Em pirical Study on Online Political Participation of Young Migrant Workers

Yan KANG，Jianbin FANG

Department of Ideological and Political Theory Teaching and Research，Northwest Sci-Tech University of Agriculture and Forestry，Yangling 712100，China

1 Introduction

Every technological revolution of human society will exert tremendous influence on political life.Currently，rapidly developing network technology has become amajor channel for Chinese citizens transmittingmessages，expressing opinions，commenting on political news and releasing emotions，so the influence of online political participation on government act ismore and more prominent.As essential force of China's urbanization process，youngmigrant workers start participating in political affairs and the network becomes new channel for young migrant workers expressing rights and interests.Our team surveyed Shaanxi Province where the information level ismoderate.In the form ofquestionnaire，wemade an empirical study.We surveyed situation of online political participation of youngmigrantworkers in Xi'an，Xianyang and Yangling.By random samplingmethod，we issued 500 copies of questionnaire，collected 445 acceptable ones and the valid response rate is89%.

2 Analysis on current situation of online political participation of young m igrant workers

Our survey indicates thatonline political participation of youngmigrantworkersmainly takes on following characteristics：

2.1 Active and positive online political concernOnline political concern is the first step for online political participation.Our survey about online concern about social hot spots or political issues indicates that71.5%have daily or frequent concern，while only 28.4%have little or no concern.Therefore，youngmigrant workers have high enthusiasm for online political concern.39.8%pay close attention to social issues or political hot spots，such as people's livelihood security／urban construction（education，medical care，housing，and price）and 34.6%concern about social life，such as culture，recreation，and charities.8.6%concern about diplomacy／military and 14.6%concern about government act／political figures.Since educational level of young migrant workers ismainly senior middle school and their work ismainly manual labor，they usually concern about issues related to their vital interests.

2.2 Passive and profit seeking online political expressionOnline political discussion is themajor form of current online political participation.Survey data show thatonly 39.8%youngmigrantworkers actively participate in online discussion or comment about social issues，while about59.5%never participate in online discussion.Active participation ismainly intended toarouse attention ofmore people and even government，while unwilling to participate in discussion or comment ismainly due to not understanding relevant knowledge and background and not knowing what to discuss or not familiar with functions of online discussion.When seeing news related to vital interests，52.9%youngmigrantworkers stated that theywill express opinions，41.8%just took a look，and 5.3%turned a blind eye to the matter.This indicates that young migrant workers show high profit seeking characteristic in online political participation，andmost youngmigrantworkerswill actively discuss about issues related to their benefits.

2.3 Claim of rights in online political participationPolitical rights of citizens are realizedmainly through political participation activities such as voting，inquiry，hearing，and suggestion.These activities reflect position，selection scope and function of citizens in social political life andmanifest content of political relation［1］.Therefore，online voting，hearing，inquiry，and suggestion have becomemajor approaches formodern citizens participating in political activities.However，the survey indicates that only 34.2%youngmigrantworkers have once participated in such activities，and ashigh as65.1%said that they have never participated in such activities.Compared with participation of online concern and discussion，few young migrant workers participate in deep level online political participation.Among thosewho participate in online voting，hearing，inquiry，and suggestion，30.2%thought that these are their legal rights and duties.Youngmigrant workers participate in online political affairs aremainly for implementing and safeguarding their legal rights through network arousing public opinions.

3 Analysis on factors influencing online political participation of young m igrant workers

3.1 Gradual narrowing of digital gap weakens the online political participation of youngm igrantworkers in the region of m igrant workThe regions，where young migrant workers work，are significantly correlated with online political participation.Different regions have different popularization of network，thus the online political participation of youngmigrant workers is different.Generally，the online political participation of large cities is higher than small and medium-sized cities.However，our survey indicates that online political participation of Yangling is 82.6%，higher than Xi'an（66.5%）and Xianyang（45.2%）.This is because Yangling is a national agriculturalmodel area and a pilot city of National Smart City projectand ithas realized coverage of network.Even in some small towns，youngmigrantworkers have little living pressure and abundant idle time，thus they have more time to search and obtain information through network.By contrast，youngmigrantworkers in large and medium-sized cities do not havemuch time due to busy work and living pressure and do not have time to concern about political affairs.

3.2 Educational level exerts fundamental influence on online political participation of youngm igrantworkersEducational level is an essential indicator influencing network access.There is a positive correlation between actof youngmigrantworkers searching political information and educational level of young migrant workers.Those youngmigrantworkerswith higher educational level can use network technology better，actively concern about network information，participate in online discussion，and express their opinions.Survey indicates that young migrant workers with age of18－23 years old and educational level higher than senior middle school have strong network performance and part.

3.3 The influence of occupation factor on online political participation of young m igrant workers is closely connected w ith their educational levelIn this study，we divided occupation intomanufacturing industry，retail，transportation，catering，building，management，and individual dealers.Statistical results indicate thatyoungmigrantworkers inmanufacturing and transportation industrieshave higher enthusiasm for online political participation.This ismainly because youngmigrantworkers inmanufacturing and transportation industries have higher educational level，stable job，certain economic foundation，certain network knowledge，free time，and economic strength to concern about network information.Data indicate that youngmigrant workers in catering service industry and individual dealers have low concern about network.This is because theseworkers have low educational level and low income.Therefore，difference resulted from different occupation is closely connected with educational level.

3.4 Vacancy of party organization activities leads to no correlation between political status and online political participation of youngm igrantworkersGenerally，the political status will exert certain influence on political participation of the young.For example，the empirical study in 10 universities of Zhejiang Province indicates that there is significant difference in political participation of studentswith differentpolitical status.Partymembers and leaguemembers aremore active in participating in political activities［2］.However，in the survey of young migrant workers，the situation is not like this，and there is no correlation between political status and online political participation of young migrantworkers.This result is unexpected.In the interview with partymember youngmigrant workers，they said that they seldom participated in party organization activities and even they participated in online political activities，they generally do not consider their political status.This isbecause the number of partymembers is relatively small in young migrant workers.Among 445 young migrantworkerswe surveyed，only 13.9%are partymembers and 36.6%are league members.Secondly，organizational level of partymembers of youngmigrantworkers is relatively low.In their work，youngmigrantworkers seldom participated in collective activities，and just expressed their personal opinions when participating in political activities，and basically neglected their political status.

4 Recommendations for raising online political participation of young m igrant workers

4.1 Strengthening network information construction to provide equal opportunity for youngm igrant workers participating in political activitiesThe information is a basic condition for young migrant workers participating in political activities，while the network is an essential carrier for youngmigrantworkers participating in politicalactivities.Information-based online political participation needs having the aid ofmodern network technology and widely distributed network virtual channels［3］.In China，due to difference in regional economic and cultural development level，the digital gap still exists between regions and between urban and rural areas，and the situation is worse in eastern coastal areas than central and western regions.Youngmigrantworkers are influenced from backward information digital popularization，unbalanced information acquisition.Asa result，peoplewith rich in-formation will take active position，which goes against fair and popular online political participation.However，with popularization of smartmobile phones，especially construction of smart cities，and coverage of free WIFI in the whole city，digital gap is constantly narrowing and the network information acquisition ability of different social classes is improving.As young generation of migrantworkers，smartmobile phone has become theirmajor living and recreational style.Most youngmigrantworkers said that it ismore swift，economical and frequent to obtain political news，express opinions，and participate in political activities through smartmobile phone.Therefore，government at all levels，especially government in central and western regions，should accelerate developing network information，narrow the digital gap，and guarantee equal opportunity of youngmigrantworkers in online political participation.In 2013，Shaanxi Province energetically promoted the information construction.With great support of local government and formulation of Broadband China Strategy，1000 villages connected broadband network，laying a solid foundation for network development of Shaanxi Province［3］，and also providing favorable technological condition for citizens'online political participation.

4.2 Enhancing theoretical and practical training of online political participation to improve online political participation ability of young m igrant workersCompared with previous generation migrant workers，young generation migrant workers have higher educational and cultural level.However，these are not enough for them to get to know value of online political participation and do not know how to use network to realize their rights of political participation.They have to keep indifferent attitude towards online political participation［4］.Our survey indicates that educational level is a key factor influencing their online political participation.36.1%youngmigrantworkers said that they do not know relevant network technology，political knowledge background，and do not know whatand how to discuss，so they did not participate in online discussion.For this，it is required to improve their online political participation ability.Firstly，the state should propagate relevant laws，regulations and policies through various media，to make young migrant workers realize they can express their opinions in the framework of legal provisions.Secondly，governmentmay cultivate online political participation ability of young migrantworkers through microblog，WeChat platform，and other feasible means，to provide powerful technological support for youngmigrantworkers［5］.Thirdly，organizations should extensively organize youngmigrantworkers to actively participate in learning of political theories and scientific and cultural knowledge，improve their political theoretical level and political skills，so as to lay a solid foundation for improving online political participation ability of youngmigrantworkers［6］.

4.3 Enhancing construction of online political participation government feedback mechanism，to provide a channel for youngm igrant workers to express and realize their benefitsIf a citizen thinks that he can exert certain influence on government formulating policies and government can actively interact with netizens，they will actively participate in political affairs.Otherwise，they will be indifferent to political activities.In our survey，50.4%youngmigrantworkers thought that online expression，voting，inquiry and suggestionwillexert certain influence on government policies，and 10.4%said that these will have strong influence.However，75.3%youngmigrantworkers said that they received no active response from government.Government should establish online political participation feedback mechanism，actively respond to problems conveyed by young migrant workers，and solve the problems offline，to further improve current situation ofweak response.In addition，government should reflect and satisfy reasonable and legal benefit demands of netizens in urban policies，strengthen democratic concept in the realization of benefits，so as to raise reliance and efficiency feeling of young migrant workers in online political participation.

4.4 Enhancing the construction of party organization，to bring into play leading model role of young m igrant worker partymembers in online political participationProblems conveyed by youngmigrantworkers prominently reflect vacancy of the party organization construction in the team of youngmigrantworkers.Firstly，there are few partymembers in youngmigrantworkers.Among 445 youngmigrantworkerswe surveyed，only 13.9%are partymembersand 36.6%are leaguemembers.Secondly，organizational level of party members of young migrant workers is relatively low.In their work，youngmigrant workers seldom participated in collective activities，and just expressed their personal opinions when participating in political activities，and basically neglected their political status. Therefore， local government should take active measures to strengthen grass-roots construction of the party organization in young migrant workers and enhance party spirit cultivation of partymembersof youngmigrantworkers.Furthermore，government at all levels，society and organizations and enterprisesemployingmigrantworkers should cultivate leading model role of young migrant workers，stimulate interest of young migrant workers in participating in political activities，actively guide network public opinion，propagate positive force，andmake youngmigrantworkers obtain feeling of political trust and approval.

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