ABSTRACT
Introduction This chapter examines the safety and health problems among rural migrant workers in China. Over the last few decades, economic development has drawn millions of rural peasants into the cities. They are generally referred to as a floating population because their official household registration is in their home village yet they work somewhere else, constantly travelling back and forth. In cities they are employed in strenuous and dangerous work which urban residents are reluctant to do. This chapter will shed light on the structural and institutional causes of the problem by looking into the socio-economic context in which the problems have emerged and by analysing how and to what extent the compensatory system actually works. The focus will be on rural migrant women and the related problems they have encountered while working in the cities. In principle, all migrant workers face these problems regardless of gender, but the consequences for migrant men and women are often different, relating to men and women’s gender roles in the family. For a married woman, for instance, physical disability resulting from a workplace accident will likely damage her position in the household, since domestic chores remain a woman’s responsibility. The chapter consists of four sections. Section one will give an account of the safety and health situation in general and outline various types of problems facing migrant workers. Section two will focus on the type of accidents female migrant workers in particular often experience. Section three will discuss the consequences of injury for female migrant workers. Lastly, section four will provide an overview of the laws concerning migrant workers’ rights and governmental efforts in dealing with the problems.
