China’s new generation migrant workers’ urban experience and well-being

Abstract

Among the tens of millions of migrant workers in Chinese cities, a substantial proportion are new generation migrants. Yet, their distinction from the old generation and their unique urban experience and well-being have not been fully explored in the existing literature. Referring to Bourdieu’s concepts of field and habitus, this chapter unfolds the stories of China’s new generation migrant workers by examining their predicaments and well-being, their changing imagination and representation of the city and home, and their life prospects under a confluence of forces from the state, market, and society. Compared with the first-generation migrants, the new generation is better educated and more willing and adaptable to stay in the city. Unlike their predecessors, most of them do not have farming skills, but they are more creative and have an adventurous and entrepreneurial spirit. Nonetheless, their urban lives suffer from the same level of precarity as their predecessors, sometimes even worse because the rigid hukou system and rural–urban dichotomy endure while competition among themselves becomes much fiercer. In the highly unequal and contested urban field, self-stigmatization and ambiguous identity are common “habitus” for new generation migrants and are reflected in their imagination and representation of the city and home. To a large extent, the field and habitus faced by migrants are shaped by state institutions. Yet, market and societal forces have added new dimensions to migrants’ urban experience.