The Elite, the Natives, and the Outsiders: Migration and Labor Market Segmentation in Urban China

Abstract

Established migration theories are mostly based on capitalist market economies and downplay the role of institutions in internal migration and labor market processes. In socialist and transitional economies such as those in Russia and China, however, investigations of migration and the labor market must begin by examining the nature and consequences of state institutions. In this article, I argue that the migration and labor market processes in Chinese cities are deeply influenced by an institution-based opportunity structure. The household registration ( hukou ) system, in particular, is interwoven with distribution of services and job opportunities. Most peasants who enter cities in response to increased demands for cheap labor are not granted urban citizenship and are treated as "outsiders" to the urban society. The experiences of these "temporary migrants" contrast with those of "permanent migrants" who are state-sponsored or have access to institutional resources. Using qualitative accounts from a 1995 village-level survey in Sichuan and Anhui and quantitative data from a survey I conducted in Guangzhou in 1998, this article examines the most salient differences among the three subpopulations with different resident statuses: nonmigrant urban natives, permanent migrants, and temporary migrants. I show that resident status is central to explaining migration processes and labor market segmentation in the Chinese city. The findings indicate that in terms of human capital attributes, mobility resources, and labor market entry and shifts, permanent migrants are the most privileged and successful elite, followed by nonmigrant natives, and finally by temporary migrants at the bottom of the hierarchy. These results hint at a new social order of stratification in Chinese cities, underscore the compelling relations between internal migration and labor market development in transitional economies, and suggest that in these economies the state deepens the bifurcation effects about which labor market segmentation theory is concerned.

Negotiating a Concurrence: Tracing the Visible/Invisible Relocation within Migrant-Inhabited Cities of China

“…This does not mean that family migrants lost interest in their original community, a great pool of research presents proof that social networks evolve around the triple sphere of 'blood, kinship and geography' even though there is a large geographical distance (Fan, 2002;Deaux 2009). …”

“…The trend and emphasis seem to be on the prevailing attitude towards rural migrants as permanent second-tier sojourners in urban society (Fan 2002) which causes their network ties to deteriorate. As a result of migrants' cohesion being grounded in the lower levels of society and in the long absence of stable support or protection from the host setting, such residents have naturally formed themselves into self-sufficient groups (Zhang et al 2003).…”

“…2 In fact, the hukou system segregating migrants from the urban population may be a much more significant factor than cultural barriers in accounting for migrant marginality and denial of their citizenship rights. In the case of China's inner migration, Hukou 'identity' (the household registration system) places people spatially with a rigid institutional hierarchy (Shen 2013;Fan 2002). Stonequist, for instance, believes that being within the orbit of double hierarchal cultural milieus can result in inner strain and malaise, a feeling of isolation, of not quite belonging (Stonequist 1937).…”

In Search of a Better Life: The Occupational Attainment of Rural and Urban Migrants in China

“…On the one hand, the rural-to-urban transfer process was simplified and eased. On the other hand, the introduction of national ID cards and temporary residence permits in the mid1980s induced a new wave of internal migrants (Fan, 2002a) who no longer need to register their hukou to the area where they work or live. These non-hukou migrants are temporary migrants without local household registration status.…”

“…See Chan and Buckingham (2008), Chan and Zhang (1999), and Fan (2002aFan ( , 2002b for a detailed review of the hukou system and related policy. The dual classification of hukou registration is based on both the place of regular residence and hukou status (i.e., hukou site and The purpose of this paper is to examine the occupational attainment and job mobility of permanent rural-to-urban migrants who successfully obtained a local urban hukou.…”