Social Citizenship Rights and Responsibilities: A Survey of Rural Migrant Workers' Attitudes in China

Rural migrant workers have made huge contributions to the rapid development of urbanization in China. However, owing to the influences of institutional constraints and cultural factors, there may be gaps between expectations and practices of social citizenship rights and responsibilities for rural migrant workers. Based on the survey data of 973 rural migrant workers in four cities in China, this study compared expectations and practices of social citizenship rights and responsibilities for rural migrant workers in terms of four welfare dimensions, including employment, basic livelihood protection, child care, and elder care. The study concluded that rural migrant workers perceived a responsibility surplus and a rights deficit in social citizenship regarding both expectations and practices. Under the impact of a family-oriented welfare culture, the rights-responsibility gaps were more prominent in the two dimensions of child care and elder care. Rural migrant workers believed that they had fewer social citizenship rights in practice in comparison to their expectations for these rights. Moreover, there were generational and significant regional differences in the attitudinal patterns of rural migrant workers.