ABSTRACT
Beginning in the 1980s, wave after wave of migrant laborers have poured out of the countryside in search of work, and the Pearl River Delta, including Guangzhou, was the first to be affected. In 1988, the delta's migrant laboring population reached 2 million. In 1989, it was 3 million, in 1990, 4 million, in 1991, 5 million, in 1992, 6 million, and in 1993, an estimated 10 million or more. 1 Migrant laborers take jobs shunned by local people, jobs which pay low wages and are of low social status but which are labor intensive and in poor work environments. This author has divided such migrant laborers into four types: those with professional skills, those who work in enterprises, those who work in agriculture, and odd-job workers (sangong). 2 This classification is the conventional, traditional one.
