate role to propose a participatory, collaborative and all-inclusive approach and facilitate the two-way policy flows from both bottom-up and top-down. In this approach, migrant workers themselves will be regarded as an equal stakeholder and participant in the localities; their subjectivity, agency and activity will be fully recognised and realised. Their negative instability and vulnerability should be channelled and directed through the rule of law. During the all-inclusive participation and collaboration in the policy circle, civil society as neutral social forces can be in a better position in policy advocacy. The following statements of each element notify the budding tendencies and prospective orientations.

Localism and mutual trust

Localism means the mutual interaction among central policy-makers, local executives, academics and migrant workers in the intersection points of localities. The abovementioned training and entrepreneurship programmes, welfare policies all need to take into account the local particularity and the saying of migrant workers. Then the practice of policy implementation will be more scientific and specific concerning what requires urgent attention and how to reasonably distribute the limited resources. For example, one Zhejiang county is subsidizing migrants’ purchases of tea processing machines and teaching them how to grow tea leaves, while a Jiangxi county is encouraging unemployed migrants to turn to forestry by giving out free tree seeds (Liu, 2009) To offset potentially destabilizing waves of layoffs, many cities across China have set up alarm systems by mobilizing the grassroots units to detect bankruptcy signs in advance. For instance, a network has been set up from the grassroots, such as the streets, villages, communities or factories, to detect signs that might lead to conflict in Guangzhou. They can then inform workers through text messages and prevented them from returning to the bankrupt factory after spring festival in early 2009 (Xinhua News, 25/2/2009). Meanwhile, during the working process of China’s social welfare system by the National People’s Congress, a proposal to create a universal safety net including unemployment insurance for all citizens was released for public comment in December 2008 (Cha, 2009).

It indicates that the government agencies want to engage more intellectual and public input in its policy circle by creating more censors and channels in localities. They are also learning how to communicate with the populace, so the policies are better proposed, understood and the implementation better supervised, rather than being merely regarded as the official rhetoric and propaganda. This is also a process of mutual trust building among different stakeholder and the critical prerequisite is to establish an equal relationship among those parties. The equal relationship is then based on a mutual understanding and a joint endeavour for resolution of migrant workers’ conflicting identity. Because of the lack of citizenship and the extreme hardship in cities, most migrant workers mentally feel a deep inferiority complex and lack a sense of belonging. Their subjectivity, agency and activity has not yet been fully recognised and realised by authorities and the society. Therefore, regarding migrant workers as an equal stakeholder and participant in the localities in the first place will be a useful and helpful perspective for better identifying the problems of migrant workers, rather than imposing problems to them by policy makers or academics. The mutual trust between the authorities and social associations of/for migrant workers should also be enhanced. New policy amendments or adaptations will then be put forth and initiated by these equal stakeholders through negotiations and multilogues.

Rule-of-law capacity

It is predicted that the labour laws could lead to more labour disputes and protests (Wong, 2008). However, the aim of contentions is not only rights-defending but more importantly rule of law. The rule-of-law capacity should be strengthened among migrant workers, corporate sectors, government agencies, trade unions, law enforcement institutions and the general public. Notably the concession-driven contentions should be heading into a law-based civil society activism. Civil society groups will then be able to function as check and balance to any arbitrary corporate or state power. The authorities have also realized that the process of defending labour rights should be socialized. This means that with governmental guidance and supervision, a variety of social organizations would be allowed to establish and take the role in defending labourers’ economic interests, social welfare and human rights. There is an official encouragement for the establishment of society-sponsored and voluntary organizations with the limited features of charity or mutual aid. Laoxianghui for migrant workers with native ties are generally tolerated and some have turned into rights defending organizations. More communication and trust is to be established between governments and international/domestic human rights labour groups; however, China’s general hostility to foreign NGOs has changed. Foreign NGOs have cooperated with domestic social groups, academics and corporations with innovations. For example, the Denmark-based Human Rights and Business Project is currently involved a

programme, running from October 2007 until December 2010, to secure the increased protection of migrant workers in Chinese law and practice. The project consists of institutional capacity building with various NGOs, civil society organizations and academic institutions. The objectives of the project include awareness-raising, improvement of legal aid mechanisms, development of negotiation skills, entrenchment of communication with management and the adoption and enforcement of laws protecting migrant workers. The project will also include the creation of a Chinese Corporate Social Responsibility training package (The Human Rights and Business Project, 2007). The rule-of-law capacities of migrant workers should then be improved through organization and legal provision. Though most trade unions were unwilling to challenge an unfair or illegal dismissal in recession, the unions are legally empowered to protect their members, and should be more proactive in challenging employers’ violations of the labour laws. On the other hand, labour dispute arbitration office is an important governmental department, but it is not strong enough or neutral enough. Their work should be further clarified as Wenzhou did in 2009. The Wenzhou government-issued regulation illustrated that labour dispute arbitration departments at all levels should deal with appeals immediately, pay off wages and deposits, urge enterprises to sign labour contracts with migrant workers, sue against and punish any illegal behaviours with relative administrative fines; deal with outbreaks of mass incidents immediately and maintain social instability; set up enterprises’ monthly wage reporting system, profile enterprises that delay payments and establish alert system for labour disputes. Strengthen the trust and credit system, record all the enterprises being punished onto the credit information platform and expose to the bank credit system (Zhejiang Bureau of Statistics, 3/7/2009). The purpose is not only to protect migrant workers’ legal rights but also enhance the rule-of-law capacity and promote institutional reform of government agencies. The capacity and influence of public supervision should also be strengthened. There is a torrent of public discussion and perspectives from diverse angles on the huge stimulus package and its impact on Chinese as well as global economy. The function of public supervision is to ensure the transparency and accountability of governmental bailout, to restrain the advantages distributive to vested interest groups and to prevent corruption on public section. The growing independent mass media and relatively autonomous internet has played an important role in such public supervision.

All-inclusive participation

All-inclusive participation is not a slogan-style idealised objective, but a practical method concerning project-based or community-based participation involving as many social actors and forces as possible. The project-based participation differs from the high-profile stakeholders’ partnership

or grassroots service provision; and it mainly connects the activism from both directions and facilitates a complete policy circle. A case in point is the China Development Marketplace (DM) launched the World Bank to alleviate poverty, in partnership with the Government (State Council Leading Group for Poverty Alleviation and Development, Ministry for Civil Affairs), Multilateral Agencies (Asia Development Bank, European Union, International Finance Corporation), Business Associations (American Chamber of Commerce, PRC, European Union Chamber of Commerce in China, China Enterprise Confederation), Civil Society Organizations (World Bank/IMF Staff Marco Polo Society, NPO Network, China Association for NGO Cooperation, Mercy Corp, Oxfam). This top-down initiate is a program aiming to identify and support innovative bottom-up development of ideas and practices through funding, knowledge sharing, recognition, publicity and partnerships. A few creative and multi-media migrant workers-related projects have been selected and carried by local civil society groups, such as anti-AIDS action for migrant workers during the 2008 Olympic Games, and the interactive training of rights-defending techniques for migrant workers in 20083. It is found civil society organizations in China have been more actively engaged in poverty reduction and service delivery to the poor through implementing projects at the grassroots level. They often work in partnership with local governments, development agencies, the business sector, academia and other community organizations, to develop innovative approaches to addressing local development needs while mobilizing public opinion around key issues and leveraging other resources to broaden supportive collabourations (The World bank, 2005). Such event will provide civil society organizations with a government-approved national platform to demonstrate to the government and the public their contributions to the poverty alleviation and to empowering disadvantaged groups. Local civil society organizations in this way are building capacity of not only service provider but also policy advocacy in influencing future decision-making and agenda-setting process in the policy circle. The community-based participation means both the daily-life integration of migrant workers into the urban communities and the purpose-driven multilogues into the community policy advocacy with participatory and action-oriented methodology. They respectively indicate an inclusiveness of identity and an inclusiveness of activism/opinion. For the former case, due to barriers to urban hukou and associated benefits, labour market discrimination, social segregation and inferiority, most migrant workers consider the city as merely a place to work but not to live. Awareness about discriminatory attitudes toward migrant workers by urban residents, employers and service professionals are also raised in public. Such cultural and identity conflict basically barricade migrant workers from community integration. According to the surveys by the organization Migrant Workers’ Home, it us found many do not like the widely-used term nongmin gong – rural migrant workers – which they consider derogatory as “rural” to their ears carries an implicit judgment, a sense of poverty, underdevelopment and lack of civilized values. They prefer xin gongren – “new 3 See to the website of http://www.developmentmarketplace.org.cn/

workers” or even xin gongmin – “new citizens” (Jiang, 2009). There should be more official, academic and civil society input to de-label such stereotype while promoting a multi-dimensional integration. More community-based activities and broadcasts should be targeted at this identity vulnerable group. There are already a few art and cultural groups concerning the desperate thirst for entertainment among migrant workers and trying to make their culture visible with an appreciation on the value of labour. An impressive example is the New Worker Art Troupe, the first art troupe in Beijing to specifically target migrant workers as its audience. They presented the play at the First Culture and Art Festival for and by migrant workers supported by Oxfam Hong Kong in January 2009. The play was invited to the Beijing Youth Theater Festival by Meng Jinghui, one of China's most famous drama directors. They aimed to conduct a conversation with all sectors of society through the play they produced (Jiang, 2009). On the other hand, the loose and informal organizations of laoxianghui should be expanded into broader social networks and integrated more into the urban communities and with community-based organizations. As their identities are under transformation and urbanization, it’s a great potential need for them to manage and improve their social networks in the process of adapting to the new city life and balancing their old rural social relations (Wang et al., 2009). For the latter type of community-based participation, Open Space Technology is proved to be an effective way to enable all kinds of people, in any kind of organization, to work together to create inspired meetings, events and extraordinary results. This methodology was first originated by an American Harrison Owen in 1985. In Open Space meetings, events and organizations, participants create and manage their own agenda of parallel working sessions around a central theme of strategic importance, such as: What is the strategy, group, organization or community that all stakeholders can support and work together to create? With groups of 5 to 2000 plus people – working in one-day workshops, three-day conferences, or the regular weekly staff meeting – the common result is a powerful, effective connecting and strengthening of what’s already happening in the organization: planning and action, learning and doing, passion and responsibility, participation and performance (Owen, 2008). This method has been extensively exercised through collaboration of NGOs since 2006, involved both top-down and bottom-up players and participants including common citizens and migrant workers, generated multilogues and produced action plans with the potential to invite more future community participation as well as policy advocacy. In 2006 American Bar Association (ABA) sponsored three-day Future Search Conference “Living in Beijing (Nanjing) – Equal Rights and Development Opportunities for New and Old Citizens” in August (Beijing) and October (Nanjing)4. New citizens also indicate migrant workers floating into cities. Such Future Search Conference brings together people of different interest groups to deliberate about a common topic and allows them to review the past, reflect present 4 The videos of the meetings are available on www.youtube.com.

challenges, envisage the future and find common goals so that participants can engage in mutual learning, an open dialogue, vision building and joint planning. Its aim is to find solutions contributed by different stakeholder groups (such as new and old citizens, neighbourhood committees officials, local government officials, scholars and media workers). It is found that the novelty and complexity of migrant workers’ problems has made it difficult to engage relevant stakeholders in a meaningful dialogue on what kinds of initiatives and policy changes are needed, and how to move toward these changes. In April 2007, the Rule of Law Initiative, in conjunction with the China Association for NGO Cooperation (CANGO), held a national training session on method of Open Space Technology to foster community dialogues regarding the integration of rural migrant workers into China’s urban areas (ABA, 2007). One of the foundational principles of this methodology is that all participants are on equal footing with an equal right to speak and to determine what is discussed, thus situating government officials and citizens as co-equal members of the communities in which they work together and creating a space in which citizens’ voices can be heard (ABA, 2007). Following the training, there have been a series of Open Space activities across China concerning the policy resolution, action plan and local community participation and integration concerning migrant workers.

Reflections   

As Mr. Han Dongfang from China Labour Bulletin said, “The financial crisis should be an opportunity for government and union officials to be more aggressive in terms of addressing problems at factories. Then there would be fewer street actions and conflicts could be avoided.” (Mitchell, 2009) However, besides the government policy adaptations and grassroots contentions, there should be more reflections on the role of Chinese civil society in reshaping public policy discussions for migrant workers. Though in the embryo stage, Chinese civil society organizations have their own strength and ability to target at the poor and vulnerable groups, and to effectively transfer resources. They have the potential to function as the bridge and advocate in developing a localized, law-based and participatory approach for not only crisis management but also long-term community establishment. Therefore the purpose of this paper is not only to demonstrate the existing, intensifying and emerging problems of migrant workers in the times of global financial crisis and how to address them, but more importantly to bring forth the methodological implications of crisis management through the examination on the traditional top-down and bottom-up manners as well as the innovative two-dimensional approach. The insufficiencies of the traditional styles in problem-solving cannot be overcome by elite or grassroots players themselves, but a

third-way approach to bring the two flows together into an equal relationship should be introduced through a neutral and collaborative involvement of civil society forces, be they international, national or local. The resolution to migrant workers’ problems is not only to guarantee employment and economic interest, but to guarantee social security and labour rights, not only to defend rights, but to promote the rule of law; not only pacify social unrest, but to boost social harmony and rural-urban integration. Methodologically, the Open Space Technology is particularly suited to enabling diverse stakeholders to address complicated, multi-faceted problems such as those of migrant workers in China and for different social forces to work together to develop concrete action plans. In the future a multiplicity of civil society forces and actors should be more intensively and extensively involved in promoting better interaction among the government, vulnerable groups and other stakeholders. In this way can such interaction provide remedies, shift development agenda and priority and further the reform in a more just, equal, law-based and people-oriented way.

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