Icts and migrant workers in contemporary China

Pui-lam Law

Wai-chi Rodney Chu

pp. 43-45

in: Pui-lam Law, Wai-chi Rodney Chu (eds), ICT and migrant workers in China, Knowledge, Technology & Policy 21 (2), 2008.

Abstract

Since the early 1980s, when China implemented economic reforms and opened its doors to the outside world, internal migration from rural to urban areas and from the western and central regions of the country to the eastern coastal region has been continuous. The floating population, predominantly migrant workers, has increased sharply from 30 million in the early 1980s to 150 million in the early 2000s. This scale of internal migration is unprecedented. The speed of the penetration of information communication technologies (ICTs) among migrant workers in recent years is also astonishing. In the recent special issue on ICTs and China, it was noted that the penetration rate of ICTs is highest in the coastal cities. In late 2007, Shanghai had almost 100% mobile penetration rate and Guangdong of 84.3%. These two cities are densely populated with migrant workers. Undoubtedly, the ubiquitous penetration of ICTs has a significant impact on migrant workers’ social lives, both directly and...