Rural migrants, urban migrants and local workers in Shanghai: Segmented or competitive labour markets?

It has been documented widely that temporary migrants in Chinese cities are subject to labour market discrimination and urban labour markets are segmented across institutional barriers including the hukou system. Continued economic reform and policies, committed to more equal treatment of migrants and local dwellers, will generate greater competition between migrants and local workers. This article assesses whether the urban labour markets for migrants and local workers have remained segmented by examining the existence, and the extent, of wage discrimination against migrants. Our data, collected during recent fieldwork in Shanghai, revealed that migrants from rural and urban origins differed in their educational attainment and skills. We then compared wage patterns for rural migrants, urban migrants and local workers in Shanghai separately. These wage differentials reflected both market forces (rewards to differing productivity) and institutional factors (rewards to residence status or hukou), indicating that discrimination in the labour market still exists.