The local state and nongmingong citizenship in Guangdong: local welfare as developmental contributory rights

This study analyses the changing socioeconomic status of nongmingong–village-originated informal migrant workers in Chinese cities–by examining how their local welfare rights are conditioned upon individual developmental utilities. In Guangdong Province, which is an exemplary case, the local state has provided a kind of developmental-cum-social citizenship to migrant workers with desirable qualifications. The state achieved this by granting hukou (formalized local citizen status) according to a point-based system that emphasizes qualifications that are considered useful for the local economy and society. Such developmentally contingent local citizenship, despite its inclusionary effect on those eligible, has inevitably amplified the inequalities among migrant workers in the labour market.