Young Migrant Workers: Stratification of Labor Market and Differentiation of Social Security: A Study in Chinese Developed Eastern and Southern Coasted Cities

Since the economic reform and opening up in the 1980s, the scale of population movement in China has been expanding, and a migrant worker group mainly coming from rural areas has emerged. Unlike their predecessors who were committed to economic goals, the current migrant workers are mainly young people pursuing urban lifestyles. However, due to the existence of China's household registration administration system, young people outside these institutions have been faced with social exclusion with their integration into local societies and with social security when they encounter risks in their daily lives. Based on the field interviews of migrant young workers in the developed areas of the southern and eastern coastal cities of China, this paper analyzes the social stratification of the young migrant workers during their employment in the context of the current urban household registration system reform, and the corresponding differentiation of social security, revealing causes of migrant workers’ own human capital and external market selection. This paper also analyzes the dilemma faced by the national macro - policy and the local policy in the social security of migrant migrants, and puts forward the corresponding countermeasures from the perspective of the social investment policy.