Migrant Worker in China by Pun Ngai

A Review “Migrant Worker in China” by Pun Ngai
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A Review “Migrant Worker in China” by Pun Ngai
The contemporary internal migration within China stands out as one of the most remarkable phenomena in human history. Massive numbers of migrants are relocating from rural to urban areas, from inland regions to coastal cities, and from traditional communities to modern metropolises. This extensive migration is closely tied to and fueled by China's shift from a socialist economy to a market economy, a transformation widely recognized as profoundly meaningful. One of the individuals who have acknowledged the meaning of the Chinese transformation from a socialist economy to a capitalist economy is Pun Ngai, a renowned author on the various socio-economic and political issues in China presently. Through her book, “Migrant Labor in China”, Ngai explores the Chinese working class, more specifically rural migrants. The book serves as a form of acknowledgment of the hardships endured by migrant workers, who played a pivotal role in constructing the remarkable Chinese economy. The author adopts a Marxist class perspective to analyze the workers' situation. Right from the initial paragraph, Pun Ngai emphasizes the role of the class concept as an "analytical weapon" for understanding the lives of the working class amid the significant contradictions of contemporary capitalism (p. 1). Throughout the book, a central theme explored from various angles is how the shift to neoliberal policies during the "Reform and Opening" era not only altered the lives of many individuals in China but also reshaped an entire class and the very notion of class itself.
Background Information
The labor activities in China in the past three decades have been an issue of discussion in various global contexts. Part of the conversation stems from the Chinese rapid transformation since its adoption of the free market economy. It is, however, worth noting that the growth of China to become the factory of the world has stemmed from a range of challenges. Part of the challenges is migrant workers. It is estimated that China had a total of 295.6 million migrant workers by 2022. While 123.7 million of the workers worked locally, the other 171.9 million worked distant places from their homes. The issue about migrant workers escalates to the treatment that such workers experience. In China, migrant workers do not enjoy similar health insurance policies as the city-born individuals. The other aspects of variations the fact that they do not enjoy unemployment and retirement benefits as much as the city people. The value that migrant workers are accorded in China is also highly transactional. For instance, migrant workers are supposed to go back to their rural areas once they reach an age where the city considers them economically unviable or as a burden.
Notably, the labor trends in China are changing consistently, a prospect that authors like Pun Ngai tend to consider in their