IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/ecolab/v31y2020i3p425-443.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Impediments to free movement of Chinese seafarers in the maritime labour market

Author

Listed:
  • Zhiwei Zhao

    (Dalian Maritime University, China; University of Southern Denmark, Denmark)

  • David Walters

    (Cardiff University, UK)

  • Desai Shan

    (Dalhousie University, Canada)

Abstract

With economic reform, in China, labour turnover of seafarers became more possible. However, little attention has been paid to its consequences. A limited literature indicates that Chinese seafarers may leave state-owned enterprises to become freelance seafarers, working in the global labour market for better wages and employment conditions. There have been predictions of a substantial increase in seafarer export, with China becoming the top labour supplier to the global maritime industry. However, such expectations have been largely unmet. Through 157 qualitative interviews with seafarers and managers in Chinese ship crewing agencies, we explore some reasons why this may be so. The findings suggest that Chinese seafarers are in fact limited in their willingness and ability to leave their companies. This is due to a complex mixture of organisational, regulatory, infrastructural and personal contexts that are their everyday experience of work in China. Analysis further suggests that the underdevelopment of a national regulatory infrastructure and welfare support mechanism for seafarers, along with poor implementation of the Maritime Labour Convention 2006, combine to limit the extent of the reform of the Chinese seafaring labour market. Together, these factors help to explain why China’s seafaring labour export has been far lower than anticipated. JEL Codes: D40, E24, F66, J61, J83

Suggested Citation

  • Zhiwei Zhao & David Walters & Desai Shan, 2020. "Impediments to free movement of Chinese seafarers in the maritime labour market," The Economic and Labour Relations Review, , vol. 31(3), pages 425-443, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:ecolab:v:31:y:2020:i:3:p:425-443
    DOI: 10.1177/1035304620937881
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1035304620937881
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/1035304620937881?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. K. X. Li & J. Wonham, 1999. "Who mans the world fleet? A follow-up to the BIMCO/ ISF manpower survey," Maritime Policy & Management, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 26(3), pages 295-303.
    2. Lijun Tang & Mark Oliver S. Llangco & Zhiwei Zhao, 2016. "Transformations and continuities of issues related to Chinese participation in the global seafarers’ labour market," Maritime Policy & Management, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 43(3), pages 344-355, April.
    3. Bin Wu, 2004. "Participation in the global labour market: experience and responses of chinese seafarers," Maritime Policy & Management, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 31(1), pages 69-82, January.
    4. Zhiwei Zhao & Jørgen Riis Jepsen & Lijun Tang, 2016. "The reform of Chinese state-owned ship crewing agencies and implications for China’s seafaring labour export," Maritime Policy & Management, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 43(6), pages 737-747, August.
    5. Jiangang Fei & Jianjun Lu, 2015. "Analysis of students' perceptions of seafaring career in China based on artificial neural network and genetic programming," Maritime Policy & Management, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 42(2), pages 111-126, February.
    6. Andrew Jonas, 1996. "Local Labour Control Regimes: Uneven Development and the Social Regulation of Production," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 30(4), pages 323-338.
    7. Lijun Tang & Pengfei Zhang, 2019. "Global problems, local solutions: unfree labour relations and seafarer employment with crewing agencies in China," Industrial Relations Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 50(3), pages 277-291, May.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Bin Wu & Glory Gu & Chris James Carter, 2021. "The bond and retention of Chinese seafarers for international shipping companies: a survey report," Journal of Shipping and Trade, Springer, vol. 6(1), pages 1-17, December.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Bin Wu & Glory Gu & Chris James Carter, 2021. "The bond and retention of Chinese seafarers for international shipping companies: a survey report," Journal of Shipping and Trade, Springer, vol. 6(1), pages 1-17, December.
    2. Jiangang Fei & Jianjun Lu, 2015. "Analysis of students' perceptions of seafaring career in China based on artificial neural network and genetic programming," Maritime Policy & Management, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 42(2), pages 111-126, February.
    3. Lijun Tang, 2022. "Defending workers' rights on social media: Chinese seafarers during the COVID‐19 pandemic," Industrial Relations Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 53(2), pages 110-125, March.
    4. Elena Baglioni, 2022. "The Making of Cheap Labour across Production and Reproduction: Control and Resistance in the Senegalese Horticultural Value Chain," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 36(3), pages 445-464, June.
    5. Katie J Wells & Kafui Attoh & Declan Cullen, 2021. "“Just-in-Place†labor: Driver organizing in the Uber workplace," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 53(2), pages 315-331, March.
    6. Winifred Curran, 2004. "Gentrification and the Nature of Work: Exploring the Links in Williamsburg, Brooklyn," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 36(7), pages 1243-1258, July.
    7. Bin Wu & Kee-hung Lai & T. C. Edwin Cheng, 2006. "Emergence of ‘new professionalism’ among Chinese seafarers: empirical evidence and policy implications," Maritime Policy & Management, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 33(1), pages 35-48, February.
    8. Scott Baum & Anthea Bill & William Mitchell, 2008. "Labour Underutilisation in Metropolitan Labour Markets in Australia: Individual Characteristics, Personal Circumstances and Local Labour Markets," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 45(5-6), pages 1193-1216, May.
    9. Enrico Lobrigo & Thomas Pawlik, 2012. "The seafaring labour market in Brazil," Maritime Policy & Management, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 39(6), pages 621-639, November.
    10. Elena Baglioni, 2018. "Labour control and the labour question in global production networks: exploitation and disciplining in Senegalese export horticulture," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 18(1), pages 111-137.
    11. Fichter Michael & Stevis Dimitris & Helfen Markus, 2012. "Bargaining for corporate responsibility: The global and the local of framework agreements in the USA," Business and Politics, De Gruyter, vol. 14(3), pages 1-31, October.
    12. Maria Progoulaki & Vangelis Tsioumas & Katerina Voutsina, 2022. "Turning followers into leaders: commercial shipping versus navy—a literature review," Maritime Economics & Logistics, Palgrave Macmillan;International Association of Maritime Economists (IAME), vol. 24(2), pages 466-488, June.
    13. Fuchs Martina & Dannenberg Peter & López Tatiana & Wiedemann Cathrin & Riedler Tim, 2023. "Location-specific labour control strategies in online retail," ZFW – Advances in Economic Geography, De Gruyter, vol. 67(4), pages 189-201, December.
    14. Aidan While & Andrew E G Jonas & David C Gibbs, 2004. "Unblocking the City? Growth Pressures, Collective Provision, and the Search for New Spaces of Governance in Greater Cambridge, England," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 36(2), pages 279-304, February.
    15. Cristina Maria Dragomir, 2019. "Gender in Postmodernism Maritime Transport," Postmodern Openings, Editura Lumen, Department of Economics, vol. 10(1), pages 182-192, March.
    16. Zhang, Pengfei & Zhao, Minghua, 2015. "Maritime Labour Convention, 2006 and the Chinese seafarers: How far is China to ratification?," Marine Policy, Elsevier, vol. 61(C), pages 54-65.
    17. J Wills & A Lincoln, 1999. "Filling the Vacuum in New Management Practice? Lessons from US Employee-Owned Firms," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 31(8), pages 1497-1512, August.
    18. Minghua Zhao, 2002. "The Consequences of China's Socialist Market Economy for Seafarers," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 16(1), pages 171-183, March.
    19. Azmeh, Shamel & Nguyen, Huong & Kuhn, Marlene, 2022. "Automation and industrialisation through global value chains: North Africa in the German automotive wiring harness industry," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 63(C), pages 125-138.
    20. Sally A. Weller, 2008. "Are Labour Markets Necessarily 'Local'? Spatiality, Segmentation and Scale," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 45(11), pages 2203-2223, October.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Chinese seafarers; labour turnover; seafaring labour export; seafaring labour market reform;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D40 - Microeconomics - - Market Structure, Pricing, and Design - - - General
    • E24 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment - - - Employment; Unemployment; Wages; Intergenerational Income Distribution; Aggregate Human Capital; Aggregate Labor Productivity
    • F66 - International Economics - - Economic Impacts of Globalization - - - Labor
    • J61 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers - - - Geographic Labor Mobility; Immigrant Workers
    • J83 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Labor Standards - - - Workers' Rights

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:ecolab:v:31:y:2020:i:3:p:425-443. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.