Social networks and drivers of highly skilled migration: The case of Shenzhen City in China

Abstract

In China, the number of highly skilled domestic migrants has been growing significantly. Many highly skilled personnel have migrated to megacities located in eastern China. Through semistructured interviews with 54 highly skilled migrants in the city of Shenzhen, we find that economic incentives, urban amenities, preferential policies and social networks act as drivers for their migration. Because the role of social networks has been overlooked in the existing literature, we focus on this particular driver of migration. The desire to be physically embedded in social networks has driven migrants to move to Shenzhen: they cite proximity to parents, partners and former schoolmates as motivating factors. Such embeddedness provides them with a sense of ‘social affiliation’. While previous research has highlighted the role of migrants' social capital, we suggest that highly skilled migrants do not necessarily rely on this resource. Instead, we focus on what we call ‘migration for social affiliation’, and offer a novel angle on the precise role of migrants' social networks.