Rethinking the Precarity of Rural Migrant Workers in China's Pearl River Delta Region

China’s urban-prioritised and state-led development mode has resulted in a stark urban-rural dichotomy, marked by large-scale urban expansion, which has prompted significant rural-to-urban migration, particularly among peasants seeking better economic opportunities. Most of these migrants, however, are confined to low-wage and unskilled employment in construction, manufacturing, and other informal sectors. Their experiences are often portrayed through narratives of socio-economic marginalisation and precarity. Despite a series of state-led institutional reforms—most notably the Hukou system reform—designed to integrate migrants into urban life, these interventions have had limited success in improving their material conditions.

This paper argues that migrant workers are embedded in deeply imbalanced labour-capital relations, which perpetuate their precarity and hinder efforts to reduce their exclusion. Drawing on Michael Burawoy’s (1979) theoretical framework of Manufacturing Consent, this research posits that skewed labour relations and economic disadvantages generate a ‘manufactured consent’ among migrant workers, manifesting in their acceptance of overtime work, high labour intensity, and job instability. Trapped in the exploitation from employers and labour intermediaries, Chinese rural migrant workers are instigated to pursue short-term economic benefits while ignored long-term stable work and living security. While it may be easy to blame the state for sustaining institutional barriers, my empirical research in China’s Pearl River Delta highlights a more intricate reality. Labour dispatch agencies, in collaboration with employers, play a crucial role in exacerbating the precarious conditions faced by migrant workers and further erode the effectiveness of institutional reforms. On the other hand, this paper argues that classical theories and concepts from the Global North provide an insightful theoretical perspective for deciphering precarious employment in China. In turn, the reality of informal and precarious employment in China adds a new narrative to the traditional labour theories.