Internal return migrants as agents of change: factory labor, home-based production, and entrepreneurship in China’s garment industry

This study investigates the work strategies of return migrant workers in eastern China’sgarment industry l, focusing on Qianshan—a region transformed by return migration and the relocation of garment processing from Zhili, the traditional center of children’s wear production. Based on 11 biographical interviews, it explores how return migrants navigate between wage employment, home-based production, and small- or medium-sized entrepreneurship. Three main strategies are identified: factory laborers employed in small workshops, own-account workers producing garments from home, and entrepreneurs operating small or medium enterprises. The increasing number of return migrants engaged in the first two strategies has stimulated the relocation of garment businesses, creating a self-reinforcing process in which returning laborers seek to work closer to home while enterprises follow them to the region. Situated in Qianshan’s historical and cultural context, the study demonstrates how return migration contributes to local industrialization and reveals the active agency of workers who negotiate structural constraints and reshape their socio-economic environments. It underscores the interplay of historical, economic, and cultural forces in shaping return migration and rural industrial development in contemporary China.