I lavoratori cinesi e il diritto: Consapevolezza e percezioni

The wave of strikes of the Spring 2010 brought to the attention of the general public the issue of Chinese migrant workers’ rising legal consciousness. This paper aims to offer a critical view on the question of the so-called “awakening” of Chinese workers. To this purpose, in first place it gives a general outline of the ongoing debate, introducing the reader to the main questions up for discussion; in second place, it describes the methodological diffi culties encountered while conducting an experimental fieldwork among migrant workers in a village in Hunan province during the Spring Festival of 2011; and finally it introduces some critical issues on which further researches will be needed.