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Rights in Action: The Impact of Chinese Migrant Workers’ Resistances on Citizenship Rights

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Abstract

There have been some debates on Chinese migrant workers’ resistances and their rising rights consciousness in the academia. This paper aims to understand the debates and their problems. This paper investigates the extent to which the forms of Chinese migrant workers’ resistance have diverse impact on their citizenship rights. The conception of citizenship rights can be analytically understood in the individual/collective form and with the passive/active nature; such a dichotomy is also applicable for that of resistance according to the action theory. Both conceptualizations and their linkages constitute an analytical framework in this paper. Within it, the various cases of migrant workers’ resistances and their connections with attainment of rights are discussed comparatively. A main finding in this paper is that the individual resistance, whether passive or active, is almost independent of rights; individuals with the PC model only wait passively for the government’s help; and the AC model (e.g. strike) is much more prospective for the attainment of collective rights, which creates a new power to balance those of state and capital in China.

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Acknowledgments

This is one of phased achievements of Chinese National Funding of Social Science (11CZZ004) and National Important Project of Social Science(second time). The author is grateful to Guo Zhonghua, Engin Isin, Malgorzata Jakimow, and Richard Lachmann for their great inspirations and specific comments in process of writing.

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  1. School of Politics and Administration, South China Normal University, 55 Zhongshan Road West, Guang Zhou, Guang Dong Province, China, 510631

    Taihui Guo

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  1. Taihui Guo
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Correspondence to Taihui Guo.

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Guo, T. Rights in Action: The Impact of Chinese Migrant Workers’ Resistances on Citizenship Rights. J OF CHIN POLIT SCI 19, 421–434 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11366-014-9306-2

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