The Lesser of Two Evils? Explaining Chinese Rural Migrant Workers’ Preference for On-demand Food Delivery Work With Reference to the Legal Framework

• Published in: Social & legal studies Vol. 34; no. 1; pp. 3 - 21
• Main Author: Lin, Ou
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London, England SAGE Publications 01.02.2025; Sage Publications Ltd
• Subjects: Compensation; Factories; Flexibility; Food; Freedoms; Income; Migrant workers; Overtime; Qualitative research; Sex discrimination; Social security; Wages & salaries; Work; China; income; migrant workers; On-demand work; freedom and flexibility; labour law

Drawing on a series of interviews with on-demand food delivery riders, who are rural migrant workers, this paper seeks to explain the workers’ decision to give up stable jobs in factories in favour of largely unregulated and precarious on-demand work. Focusing on those aspects of the legal framework...