There is a working population of 740.4 million people in China. About 295.62 million, constituting more than one-third of the working population, is comprised of a group known as rural migrant workers. They are key in propelling China’s robust economic growth and rapid urbanization rate over the past few decades. Despite their significant contribution, rural migrant workers remain marginalized and are confronted with discrimination in urban areas. 

Rural migrant workers are individuals with a rural household registration who are employed in urban workplaces and reside in urban areas. They migrate to cities in search of better jobs and higher incomes. Yet when migrants leave their hometowns, they face a long string of inequalities, many of which are perpetuated by China’s longstanding hukou system, or (household registration system). 

When the communist party established the hukou system, its major purposes included: regulating population mobility and resource allocations. Each town and city issues its own hukou, granting residents access to social welfare services in that jurisdiction. Individuals were broadly categorized as "rural" or "urban" based on their place of residence. Moreover, the hukou was hereditary, meaning that children of parents with a rural hukou would automatically inherit such, regardless of their birthplace. This system became a major issue after the economic reforms of the 1980s. As a large influx of peasants left their farmland and poured into factories and construction sites of China’s coastal boom towns, hukou registration severely limited the social services accessible to rural migrant workers. 

The dilemma faced by rural migrant workers in China is shaped by the elements of a VUCA (Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity, Ambiguity) world. This paper examines how the hukou system’s discriminatory practices along with other factors of uncertainty and complexity, restrain rural residents from obtaining essential services like healthcare and education, which would exacerbate existing inequalities, and hinder social mobility in China. 

Due to the hukou system, migrants are classified as temporary residents in cities irrespective of their length of stay. Since migrant workers hold rural hukou, they are only eligible to receive social welfare in their place of registration, not their urban destination. Therefore, access to healthcare became one of the many obstacles faced by the rural migrant worker population. Rural migrants typically rely on the New Rural Cooperative Medical Scheme (NRCMS), which provides limited healthcare services compared to Urban Resident Basic Medical Insurance (URBMI). Studies during 2014 and 2018 indicated that not only is health insurance coverage for migrant workers low because they are removed from their original place of insurance registration, but also that the insurance provided by their workplace is often insufficient or even absent. In fact, only 19 percent of migrants had any kind of health insurance, and only 26 percent were entitled to some sick pay, compared to 58 percent of health insurance coverage for urban residents.

The scenario faced by rural workers is complicated by numerous factors. Rural migrants are mainly employed in low-paid jobs in manufacturing, construction, and service industries, which expose them to dangerous working conditions with high occupational risks. In addition, they often work long hours, and have little job security and few welfare benefits, due to the lack of labor contracts. Given the uncertain dangers they might face in their work and their limited financial resources, migrant workers are among the groups most in need of healthcare. However, without adequate insurance, they are often burdened with high out-of-pocket expenses for urban healthcare services. Consequently, it leads to rural migrant workers not seeking such services, with only about half of them visiting a medical doctor when needed, compared with a national average of 84.5 percent. Instead, they turn to no treatment, self-treatment, or informal health services when they are sick. 

Another facet of the broader struggles faced by migrant families includes their children’s access to quality education. Due to the limitations of the hukou system, children of rural migrant workers are restricted from enrolling in local public schools in urban areas. This leaves migrant workers with two difficult choices: send their children to private-run migrant schools or leave them behind in their rural hometowns under the care of relatives or surrogate caregivers. The problem with migrant schools is that they barely reach the educational level of urban and rural schools, as they are plagued by lack or resources, poor teaching, poor facilities, undeveloped curriculum, and high tuition. Given that migrant schools are privately run, most remain unregulated and lack standards, therefore, education quality across schools varied tremendously. 

It was not until March 2008, that the central government suggested local governments admit migrant children into public schools by collecting extra fees. However, implementation was left to local officials, leaving them to decide on whether to take action and the extent, leading to ambiguity and inconsistency. Among the areas that have implemented the suggestions, take the example of Beijing, where public schools charge high fees for migrant students, with good schools charging up to 500 yuan (US$68.50) per term in addition to a 1,000 yuan (US$137) “school selection fee” and 1,000 to 30,000 yuan (US$137 to US$4,109.98) “sponsor fee.” The amount is exorbitant for migrant households, whose average monthly income is around 1,000 yuan (US$137), with 20 percent of migrants earning less than 500 yuan (US$68.50) per month.

Considering the unaffordable amount of tuition and the complexity of helping their children obtain education in urban areas, many migrant workers choose to leave their children in the countryside. In fact, an estimated of over 60 million children, about one in five children in China are Left-behind children, who remain in rural villages while their parents migrate to cities for work. Left-behind children either go to boarding schools, or are taken care of by surrogate caregivers or their grandparents, who are frequently illiterate, and incapable of providing for the child’s needs. Research has shown that long-term lack of parental care has long-lasting adverse effects on mental health conditions in Left-behind children, such as low levels of self-awareness, a strong sense of loneliness, and high social anxiety levels. 

Overall, the lives of rural migrant workers in China are characterized by complexity and uncertainty, reflecting the principles of a VUCA world. The barriers created by the hukou system, such as exclusion from urban healthcare and education systems, along with economic challenges like low wages, unsafe working conditions, and social issues like discrimination in urban environments continue to marginalize this group, increasing the complexity for them to improve their socioeconomic status.

Without supportive policies to guarantee their basic rights, migrant workers live in a constant state of uncertainty regarding their health, job security, and financial stability, unsure if they will one day become ill, unemployed, or even unable to provide for their families. The systemic issues widen the urban-rural inequality gap, limit upward mobility, and eventually perpetuate a cycle of disadvantage. Without reforms to the hukou system and the implementation of policies that secure basic rights and address discrimination both culturally and institutionally, these workers will stay trapped in structural inequities. Thus, only by adopting proactive measures can China bridge the urban-rural divide and build a society where fairness and opportunity are accessible to everyone.