Building China: precarious employment among migrant construction workers

TY - JOUR

T1 - Building China: precarious employment among migrant construction workers

AU - Swider, Sarah

PY - 2015/2/13

Y1 - 2015/2/13

N2 - In China, informal precarious work has exploded and now represents a majority of urban employment. This article explores precarious informal work by presenting a case study of migrant workers in the construction industry. Despite the fact that these workers are all unregistered migrants performing informal construction work, there exists a diversity of labour market situations, working conditions and work relations. This article introduces the concept of ‘employment configuration’ to analyse this diversity and to bring informal workers, who are operating outside of state regulations, back into our industrial labour relations framework. The concept of employment configuration also refocuses our attention from the dyadic worker–employer relationship to the more complex triad of the worker, the employer and the state, shedding light on varying sources of control and exploitation of these migrant workers.

AB - In China, informal precarious work has exploded and now represents a majority of urban employment. This article explores precarious informal work by presenting a case study of migrant workers in the construction industry. Despite the fact that these workers are all unregistered migrants performing informal construction work, there exists a diversity of labour market situations, working conditions and work relations. This article introduces the concept of ‘employment configuration’ to analyse this diversity and to bring informal workers, who are operating outside of state regulations, back into our industrial labour relations framework. The concept of employment configuration also refocuses our attention from the dyadic worker–employer relationship to the more complex triad of the worker, the employer and the state, shedding light on varying sources of control and exploitation of these migrant workers.

U2 - 10.1177/0950017014526631

DO - 10.1177/0950017014526631

M3 - Journal article

SN - 0950-0170

VL - 29

SP - 41

EP - 59

JO - Work, Employment and Society

JF - Work, Employment and Society

IS - 1

ER -