Inequality and Stratification Commons^™

In the past few years there has been a rise of inter-ethnic violence in China. While ethno-cultural repression and ineffective state policies are correctly attributed as key culprits behind this reality, this article suggests that socio-economic factors play a fundamental contributory role as well. Using the Xinjiang case, the article maps ethnic tensions and violence as a manifestation and expression of a growing and heighten ethno-cultural consciousness stemming from ethnic minorities’ low socio-economic status due, in part, to internal Han migration, and a labour market process – involving agency and structure – that has shaped a split and segmented labour …

The literature on ethnic minorities in China has a significant puzzle: in some studies, urban minorities perceive lower wages relative to the majority Han, while in other studies there is little to no evidence of this wage gap. There is not a clear theoretical expectation as to how these findings could simultaneously be true suggesting that new theory-building is necessary. We propose that the primary issue, and a potential solution, is the failure to fully disaggregate ethnic minority groups’ labour market experiences. We leverage a new, large dataset solely looking at ethnic minorities in China to explore this divergence. Our …