The Impact of Hukou Status on Migrants’ Employment: Findings from the 1997 Beijing Migrant Census

Abstract

This article uses new data to analyze whether the 1990s brought a change in terms of migrants' access to urban jobs. The November 1997 “Beijing Migrant Census” provides a unique data set that enables a quantitative assessment of non‐locally registered migrants' access to the formal sector, and more specifically to “white‐collar” occupations. The results show that a university degree and a nonagricultural registration status are both means of increasing access to employment in the formal sector. The “formal” sector is defined as employment with five types of large, relatively stable employers — government organizations, state‐owned enterprises, joint ventures, shareholding enterprises, and enterprises owned/invested in by foreign, Hong Kong, or Taiwanese capital (San Zi). White collar jobs, in particular, are only available to migrants with a university degree, with hukou status having a limited relative effect. This article shows that qualified migrants are penetrating the formal job market while the majority of migrants are still taking low level jobs in the informal sector. This dichotomy represents a recent change that could reflect a new stream of migrants and/or more open urban employment. At the same time, the continuing segregation or marginalization of most migrants is clearly evident from the data.

The removal of institutional impediments to migration and its impact on employment, production and income distribution in China

“…6 governs the labor allocation between TVEs in the interior region and urban enterprises in the coastal region. When addressing the issue of rural-urban migration in China, we have to consider the fact that migrant workers of rural origin are not able to enter formal sectors or skilled labor market in cities, and therefore they find low-end works such as factories (manufacturing), construction or services that urban residents are not willing to take Meng and Zhang 2001;Guo and Iredale 2004). This article assumes that rural and urban workers are close substitutes in the unskilled labor markets (urban informal sectors), but the skilled labor markets (urban formal sectors) would not be readily accessible to rural migrants, even if the hukou system were removed.…”

“…At present, it employs around 140 million, 20% of the total employment, or 30% of rural workers. Guo and Iredale (2004) argue that the concentration of TVEs is inversely correlated with out-migration, whereas Liang and White (1997) express a different view that migration is more likely to occur in places where a large proportion of farmers are employed by TVEs. Viewed in this light, a simple rural-urban, two-sector model is not conducive to a better understanding of the complicated reality of China' labor market.…”

Geographic structure of migrant labor market in China: A case study of four city-regions in Fujian

“…The preference for male migrant workers, as well as the subordinate positions of female migrants, has been well documented (Meng 1998;Yang and Guo 1999;Lu and Song 2006). Second, the institutional barrier, as the household registration system (aka hukou) in the context of China, has also been argued as a major cause of labour market segmentation Chan and Zhang 1999;Guo and Iredale 2004). However, more recently, there are rising debates on the role and significance of the hukou system on internal labour migration in China.…”

“…However, more recently, there are rising debates on the role and significance of the hukou system on internal labour migration in China. Some scholars argue that among all disadvantages, the constraints of the hukou system is the fatal obstacle that prevents migrants from entering the urban mainstream and further settling in destination cities (Guo and Iredale 2004;Zhang 2012;Zhang and Tao 2012). Others claimed that the impact of the hukou system on migrants' livelihood in cities has declined substantially (Zhan 2011).…”

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

“…is a classic social science research question. This question yields particularly interesting answers in the context of urban China, not only because of China's rapidly developing labor market in its fast-paced market transition, but also because of the sharp contrast between rural-to-urban migrants and urban natives who have been segregated from each other spatially, socially, and occupationally (Guo & Iredale, 2004). Before the late 1970s in China, job markets were virtually non-existent.…”