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Kuang-Chi Chang

individuals enact to solve problems they are facing in the environment (Tilly, 1995). Such
network practices can be quite resilient as long as it continues to produce satisfying results
for individuals (Chang, 2011).
Considering these arguments and counter-arguments, I expect there are at least three
possibilities for the comparison of urban natives and rural migrants in terms of their job
search methods. One is that both groups see a decreased reliance on networks when they
look for jobs, especially when this method is contrasted with the growing significance of
market channels. The second possibility is a resilient reliance on networks for both groups’
job searches in spite of the market alternatives. In either direction, I expect that the degree
of reliance on networks has become similar between rural migrants and urban natives. As
to the method of hierarchy, it may be another repertoire urban natives have established
over the course of their past experiences and continue to enact when they look for em-
ployment, which may explain why research (Obukhova, 2012) finds college students in
urban areas continuing to search for employment through their schools, even though
schools no longer assign students to jobs. This argument of repertoire may also be applied
to the reliance on kinship networks for migrants. Thus the possible path-dependency sug-
gests the third possibility that urban natives are more likely to rely on hierarchy than rural
migrants when they look for jobs. Specifically, I expect (1) rural migrants and urban
natives do not differ in their reliance on networks and on market channels in their
job searches (Hypotheses 3.1 and 3.2). (2) For rural migrants and urban natives, there
is a decreasing reliance on networks in their job searches (Hypothesis 4.1) and an in-
creasing reliance on market channels in their job searches over time (Hypothesis 4.2).

4. Data Sources and Methods

4.1 Data Sources
Data for this research comes from the 2008 Shanghai Health and Migration Study, jointly
sponsored by Fudan University, the Chinese University of Hong Kong, and the University
of Utah. This study collected information regarding health conditions, personal and work
characteristics, and job search behavior from a sample of rural-to-urban migrants as well
as local urban natives in Shanghai, China. The data was collected from five districts in
Shanghai with high concentrations of migrants. Four residential communities (juweihui)
were randomly chosen in each district. Fifty households — 25 with non-Shanghai hukou
and 25 with Shanghai hukou — in each neighborhood were randomly sampled, and 1 per-
son between the age of 18–64 in each household was interviewed. Among individuals who
had non-Shanghai hukou, I excluded those who had a college education and those who had
hukou from a different city. Many of the highly-educated individuals with rural hukou
were “elites” whose migration to Shanghai was sponsored by the government, the SOEs,
or large corporations (Fan, 2002). Individuals from other urban areas also tend to have
more resources and often have very different backgrounds and experiences than the typical
rural-to-urban migrants who move to Shanghai (often temporarily) to seek job opportuni-
ties and better income.

4.2 Measures

The dependent variable, job search channels, has three categories—hierarchy, market, and
network—according to respondents’ answers to the question, “How did you find your cur-
rent job?” The hierarchy method refers to finding jobs via government job assignment,
government recruitment via exams, and promotion within work unit. The market method
includes finding jobs via job advertisement, job agencies and websites, direct application,
self-employment, or business ownership. The network method includes finding jobs via

International Journal of Population Studies | 2015, Volume 1, Issue 1 99