Abstract: Investigations of the older generation of migrant workers on E subway construction site shows that under the huge family livelihood pressures and the structural relationships between city and country, capital and labor, state and citizen, the older generation of migrant workers in the workplace chose subsistence ethics as their daily strategies and action principles, which was performed in the way of ordinary subordination to the workplace’s control system. However, when their economic interests were threatened, the older generation of migrant workers would take the identity of themselves as their weapon, which strengthened their identity along with the achievements of their resistance. It was concluded that under the constraints of multiple structures, subjective strategies of the older generation of migrant workers based on the current interests calculation admittedly satisfied their economic demands, but also limited their opportunities to change their identity and status.