Informal economy and migrant workers in urban China

Abstract

China's internal migration has drawn extensive attention from domestic and oversea scholars since the 1980s, and numerous studies have focused on the migrant workers who are employed by the 'world factories' and closely linked to the label of 'made in China'. However, few studies have paid their attention to the migrant workers who have been participating in the informal economy in urban China. In fact, informal economy, referring to the income‐generating activities that are not regulated by the state, has been expanded dramatically during the past two decades, and the rural‐urban migrants have comprised of the overwhelming majority of participants in the informal sector. These informals are mostly self‐employed and the wage employees working for the informal workshops hidden in the migrant enclaves. This study, taking a migrant enclave in south China as the research site, aims to …