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The turnover of labor-intensive personnel in businesses is extremely frequent and is primarily manifested in "flowing back" and in "switching jobs." Field surveys and research have demonstrated that frequent and extensive job switching, as well as the rapid turnover of personnel, has had a significant impact on businesses. There are many reasons for migrant workers from the countryside to switch jobs, but young migrant workers from the countryside are more likely to switch jobs frequently. Irrational factors affect job switching, and these factors affect the careers of migrant workers from the countryside. Switching jobs has become a way for migrant workers in the new era to pursue self-realization as well as a way for them to express themselves and has ultimately become an action strategy for migrant workers from the countryside. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on research in a labor-intensive enterprise, this study discusses the differences between new and old migrant workers. One consists of the choice of, and attitude toward "flow-backs" (hui liu) and "switching jobs" (zhuan gong) on the part of new and old migrant workers. The authors maintain that "flow-backs" and "switching jobs" are the different means by which the new and old generation of migrant workers face future developments and handle opportunities that enable them to make subjective choices. Implied behind these opportunities are the migrant workers' different self-realization requirements, displacement strategies, and different perspectives on urban and rural life. Another concerns the self-categorization process of the new and old generation of migrant worker groups-in other words, how these groups have undergone subjective divisions due to differences in concepts and choices. By analyzing the mutual evaluations, delimitations, interactions, and even conflicts among them, a clearer understanding is obtained of the process of the new replacing the old within migrant worker groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It may be said that among all the casual worker groups, haulage workers are the most diverse and interesting category, and the category with the most "freedom." The haulage workers' "freedom" is relative; it is a vivid sign of their unwillingness to accept their status quo and the fact that that they cannot do otherwise. Another salient characteristic of haulage workers is that they are "scattered in form but not in spirit" (xing san shen bu san). Their work is relatively free, and their way of making a living unstable, but they maintain close connections with their fellow-townspeople and friends, possess spheres of influence, adhere to certain work principles, and have a sense of organization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Of all migrant casual workers, construction workers as a group do the hardest work, the most dangerous jobs, and have the fewest guarantees. The vocation has a low threshold, is labor intensive, and engages a vast number of people, thus becoming the starting point for many migrant workers in their quest to make a living away from home or as a means of accumulating "seed capital." Once the time is ripe, they will move to other jobs, for which reason construction workers exhibit a high degree of mobility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article focuses on migrant odd-job workers in Guangzhou. Beginning in the 1980s, wave after wave of migrant laborers have poured out of the country 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 5 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. Migrant laborers take jobs shunned by local people, such as those with high labor intensity, in poor working environments, paying low wages, and of low social status. Odd-job workers refers to people among the migrant laboring population who free lance. They are not licensed as individual business proprietors, nor are they legally employed by different enterprises. They work in a variety of jobs, roughly divided into two categories. In the first category, they mainly sell their physical labor, similar to day (short-term) laborers. They do whatever jobs bosses give them, including moving earth, bricks, digging, and shoveling.

Urban migration for work creates problems both for migrant workers themselves and for the governments that must integrate new populations. The four articles in the present issue of Chinese Sociology and Anthropology are based on research on urban migrants that was funded by the Chinese Ministry of Education and conducted under the sponsorship of Zhou Daming at Sun Yat-sen University. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]