Economic restructuring and migrant workers’ coping strategies in China’s Pearl River Delta

To tackle internal and external challenges, the Chinese government has made great efforts to promote economic upgrading, but little scholarly attention has been paid to its social consequences. Previous studies have found that economic restructuring is often associated with economic shock and industry shift, noting that social upgrading does not automatically follow economic upgrading, and workers can become economic victims. Given China’s individual rights-based labour regulatory framework, it is necessary to explore workers’ individual strategies to tackle economic restructuring. In light of this, this study analyses how migrant workers in the Pearl River Delta cope with economic restructuring. Interviews were conducted with 72 participants, including migrant workers, scholars, employers and officials. The interviews revealed that to deal with the pushing-out effect of economic restructuring, migrant workers often use strategies of individual resistance, re-employment, skill upgrading, reducing living costs, migrating to other cities, and returning to farming. Policy recommendations are proposed accordingly.