From the early 1980s, China entered into an age of rural-urban migration. Millions of farmers have flooded into cities and towns for work and significantly reshaped the character of Chinese society. This book is the first to examine the social exclusion of rural migrant workers from the perspective of institutionalism. It integrates several disciplinary areas – institutionalism, international business and HRM – in one study through combining both the process and variance approaches. It contributes to the literature of institutionalism and institutional analysis, as well as the scarce research on the strategic responses of MNEs to the institutional characteristics of host countries at the subsidiary level. The findings of this study have implications for HRM research, workforce diversity management, MNEs’ legitimacy management and the improvement of employment governance in China.