Page 102 - IJPS-1-1

Finding a job in urban China: A comparative analysis of migrants and natives

opportunities for migrants, but also more bargaining power for migrants to seek work pro-
tection, higher wages, and better working conditions. The labor shortage has also helped
change the perspectives of employers, local and central governments, and urban natives
toward migrant workers (Cai, Park, and Zhao, 2008). Recent reforms have helped provide
some social benefits to rural migrants and reduce their constraints on making a living in
the urban areas (Chan and Buckingham, 2008). By contrast, many urban natives have lost
their job security during the market transition. The state job assignment system was dis-
mantled in the late 1990s; many inefficient state-owned enterprises that employed mainly
urban natives have undergone economic restructuring and massive lay-offs since the 1990s
(Solinger, 2002). As a result, a new generation of urban residents now has to pay for their
own education, insurance, pension, and housing and has to look for jobs in an increasingly
mature labor market, just like rural migrants (Tang and Yang, 2008). These dramatic
changes due to market transition, economic development, and social transformation are
likely to have affected how both migrants and urban natives find jobs in today’s urban
China.
3. Networks, Institutional Constraints and Job Search in Urban China

Sociologists have demonstrated the important role of social networks in job searching
(Granovetter, 1995). Voluminous research has focused on the advantages of networks, par-
ticularly weak ties or acquaintances, in accessing valuable and non-redundant job informa-
tion (for a review, see Lin, 1999). This “weak-ties for new information” argument, howev-
er, is challenged by evidence from China’s urban job market because, firstly what seem to
be most helpful in finding jobs are strong ties for both urban natives (Bian, 2008) and rural
migrants (Zhang, 2001), and, secondly urban natives seem to use networks to influence job
search outcomes (Bian, 1997) while rural migrants use networks to overcome information
constraints when other alternative channels are limited (Wang, Zhuo, and Ruan, 2002). In
the section below, I summarize how social networks benefit migrants and natives in dif-
ferent ways in their job searches.

3.1 Rural-to-urban Migrants: Networks, Resource Availability and Information Ex-
change

Research on migrants has demonstrated the important role of migrants’ social networks in
overcoming obstacles in migration process and in their job search and settlement when
they arrive at their destinations (Portes, 1994; Korinek, Entwisle and Jampaklay, 2005).
Many face language barriers, have limited resources and know little about the local labor
market (Drever and Hoffmeister, 2008). When other channels are not available and the
costs of obtaining information are a concern, migrants tend to rely on personal ties, espe-
cially kinship and ties to other migrants, to acquire job-related information as these chan-
nels are relatively inexpensive and readily accessible (Wang, Zhuo, and Ruan,2002).
Those who migrated earlier usually offer newcomers helpful tips on job searching (Agui-
lera and Massey, 2003). Many also settle in self-enclosed urban migrant enclaves where
networks from the communities provide important resources from housing, finances, job
information, to emotional support (Wilson and Portes, 1980).
Not surprisingly, similar to their counterparts in other regions of the world, China’s ru-
ral-to-urban migrants have been found to rely on their networks when they look for jobs;
they receive job tips or help from family and friends, acquire personal referrals, or work
for family (Zhang, 2001). Facing a great deal of socioeconomic disadvantages, especially
during the 1980s and 1990s, rural migrants were excluded from many valuable resources,
including jobs that were only available to urban natives through “formal” channels or
“hierarchical” methods (Wang, Zhuo, and Ruan,2002). Without many alternatives, mi-

International Journal of Population Studies | 2015, Volume 1, Issue 1 96