Until the 1990s most people living in cities in China were protected from poverty by a work-unit system which guaranteed lifelong employment, cradle-to-grave social services and adequate living standards and welfare. What has happened to the losers in China’s headlong embrace of the free market? What coping strategies do they deploy? How are their perceptions mediated by gender and age?

A report from the Institute of Development Studies, in collaboration with the China Women’s College, looks at the first-hand realities of what it is like to be made redundant by restructured state-owned enterprises. Interviews with people laid-off in three cities are presented in order to improve understanding of what constitutes poverty in urban China, inform policy interventions and aid the design and interpretation of survey work on urban poverty.

While not all laid-off workers are poor, many suffer from a loss of status, feelings of worthlessness and vulnerability to discrimination, exploitation or exclusion. Even if not destitute, most have to take up livelihoods they would formerly have despised, restrict their diet, spend less on educating their children and supporting elderly parents and cut down their social interactions.

Key areas of difference by gender were noted regarding attitudes to re-employment and household responsibilities. Many of those unemployed men now relying on their wives for economic support suffer from guilt. Women find it emotionally easier to accept new forms of work, however menial, while men, concerned with loss of face, are loath to engage in the (lower status, female) service sector. At the same time, traditional gender roles within the family are being reinforced now that women are losing the esteem once associated with being model socialist workers.

Generational differences in perceptions are also apparent. Many of those laid off see themselves as an unlucky generation: born at the time of the famines brought about by the Great Leap Forward policies, their education disrupted by the Cultural Revolution, prevented from having more than one child and now suffering the indignity of unemployment. Even those in their 30s describe themselves as old, unemployable and unable to compete in the labour market. Their self-esteem is lowered by ideological and media discussion which labels them low quality and blames them personally for failing to cope with the challenges of the market economy.

The people interviewed were well informed, politically savvy and able to access the media and other sources of information on policy changes. They are willing to lobby local government offices and to persist in demanding their rights individually. The report found that while most of those interviewed stated their broad support for economic reform they also wanted:

• movement restrictions to be restored, to prevent rural migrants from competing for scarce jobs
• the implementation of existing preferential tax and employment policies for laid-off workers and tax breaks for those going into business
• the provision of basic living expenses and assistance in finding jobs.

Haunted by a fear of social unrest, the Chinese government is now opening up to state agencies, scholars and development agencies researching urban poverty. Most studies however are concerned with collection of quantitative data on unemployment, incomes and living standards. Policy-makers preparing interventions are urged additionally to listen to the voices of the laid-off in order to better understand their perceptions and realities and the implications for individuals, families and urban society.

Source(s):
‘Unemployment, poverty and gender in urban China: perceptions and experiences of laid off workers in three Chinese Cities', Research Report 50, Poverty Research Programme, Institute of Development Studies, by S. Cook and S. Jolly, 2000 Full document.

Funded by: Department for International Development, UK

id21 Research Highlight: 3 February 2003

Further Information:
Susan Jolly
Institute of Development Studies
University of Sussex
Brighton BN1 9RE
UK

Tel: +44 (0)1273 877415
Fax: +44 (0)1273 621202
Contact the contributor: S.Jolly@ids.ac.uk

Institute of Development Studies (IDS), UK

Other related links:
See the IDS Gender and Global Change pages for further reports

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