Migrant networks have long been regarded as helpful for facilitating migration and assimilation. However, research examining the influence of migrant networks on labour market outcomes for migrants has provided mixed results. This article investigates the impact of hometown ties on migrants’ labour market outcomes in the context of Chinese internal migration, by utilizing data from migrants in Beijing to perform statistical analyses of income and informal employment (i.e. employment without legal documents). After adjusting for the potential bias that results from the workers’ self-selectivity into the use of hometown ties in finding jobs, the analyses show that the hourly income of migrants is lower if they depend on hometown ties to find jobs. Also, migrants who rely on hometown ties for jobs are more likely to be informally employed, which has a detrimental effect on their overall welfare.
CialdiniRBGoldsteinNJ (2004) Social influence: compliance and conformity. Annual Review of Psychology55(1): 591–621.
18.
ColemanJS (1988) Social capital in the creation of human capital. American Journal of Sociology94: S95–S120.
19.
CorcoranMDatcherLDuncanG (1980) Information and influence networks in labor markets. In: DuncanGMorganJ (eds) Five Thousand American Families: Patterns of Economic Progress. Ann Arbor, MI: Institute for Social Research, 1–37.
20.
DuanCYangG (2009) The change of the working status of floating people during the last 30 years. China Youth Study4: 53–56 (in Chinese).
21.
EdinP-AFredrikssonPÅslundO (2003) Ethnic enclaves and the economic success of immigrants: evidence from a natural experiment. The Quarterly Journal of Economics118(1): 329–357.
22.
FangTGundersonMLinC (2016) The use and impact of job search procedures by migrant workers in China. China Economic Review37: 154–165.
23.
GranovetterMS (1973) The strength of weak ties. American Journal of Sociology78(6): 1360–1380.
24.
GreenwoodMJ (1969) An analysis of the determinants of geographic labor mobility in the united states. The Review of Economics and Statistics51(2): 189–194.
25.
HerzA (2015) Relational constitution of social support in migrants’ transnational personal communities. Social Networks40: 64–74.
26.
HuangX (2008) Guanxi networks and job searches in China’s emerging labour market: a qualitative investigation. Work, Employment and Society22(3): 467–484.
27.
HuangXWesternM (2011) Social networks and occupational attainment in Australia. Sociology45(2): 269–286.
28.
ImbensGWWooldridgeJM (2009) Recent developments in the econometrics of program evaluation. Journal of Economic Literature47(1): 5–86.
29.
KalterFKoganI (2014) Migrant networks and labor market integration of immigrants from the former Soviet Union in Germany. Social Forces92(4): 1435–1456.
30.
KingRSkeldonR (2010) ‘Mind the gap!’ Integrating approaches to internal and international migration. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies36(10): 1619–1646.
31.
KornienkoOAgadjanianVMenjívarCZotovaN (2018) Financial and emotional support in close personal ties among Central Asian migrant women in Russia. Social Networks53: 125–135.
32.
KrugG (2012) (When) Is job-finding via personal contacts a meaningful concept for social network analysis? A comment to Chua (2011). Social Networks34(4): 527–533.
33.
LiP (2003) Social network of rural migrants in China. Social Sciences in China24(4): 138–148.
34.
LiQ (2004) Urban Migrant Workers and Social Stratification in China. Beijing, China: Social Sciences Academic Press (in Chinese).
35.
LiangZLiZMaZ (2014) Changing patterns of the floating population in China, 2000–2010. Population and Development Review40(4): 695–716.
36.
LinN (1999) Building a network theory of social capital. Connections22(1): 28–51.
37.
LinNEnselWMVaughnJC (1981) Social resources and strength of ties: structural factors in occupational status attainment. American Sociological Review46(4): 393–405.
38.
LiuYLiZBreitungW (2012) The social networks of new-generation migrants in China’s urbanized villages: a case study of Guangzhou. Habitat International36(1): 192–200.
39.
LivingstonG (2006) Gender, job searching, and employment outcomes among Mexican immigrants. Population Research and Policy Review25(1): 43–66.
40.
LongWAppletonSSongL (2017) The impact of job contact networks on wages of rural–urban migrants in China: a switching regression approach. Journal of Chinese Economic and Business Studies15(1): 81–101.
41.
LuYRuanDLaiG (2013) Social capital and economic integration of migrants in urban China. Social Networks35(3): 357–369.
42.
MaLJCXiangB (1998) Native place, migration and the emergence of peasant enclaves in Beijing. The China Quarterly155: 546–581.
43.
McCaffreyDFRidgewayGMorralAR (2004) Propensity score estimation with boosted regression for evaluating causal effects in observational studies. Psychological Methods9(4): 403–425.
44.
McPhersonJMSmith-LovinL (1982) Women and weak ties: differences by sex in the size of voluntary organizations. American Journal of Sociology87(4): 883–904.
45.
MasseyDS (1987) Understanding Mexican migration to the United States. American Journal of Sociology92(6): 1372–1403.
46.
MasseyDSEspinosaKE (1997) What’s driving Mexico–US migration? A theoretical, empirical, and policy analysis. American Journal of Sociology102(4): 939–999.
47.
MouwT (2006) Estimating the causal effect of social capital: a review of recent research. Annual Review of Sociology32(1): 79–102.
48.
NgaiPLuH (2010) A culture of violence: the labor subcontracting system and collective action by construction workers in post-socialist China. The China Journal64: 143–158.
49.
ObukhovaE (2012) Motivation vs. relevance: using strong ties to find a job in urban China. Social Science Research41(3): 570–580.
50.
PalloniAMasseyDSCeballosMEspinosaKSpittelM (2001) Social capital and international migration: a test using information on family networks. American Journal of Sociology106(5): 1262–1298.
51.
PatelKVellaF (2013) Immigrant networks and their implications for occupational choice and wages. Review of Economics and Statistics95(4): 1249–1277.
52.
PengY (2004) Kinship networks and entrepreneurs in China’s transitional economy. American Journal of Sociology109(5): 1045–1074.
53.
PioreM (1979) Birds of Passage: Migrant Labor in Industrial Societies. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
54.
PortesA (1998) Social capital: its origins and applications in modern sociology. Annual Review of Sociology24: 1–24.
55.
PortesAJensenL (1989) The enclave and the entrants: patterns of ethnic enterprise in Miami before and after Mariel. American Sociological Review54(6): 929–949.
56.
PryorRJ (1981) Integrating international and internal migration theories. In: KritzMMKeelyCBTomasiSM (eds) Global Trends in Migration: Theory and Research on International Population Movements. New York: Center for Migration Studies, 110–129.
57.
ReichMGordonDMEdwardsRC (1973) A theory of labor market segmentation. The American Economic Review63(2): 359–365.
58.
RosenbaumPR (1987) Model-based direct adjustment. Journal of the American Statistical Association82(398): 387–394.
59.
RosenbaumPRRubinDB (1983) The central role of the propensity score in observational studies for causal effects. Biometrika70(1): 41–55.
60.
RyanL (2011) Migrants’ social networks and weak ties: accessing resources and constructing relationships post-migration. The Sociological Review59(4): 707–724.
61.
SandersJMNeeV (1987) Limits of ethnic solidarity in the enclave economy. American Sociological Review52(6): 745–773.
62.
SatoH (2003) The Growth of Market Relations in Post-Reform Rural China: A Micro-Analysis of Peasants, Migrants and Peasant Entrepreneurs. London: Routledge.
63.
ShenJ (1995) Rural development and rural to urban migration in China 1978–1990. Geoforum26(4): 395–409.
64.
Smith-DoerrLPowellWW (2003) Networks and economic life. In: SmelserN (ed.) The Handbook of Economic Sociology, 2nd edn.New York: Russell Sage Foundation; Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 379–402.
65.
SolingerDJ (1999) Citizenship issues in China’s internal migration: comparisons with Germany and Japan. Political Science Quarterly114(3): 455–478.
66.
SwiderS (2015) Building China: precarious employment among migrant construction workers. Work, Employment and Society29(1): 41–59.
67.
TianFFLiuX (2017) Gendered double embeddedness: finding jobs through networks in the Chinese labor market. Social Networks52: 28–36.
68.
TomaS (2016) The role of migrant networks in the labour market outcomes of Senegalese men: how destination contexts matter. Ethnic and Racial Studies39(4): 593–613.
69.
TomaSVauseS (2014) Gender differences in the role of migrant networks: comparing Congolese and Senegalese migration flows. International Migration Review48(4): 972–997.
70.
WangFZuoXRuanD (2002) Rural migrants in Shanghai: living under the shadow of socialism. International Migration Review36(2): 520–545.
71.
WeisskoffFB (1972) ‘Women’s place’ in the labor market. The American Economic Review62(1–2): 161–166.
72.
XieYGoughM (2011) Ethnic enclaves and the earnings of immigrants. Demography48(4): 1293–1315.
73.
XueJGaoW (2012) Informal employment in urban China: its size, features and earning disparity. Comparative Economic & Social Systems6: 59–69 (in Chinese).
74.
YakubovichV (2005) Weak ties, information, and influence: how workers find jobs in a local Russian labor market. American Sociological Review70(3): 408–421.
75.
YanHChenJMengY (2013) Research on the formation mechanism of informal employment department: theory, empirical analysis and policy framework. China Population, Resources and Environment8: 81–89 (in Chinese).
76.
YangFLinP (2018) Influence of informal employment on settlement intention of floating population. Population Journal6: 40–51 (in Chinese).
77.
ZangX (2003) Network resources and job search in urban China. Journal of Sociology39(2): 115–129.
78.
ZelinskyW (1971) The hypothesis of the mobility transition. Geographical Review61(2): 219–249.
79.
ZengQWeiY (2004) Unemployment and social exclusion. Sociological Research3: 11–20 (in Chinese).
80.
ZhaiZDuanCBiQ (2007) The floating population in Beijing: an update. Population Research2: 30–40 (in Chinese).
81.
ZhengSLongFFanCCGuY (2009) Urban villages in China: a 2008 survey of migrant settlements in Beijing. Eurasian Geography and Economics50(4): 425–446.
82.
ZhouXLiQZhaoWCaiH (2003) Embeddedness and contractual relationships in China’s transitional economy. American Sociological Review68(1): 75–102.
83.
ZhuY (2017) The social bases of organizational commitment: testing embeddedness in employment relations and its functional boundary. Sociological Studies2: 77–102 (in Chinese).
Supplementary Material
Please find the following supplemental material available below.
For Open Access articles published under a Creative Commons License, all supplemental material carries the same license as the article it is associated with.
For non-Open Access articles published, all supplemental material carries a non-exclusive license, and permission requests for re-use of supplemental material or any part of supplemental material shall be sent directly to the copyright owner as specified in the copyright notice associated with the article.
