Within Country Migration, Marketization, and Liquid Identity

Abstract

Marketization introduces institutional changes that create opportunities to shift the relative importance of public and private sectors in economic life. Due to marketization, rural Chinese began to seek job opportunities in urban China. It is estimated that more than 280 million rural laborers in China have left their villages to find work in cities with the hope of making a better living. This chapter provides an overview of the public policy and market system in China and their impact on migrant workers. It also provides an overview of the marketization context in which the migration occurs before exploring the impact this betwixt and between reality has on the migrant workers as well as the families they leave behind. In addition, it theorizes the migrant workers’ identity during the transition. The paper contributes to consumer culture theory and consumption in emerging societies.