Migrant (farm)workers and farmers in China and Myanmar: a perspective from the sugarcane sector

• DOI: 10.1007/s10460-024-10701-0
• Publication Date: 2025-03-14T13:43:03Z
• Authors: Chunyu Wang; Jingzhong Ye; Yiyuan Chen; Xiaobo Hua; Lu Pan; Yunan Xu; Jennifer C. Franco; Doi Ra; Sai Sam Kham; Saturnino M. Borras

Abstract In this paper we argue that the most critical factor that shapes the character and trajectory of the sugarcane sector in China is neither land nor labour, individually, but rather the interactions of social dynamics around land and labour, and specifically migrant labour. We argue that not only that the political economy of land and labour together drive agrarian transformation in the sugarcane sector, but more precisely that it is the process of how the labour regime shapes land politics, and how land politics shapes the labour regime, that is the central driving force. Furthermore, this mutual reshaping of land and labour regimes is multi-sited, occurring simultaneously within China and Myanmar, and in the China–Myanmar corridor. Our hunch is that the dynamics we observe here have broader resonance worldwide, especially in major farmer–farmworker land/labour flows along transnational corridors.