To protest or not to protest? Migrant workers’ participation in protests in China

Autor: Yen-Hsin Chen, T. David Mason
Rok vydání: 2023
Předmět:
Zdroj: Japanese Journal of Political Science. :1-19
ISSN: 1474-0060
1468-1099
DOI: 10.1017/s146810992200041x
Popis: We present a theoretical explanation for why migrant workers in China should be less likely to participate in protests than other categories of workers. While grievance-based theories of protest would suggest that migrant workers have more incentive to protest than other categories of workers, resource mobilization theory suggests that their capacity to mobilize for collective action is impeded by the conditions of their work situation and their residence. Using survey data from CGSS 2010, we test propositions derived from this framework. We find that a greater sense of relative deprivation is associated with a greater likelihood of participating in protest across all categories of workers. However, we also find that migrant worker status functions as a moderator between grievances and protest participation: compared to urban registered workers, migrant workers are significantly less likely to take part in protest activities when both of them have high levels of perceived unfairness. These findings are robust across all models.
Databáze: OpenAIRE