the impact of hukou status on migrants' employment: findings from the 1997 beijing migrant...

The Impact of Hukou Status on Migraits’ EGployment: Findings fiom the 1997 Be+ng Migrant Census‘ Fei Guo Macquarie University

Robyn Iredale University of Wollongong

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 - overnment organizations, state-owned enterprises,

in by foreign, Hong Kong, or Taiwanese capital (San 2 2 ) . 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 enetrating the formal job market while the major-

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 evi- dent from the data.

joint ventures, share a olding enterprises, and enterprises owned/invested

ity of migrants are stil P taking low level jobs in the informal sector. This

Since the implementation of economic reforms in the late 197Os, China has been experiencing a rapid social change process. One of the significant fea- tures is that there has been an increasing number of migrants, especially from rural areas, moving to cities. It is estimated that there were between 20 to I10 million floating population, or temporary migrants, in China in the mid- 1990s. A large proportion of these temporary migrants were from rural origins, and they moved to cities or coastal areas (Solinger, 1999; Guo, 1996;

’The authors wish to thank the Beijing Statistical Bureau for permission to use the 1997 Migrant Census data. Ms. Guo Lizhu and Mr. Gu Yanzhou of the Beijing Statistical Bureau provided great help at an early stage of this study.

0 2004 by the Center for Migration Studies of New York. All rights reserved. 0197-9183/04/3802.0146

ZMR Volume 38 Number 2 (Summer 2004):709-73 1 709

710 INTERNATIONAL MIGRATION REVIEW

Yang, 1992). Some scholars describe this as a “tidal wave” of rural migrant labor to cities (Roberts, 1997).

As the capital city and economic and cultural center of the country, Bei- jing has been especially attractive to migrants in the past decades. In fact, Bei- jing is one of the most migrant-attractive regions in China, with an in-migration rate of 6 percent in the period from 1985 to 1990 (State Statistical Bureau, 199 1). But this figure includes only those migrants who had been in Beijing for at least one year at the time of the census and it is estimated that long-term migration comprises only about one third of total migration (Goldstein and Goldstein, 1991). Beijing’s total population increased from 9.17 million in 1982 to 10.8 million in 1990, and it is estimated that migrants contributed a large share (more than half) of this increase (Li, 1987).

This article focuses on the occupational profile of employed temporary migrants in Beijing. It looks at migrants’ occupations and employers and examines the extent to which formal institutional factors, such as the household registration system, or hukou,2 and labor recruitment policy, impact their access to jobs. The study pays special attention to factors affecting migrants’ access to “white-collar” occupations, since this is assumed to indicate occupational integration (or segregation) of migrants. It is hypothesized that demand generated by China’s economic reforms may mean that migrants without official local registration have an opportunity to access jobs in some sectors and with some employers, such as jobs in state-run enterprises, but that their chance of accessing white-collar jobs is still limited.

BEIJING MIGRANT CENSUS DATA The data used in this study come from the Beijing Migrant Census conducted by the Beijing Statistical Bureau in November 1997. As a capital city, Bei- jing has attracted a large number of people from around the country, but the Beijing government and its urban planning organizations often face the prob-

*The household registration system, or hukou, in the People’s Republic of China is a system in which every citizen is registered at the place of his or her birth, the place to which he or she is permitted to move, or his or her mother’s place of registration. One’s hukou is an identifi- cation of citizenship of, and residency status for, a specific place. In the pre-reform era, one’s hukou status was often associated with various subsidies or other benefits provided by the government. People with nonagricultural status often enjoyed more benefits than those with agricultural status. SePCheng and Selden (1994), Yang (1993), and Zhang (1988) for detailed ref- erence. Temporary hzrkou was introduced as a concept in 1984 as a means of trying to control the flows and provide some limited services to migrants, especially to contracted workers. It does not confer access to a wide range of services.

THE IMPACT OF HWKOU STATUS ON MIGRANTS’ EMPLOYMENT 71 1

lem of lacking accurate statistics regarding the number of non-locally registered residents. Through their regular methods of administrative registration, the Statistical Bureau and Public Security Bureau are only able to capture a proportion of migrants who have registered as temporary residents. A large proportion of migrants are not counted in any form of statistics, and therefore they are “unknown” to authorities and policymakers.

The actual number of migrants and the size of the floating population in China have been estimated by many scholars and institutes. Their defini- tions have depended on their interests and needs. Nationwide estimates of the size of the peasant floating population by China’s official channels of media, Xinhua News and China DaiLy, were around 50 million in the mid-1990s. The total number of migrants nationwide was estimated by the Xinhua News at about 80 million at the same time (Solinger, 1999). It was estimated that the floating population in Beijing was about 1.3 million in the late 1990s and between 1.5 million to 2.3 million in the mid-1990s (Beijing Lingdian Shichang Diaocha yu Fenxi Gongsi, 1995).

Though the accuracy of the total size of the floating population was still in question, the Beijing municipal government and its planning bodies felt great pressure as a result of the influx of the floating population into its administrative territory. Since the early 1990s, the municipal government has attempted to regulate and control the influx of migrant labor by various administrative measurements, including setting up the Beijing Municipal Leading Group of Management for Migrant Laborers. This group consisted of representatives of labor administration, industry and trade, urban planning, construction, finance, family planning, tax, planning, housing and legal offices. They formulated ten regulations that came into effect on July 15, 1995. Within each regulation there are specific rules to be adhered to. For example, under Regulation 1 , people coming to Beijing for work should apply for temporary residence within three days, and if they plan to stay for more than one month they should apply for a Temporary Residence Card (TRC) at the same time. The regulations were designed to try to gain control of the temporary migrant population (i. e., people without Beijing hukotl) but they have not been very effective (Zhang, 1998; Iredale et al., 2001). In 1997, the Beijing Labor Administration Bureau regulated the sectors and occupations in which migrant laborers could work. Migrant workers can only get 271 types of jobs, mostly the jobs that are unwanted by local residents (Solinger, 1999). In spite of these policy changes, Beijing’s temporary migrant population has continued to increase.

712 INTERNATIONAL MIGRATION &VIEW

In an effort to gain a more accurate enumeration and therefore to better manage and control non-locally registered residents, the Beijing government authorized the Beijing Statistical Bureau to carry out a massive full-scale Migrant Census on November 1, 1997 (Office of Beijing Migrant Census, 1997). The purpose of the census was to enumerate all people who were not locally registered, including short-term visitors and transients and long-term, non-local residents. Local officials were engaged to locate and interview all people in the above categories. The Office of Beijing Migrant Census was established, which involved a number of municipal organizations. Each Street Committee, underbody of the district, also formed its own branch of the Office of Migrant Census which was responsible for recruiting interviewers within its administrative boundaries and conducting door-to-door interviews. The interviews were assisted by the local branches of the Public Secu- rity Bureaus, especially in enumerating migrants at railway stations and long- distance bus stops.

The census was conducted by means of a one-page questionnaire asking name, gender, date of birth, place of household registration or h u h , date of move to Beijing, employment status and occupation in Beijing, level of education, and marital status. Employment status had twelve options from which to choose: currently employed; engaged in business or trading; engaged in other jobs; currently no job; visiting relatives/family; visiting friends; on business trip; attending school; tourist; seeking medical treatment; transient; and other. Only people who fell into the first four categories were included in this analysis. Unfortunately, data on aspects such as rates of pay, working conditions, job security, etc. were not collected, which means that the analysis of occupational status is not as detailed as we would like. The census also collected information on households, including the total number of people in the household, type of dwelling, problems encountered in Beijing, and reasons for school age children in the household not attending school.

The total number of non-locally registered residents captured in the census was 2.25 million, 1.99 million of whom had been living in Beijing for at least one month and 1.46 million for at least six months. In this study, for the purpose of analyzing the occupational structure of migrants, we include only those who had been living in Beijing for at least six months. The study is one of the first to analyze the data from this large-scale migrant survey, as it has generally not been available to researchers outside of China. Unfortu- nately, there are no comparable data sets for migrants who have gained an urban hukou.

THE IMPACT OF HUKOU STATUS ON MIGRANTS’ EMPLOYMENT 713

BACKGROUND China’s social division between urban and rural sectors is well entrenched. Some scholars have used the analogy of the Great Wall to emphasize the importance of the division (Wang, 1997; Chan, 1994). The household registration system, which was established in the late 1950s, divided the entire population into two categories: agricultural residents and nonagricultural residents (Kirkby, 1985). According to this system, everyone is born with a household registration status that is determined by the type of household one is born into and one’s place of residence. The importance of type of household registration goes far beyond determining one’s type of residence. It also determines one’s eligibility and access to government provision of social services and benefits. Nonagriculturat status confers access to a wider variety of goods as well as nonagricultural employment, public housing, free medical services and retirement benefits (Yang, 1993; Kirkby, 1985). The household registration system provides urban residents with a much better quality of life compared with that of rural residents who are at the bottom of the hierarchy of residential status.

The purpose of the h u h system was to keep people in their place of birth and prevent unauthorized movement from rural to urban areas (Kirkby, 1985). But the large gap between the two types of household registration status provides strong motivation for many people with agricultural status to try to change to a nonagricultural status.

Another of China’s long-lasting social control mechanisms under the planned system has been the labor administration system or labor recruitment system. This was also introduced in the 1950s to supplement the household registration system. Every employed person was issued a booklet containing his or her personal files, including personal experience, work performance and political performance. The employed person could not transfer his or her job without transferring his or her personal files. However, permission for a job transfer was tightly controlled at several levels in the government‘s labor administration.

Hassard et a/. (2001:3) point out that while the system was designed to appear “inclusive,” as all workers were unionized, in fact there was a “considerable differential in the treatment of workers.” The core of the workforce, “the permanently employed, unionized state-sector workers at the biggest and most prosperous enterprises” were a privileged group. In China, this is called the formal sector. On the other hand, the marginal or informal sector was comprised of temporary and contract workers, apprentices, etc., who had much poorer benefits and conditions.


The state sectors hired employees according to annual quotas established by their national level ministries and allocated openings to subordinate offices and factories within each bureaucratic chain of command (Davis, 1992). In practice, new openings were mainly filled by recruits from the local region of the working unit, and most units were located in urban areas. Therefore, only local urban residents were recruited into the industrial sectors. Under this labor administration system, individual migration for job transfer-related reasons or migration to seek job opportunities was tightly controlled. Rural residents were only allowed to migrate to urban areas for admission to higher education institutes or to work in distant inland areas (Davis, 1992; Kim, 1990; Day and Ma, 1994; Kirkby, 1985; Hsu, 1986).

A number of previous studies have suggested that the market-oriented economic system of the last twenty years has provided good job opportunities for millions of people who have moved to cities without changing their official household registration status (Yang and Guo, 1996; Wang, 1997). But based on the data from the 1990 census, which measured the occupational patterns of migrants in the late 1980s, Yang and Guo (1996) found that rural migrants who moved to cities for economic reasons tended to work in occupations that were not wanted by local residents - in the marginal sector. In many Chinese cities, especially cities like Beijing, the interests and rights of local residents are still protected, while the interests, conditions and rights of those without local registration, or migrants, are ignored.

This study extends the analysis and asks whether in the late 1990s the same situation pertained as in the late 1980s. With the rapid progress of economic reform and marketization in Chinese cities, does the picture remain the same? Are migrants able to access jobs in the cities that traditionally belonged to privileged local residents? To what extent does the existence of non-locally registered residents challenge the legality of the long-practiced urban recruitment system? By answering these questions in a quantitative way, this study attempts to understand the extent to which migrants who belong to relatively weaker groups in the society are able to access the formal occupational sector, and within the formal sector, to what extent migrants are able to participate in white-collar occupations, which traditionally were available only to locally-registered residents.

DEMOGRAPHIC CHARACTERISTICS OF MIGRANTS Although the census captured all non-locally registered residents, including short-term visitors and tourists, for the purpose of this analysis only those

THE IMPACT OF HUKOU STATUS ON MIGRAN'I'S' EMPLOYMENT 715

who had been living in Beijing for at least six months without official local household registration status are included. The total number of migrants in this category in Beijing in November 1997 was 1.46 million. Table 1 presents the major characteristics of these migrants. The average age was 27.6 years old, 66 percent were male and 34 percent female, and 39 percent were unmarried. The gender structure and marital status of this migrant population is slightly different from migrant populations in other Chinese cities in the early 1990s and late 1980s, when migrants were overwhelmingly male (more than 80%) and unmarried (Solinger, 1999). The majority (70%) of migrants have secondary and higher education levels, including 7 percent with bachelor's and higher degrees. This proportion of migrants with university degrees consists of those who moved to Beijing without changing their hukou status. The census does not include the large number of students enrolled in educational institutions in Beijing, as they are considered locally registered.

TABLE 1 MEANS OF INDEPENDENT VARlABLES USED IN REGRESSION ANALYSIS, BEIJING, 1997

Ace (years) 27.6 Independent Variables Mean

Gale''(%) Single (%) Primary school education and under (Yo) Secondary school to high school education (%) University education and above (%) Length of residence in Beijing 6 to 12 months (%) Length of residence in Beijing 1 to 3 years (%) Length of residence in Beijing 3 to 5 years (%) Length of residence in Beijing more than 5 years (%) Having a nonagricultural Hukou (%) Moved from most developed region (%) Moved from moderately developed region (%) Moved from least developed region (%)

66.09 39.25 19.29 69.78 6.76

35.29 34.16 14.12 16.41 15.59 28.38 47.16 23.88

More than one third of this migrant population in Beijing had been there for between six months and one year, another one third had been living in Beijing for one to three years, and the remainder of the migrants had been in Beijing for more than three years. The proportion of migrants who had been in Beijing for at least five years accounted for more than 16 percent of the total migrant population in Beijing but they still had a temporary hukuu status. Obtaining a Beijing hukou has been regarded as extremely difficult to achieve in past decades. When a number of other cities in southern China experimented to grant migrants local hukou status based on their length of


residence, type of employment and amount of investment, Beijing did not indicate any willingness to do the same. The fear was that migrants would flood into the country’s capital. Hence, length of residence is rarely considered as a means of gaining permanent status in Beijing. In this analysis, length of residence is used as a variable to examine whether it has any impact on migrants’ occupational attainment in Beijing.

China’s migration-related issues cannot be well understood without including household registration status, or hukou, into the analysis. As has been well documented in previous studies (Solinger, 1999; Yang, 1992; Roberts, 1977; Goldstein and Goldstein, 199 1; Taylor, 1988), surplus labor in rural areas is the major component of the migrant (or floating) population in China. Conversely, labor shortages and higher wages in the cities act as strong attractors. This migrant census shows that a large proportion (85%) of migrants in Beijing held agricultural hukou status. Only a small proportion (1 5%) of migrants in Beijing held nonagricultural hukou status, presumably coming from other cities or towns.

OCCUPATIONAL STRUCTURE OF MIGRANTS: DESCRIPTIVE ANALYSIS In order to understand the social and economic development level of migrants’ places of origin, a rural social and economic development index was constructed. The index was constructed from the following three indicators: percentage of employees of village and township enterprises (VTEs) in the rural labor force, percentage of rural population in the total population (indi- cating level of urbanization), and net income per capita of rural population. All 30 mainland provinces (Chongqing was included in Sichuan province) were ranked according to their rural social and economic development index and then grouped into three categories: most developed regions, moderately developed regions and least developed regions. Each category included a sim- ilar number of provinces (see State Statistical Bureau of China, 1994).

As the majority of migrants came from the countryside, it was hypothesized that the regional development level, represented by the rural social and economic development index, affected people’s occupational choice in Bei- jing. Previous studies have suggested that the level of rural economic development, especially the concentration of VTEs, is inversely correlated with out-migration. Labor-exporting provinces, such as Hunan and Henan, are commonly thought to be those with low levels of VTE development, while labor-importing provinces are more likely to have high levels of VTE devel-


opment (Solinger, 1999; Guo, 1996). But the results show that almost half (47%) the migrants came from moderately developed regions, 28 percent came from the most developed regions, and the rest (23%) came from the least developed regions.

The majority of migrants move to Beijing to seek better employment opportunities and, like migrants elsewhere, they are economically very active. In terms of their structure, the descriptive results show (Figure I) that the majority of migrants worked in four major sectors: state-run enterprises (19%), collective-run enterprises (l6%), private enterprises (19%), and self- employed (17%). It is interesting to see that a significant proportion of migrants have found employment opportunities in the first two sectors, state- run and collective-run enterprises, as these traditionally opened their doors only to local residents.

Figure I. Employment Sectors of Migrants in Beijing, 1997

percent

w. -0

0 5 10 15 20 25

Notes: JV Shareholding - joint ventures or shareholding enterprises. San Zi - enterprises ownedlinvcsted in by foreign, Hong Kong, or Taiwan capital. VTE - village and township enterprises.

Figure I1 presents the occupational structure of migrants in Beijing by gender. From this figure it is clear that about one third of male migrants work in construction industries. Some large construction companies are owned and run by state or collective entities, but many of their employees are recruited as temporary workers. The harsh nature of the work means that these jobs are not attractive to local residents. The other three popular occupations for male


migrants are trading and small business, restaurant, and other service workers. Women are more concentrated in service-related occupations, including trading and small business, restaurant services and other types of services. Other types of service jobs include domestic workers, which are regarded as “migrant-only” jobs. A noticeable proportion of migrant women also work as industrial workers. A very small proportion of migrants are able to work as professionals and technicians, government officials and office clerks, as these jobs are normally only available to local residents.

Figure 11. Occupational Structure of Migrants in Beijing by Gender, 1997

Z Z F r l r r r r mrn

0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40

Notes: Profitech - professionals and technicians. OfficiaYmngr - government officials or managers Tradingibus - trading or business people. Res. service - restaurant service workers. Rep. service - repair service workers. Other SNS - other service workers Ind. worker - industrial workers. Cons. worker - construction workers. Trns. worker - transportation workers.

Migrant workers’ occupational structures are very different from those of local Beijing residents. Figure I11 shows the occupational structure of Bei- jing usual residents by gender in 1995. It should be noted that Beijing usual residents include residents with local household registration, or hukou, and migrants who had been living in Beijing for at least six months at the time of the survey. The occupational structure of Beijing usual residents is used to proximately represent that of local Beijing residents, as the majority of the usual residents are locally registered residents. The same definition of usual

THE IMPACT OF HLJKOU STATUS ON MIGRANTS’ EMPLOYMENT 719

residents also applies to the 1990 Census. Of all female usual residents aged 15 and above, about 25 percent were professionals or technicians, 23 percent were industrial workers, 11 percent were workers in the service sector, and 10 percent were personnel in trading and business sectors. The occupational structure of Beijing usual residents remained more or less unchanged since 1990, except for a considerable decrease in the category of industrial workers for both genders. The pattern shown in Figure IV suggests that the proportion of industrial workers among Beijing usual residents had decreased considerably from 1990 to 1995, which may reflect the injection of a significant number of migrant workers into this sector in Beijing.

Figure 111. Occupational Structure of Beijing Usual Residents by Gender, 1995

I 1

I Female I

Source: 1995 Quanguo 1% Renkou Chouyang Diaocha Ziliao (Tabulations of the 19’0 National Demographic Sampling Survep 1995), Quanguo Renkou Chouyang Diaocha Bangongshi (The National Office for Demographic Sampling Survey), Beijing, Zhongguo Tongji Chubanshe (China Statistical Publishing House).

Nores: Profhech -professionals and technicians. Officiallmngr - government officials and managers. Tradinglbus -trading or business people. Service - all types of service workers. Ind. workcr - indusrrial workers. Usual residents include people with local household rcgistrarion scatus, or hukou, and people without local household registration but who had been living in Beijing for more than six months at the time of the survey.

Another considerable difference between Beijing usual residents and migrant workers is the proportion of people working as service workers. Both Figure I11 and Figure IV show that the proportion of Beijing usual residents working as service workers was small compared with people in other occupations. The proportion of migrant labor working as service workers, on the other hand, was significantly greater compared with all other occupations.


Figure n! Occupational Structure of Beijing Usual Residents by Gender, 1990

pmfftech 3

Female ;.Ma. I

I ind.Worker

others

I

0 10 20 30 40 50

Percent

Source: Tabulation on the 1990 Population Census of rhe People’s Republic of China, vol. 2. Population Census Office, Beijing: China Statistical Publishing House.

Notes: Prof/tcch - professional and technicians. Officiallmngr - government officials and managers. Trading/bus - trading or business people. Service - all types of service workers. Ind. worker - industrial workers. Usual residents include people with local household registration status, or hukou, and people without local household registration but who had been living in Beijing for more than six months at the time of the Census.

More than 40 percent of migrant women were engaged in jobs in the service sector, while more than 20 percent of migrant men were doing the same type of jobs. For Beijing local residents, the proportion of people working in service occupations was unchanged from 1990 to 1995, despite a large proportion of migrant workers in this sector. This may suggest that the jobs taken by migrant workers in the service sector were not taken from Beijing local residents. Many types of service jobs may have been created by the migrant workers themselves upon their migration into the cities.

MIGRANTS’ACCESS TO JOBS IN THE FORMAL SECTOR The above analysis presented a description of the basic sectoral and occupational profiles of migrants. In order to better understand the determinants of migrants’ access to jobs in the formal and informal sectors, a logistic regression analysis method is used. Because we do not have information on the quality of jobs (conditions, wages, etc.), the formal sector is defined here by the nature of the employer - including government organizations, collective

THE IMPACT OF HUKOU STATUS ON MIGRANTS’ EMPLOYMENT 72 1

enterprises, joint-venture or shareholding enterprises, as well as enterprises investedlowned by foreign, Hong Kong, or Taiwanese firms. That is, nature of employer is used as a surrogate for quality of job. This ignores the fact that migrants may be filling low-level positions in state enterprises and that col- lectives may be conducting activities such as waste collection and cleaning. But compared with many migrants in the informal sector, those who are hired in the formal sector are more likely to be protected by written contracts and enjoy better working conditions. Those who are hired in the informal sector are unlikely to be protected by contracts. In the absence of other variables, it is the best that can be done with the data available.

Table 2 presents the parameter estimates of the impacts of independent variables on the likelihood of migrants gaining jobs with these types of employers in Beijing (see aho Table 3 for predicted probabilities for a simpler interpretation of the parameter estimates). The independent variables include age, gender, marital status, education level, length of residence in Beijing, type of hukou, and region of origin. In order to examine the independent impacts of length of local residence, type of hukuu, and region of origin on a migrant’s likelihood of accessing a job in the formal sector, three models were used separately. The first model examines the effect of demographic characteristics, the second model introduces the migrant’s length of residence in Bei- jing and the third model introduces the type of hukuu and level of social and economic development in the migrant’s place of origin. All independent variables included in the model are significant in explaining the effects on the dependent variable, which is gaining a job in the ‘formal’ sector.

The results from the first model strongly indicate that when considering migrants’ basic demographic characteristics, although all independent variables are statistically significant, gender, marital status and education level are more significant in explaining migrants’ access to jobs with these types of employers. A male migrant has a 55 percent chance compared with a female having only a 36 percent chance, and a single migrant has a 56 percent chance compared with a 43 percent chance for a married migrant. The effect of education on migrants’ access to the formal sectors is quite considerable. The likelihood of getting a job in the formal sector for a migrant with a university degree is about five times higher than for a migrant who is only equipped with primary school education and about twice as high for a migrant with a secondary or high school education. It is very clear that when considering basic demographic factors, education level is the most important factor affecting migrants’ access to these jobs.


TABLE 2 PARAMETER ESTIMATES OF LOGlSnC REGWlON OF WORKING IN FORMAL SECTORS FOR

MIGRANTS IN BEIIING (Dependent Variable=Ernployrnent Sector: Formal Sector= 1, Informal Sector=O)

Parameter Estimates Independent Variables Model 1 s.d. Model 2 s.d. Model 3 s.d Age Groups (ref. = 55 and above)

15-24 -0.0185'

35-44 0.0852" 45-54 0.3699"

Male 0.7816"

Single 0.5121"

Primary school and less -2.0146" Secondary to high school -1.3017'

25-34 -0.1 270a

Gender (Female=O)

Marital Status (Non-single=O)

Education (ref.=college and above)

Length of residence in BJ (ref.=5yrs or more)

6 to 12 months 1 to 3 years 3 10 5 years

Type of Hukou (agricultural=O)

Nonagricultural Regions of Origin (ref.=least developed)

Most developed region Moderately developed region

0.0062 -0.0855' 0.0056 -0.1715" 0.0068 0.0125 0.0088 0.351lZ

0.0036 0.6908a

0.0046 0.6167'

0.0121 -2.2085a 0.0116 -1.4414"

0.3045' 0.0439"

-0.0281"

0.0076 0.0068 0.0083 0.0107

0.0044

0.0057

0.0148 0.0142

0.0060 0.0062 0.0073

-0.0471" -0.1453' 0.0121 0.3 1 32"

0.7374"

0.6077"

-1.6691" -0.9500a

0.3408" 0.0500'

-0.0186b

0.7740'

-0.1512' -0.073 1"

0.0077 0.0068 0.0084 0.0108

0.0044

0.0057

0.0158 0.0150

0.0060 0.0062 0.0073

0.0073

0.0053 0.0048 - -

Number 1,809,869 1,198,228 1,198,228 Notes: 'Significant at pc0.01

'Significant at p<0.05 Formal sector includes government organizations, state-run enterprises, collective-run enterprises, joint-venture enterprises, and shareholding enterprises. All other types are included in informal sectors, mainly village and township enterprises, private firms, self-employed, domestic workers, etc.

A careful look at the results from the second model show that length of residence in Beijing is also significant. However, a migrant's education level still shows up as being very significant, even with the introduction of the length of residence in Beijing.

Two more variables were introduced into the third model, migrant's type of hukoou and level of social and economic development of the migrant's place of origin. Gender tends to show a stronger impact on the likelihood of a migrant's access to the formal job market. A male migrant has a much greater probability (67%) of getting a job with these types of employers than his female counterpart (49%) if the type of hukou and level of development of places of origin is taken into account. Marital status also tends to have a clearer explanation in that a single migrant is much more likely (69%) to land a job in the formal sector than his or her married counterpart (55%). Educa-


TABLE 3 PREDICTED PROBABILITY OF WORKING IN FORMAL SECTOR FOR MIGRANTS IN BEIJING

(Dependent Variable=Employment Sector: Formal sector= 1, Informal sector=O) Predicted Probability (%)

Independent Variables Model 1 Model 2 Model 3 Age Groups

15-24 47.39 46.88 60.78 25-34 45.60 45.40 59.19 35-44 49.58 48.49 61.73 45-54 56.43 56.51 68.24 55 and above 48.24 50.00 62.61

Male 55.28 54.06 67.20 Female 36.13 37.09 49.49

Single 56.42 56.66 69.77 Non-single 43.69 41.37 55.70

Primary school and less 15.72 13.13 29.32

College and above 77.63 79.00 81.04

6 to 12 months 52.25 66.55 1 to 3 years 48.05 62.25 3 to 5 years 47.33 61.47 5 years and more 44.29 58.17

Nonagricultural 75.41

Gender

Marital Status

Education

Secondary to high school 39.03 36.77 54.49

Length of residence in Beijing

Type of Hukou

Agricultural 58.57

Most developed region 58.88 Regions of Origin

Moderately developed region 60.56 Least developed region 63.29

Notes: Formal sector includes government organizations, state-run enterprises, collective-run enterprises, joint-venture enterprises, and shareholding enterprises. All other types are included in informal sector, such as township and village enterprises, private firms, self-employed, and domestic workers.

tion level stands out once again in the third model. A university-educated migrant has a much greater chance of getting a job with these employers than a person who only has high school or less education.

Overall, education shows the most significant effect on migrants’ access to jobs with these types of employers in all three models, with or without the introduction of hukou in the model. University-educated migrants are much more likely to land jobs in the formal sector. Since 1977, the university stu- dent recruitment system has been seen as the most egalitarian system in China. All students are recruited through the national entry examination held once a year. Unlike h u h status, which is inherited from one’s family background, a university degree can be obtained through one’s efforts. Once a person is admitted to a university, he or she is normally able to change his or her hukou to a nonagricultural status if he or she previously was an agricultural


resident. However, seemingly equal access to higher education institutes was also strongly affected by the institutional factors such as one’s hukou. Previous studies have shown that although China’s higher education institutes are open to all students according to their scores in the national entry examination, the quality of primary, secondary, and high schools varies significantly. Schools in urban areas are much better equipped (both teachers and facilities) than schools in rural areas, such that students in urban areas are much more likely to qualify for university admission than are those in rural areas. Moreover, rural children or non- locally registered children normally are not allowed to attend schools in cities without paying a high fee (Iredale et aL, 2001).

Obviously, hukou is also significant - holding a nonagricultural status gives a migrant a much greater chance (75%) of getting a job in the formal sector than for a person with an agricultural hukou (58%). As stated above, hukou was an important mechanism for controlling people’s spatial mobility under the planned system. Even today, when the hukou system has lost much of its origi- nal hnction, it still remains functional in many ways. It is not only the temporary status that makes migrants in large cities a weaker group in power relation- ships, but hukou status also makes some people in the group weaker than others.

Both gender and marital status also show significant effects on access to jobs in the formal sector. Male migrants are relatively better off than their female counterparts, and single migrants have a slightly better chance over married migrants. Age, length of residence and level of development of place of origin show little effect on migrants’ access to jobs in the formal sector.

ACCESS TO WHITE-COLLARJOBS Results from the previous section show an encouraging picture where the door to jobs in some more stable enterprises in Beijing has already been half- opened to temporary migrants. If we take this one step further and look into job categories, we can see whether migrants’ access to white-collar occupations is possible. White-collar occupations are defined here as including professionals, government officials and office workers - the top three categories in Figure 11. These occupations were traditionally limited to those who had local hukou status. Logistic regression analysis is used to examine the effects of independent variables on a migrant’s likelihood of working in a white-collar occupation in Beijing. The same sets of independent variables as were used in the above section are included in the three models.

Table 4 presents the parameter estimates of logistic regression of migrants working in white-collar occupations in Beijing (see aho Table 5 for


predicted probabilities for a simpler interpretation of the parameter estimates). Although almost all variables are statistically significant in the three models, the overall likelihood of getting a white-collar job is considerably slimmer for migrants as a whole, except for some special groups. If demographic characteristics are taken into consideration, only education level has a strong effect on the chance of getting a job in a white-collar occupation. A migrant with a university degree is over 500 times more likely to have a white- collar job than a person who only has a primary school education or less and 30 times more likely than a secondary school graduate. Compared to a person with only a primary school education, a secondary school graduate is about 18 times more likely to land a white-collar job, although his or her own likelihood is very slim. It is safe to say that without a university degree, it is almost impossible for a migrant who does not have a local hukuu status to acquire a white-collar job in Beijing. Other variables are statistically significant, but none is more significant than education. A single migrant is more likely to have a white-collar job than a married one, and a male migrant has a greater chance of getting a white-collar job than does a female.

In the second model, the variable “length of residence in Beijing is included in the analysis. The effect of education on a migrant’s chance of getting a white-collar job remains very significant. When all other factors are held constant, length of residence in Beijing shows a significant effect on the chance of getting a white-collar job. A recent migrant (moved to Beijing 6 to 12 months ago) is least likely to land a white-collar job, and the longer he or she stays in Beijing, the greater the possibility of acquiring a white-collar job.

Those who have been living in Beijing for over five years are more likely to have white-collar jobs (8%) than more recent migrants (3%). Results in the previous section showed that length of residence was not significant in a migrant’s likelihood of getting a job with large, more stable employers, but it seems here that length of residence does enhance one’s chance of getting a white-collar job. Getting a white-collar job obviously requires more time and experience for migrants to familiarize themselves with the Beijing job market.

In the third model, two more variables - type of hukou and development level at place of origin - were introduced. Hukou again has a significant effect on a migrant’s chance of acquiring a white-collar job. If all other factors are held constant, a nonagricultural hukou holder is much more likely to have a white-collar job than an agricultural hukuu holder. In fact, the chance of getting a white-collar job for a nonagricultural hukou resident is more than four times higher than for an agricultural resident. When hukau status is con-


TABLE 4 PARAMETER E~TIMATFS OF LOGISTIC REG.RESSION OF WORKING IN WHITE-COLLAR OCCUPATIONS FOR

(Dependent Variable = Occupation: “White Collar”= 1, “Non-White Collar”=O)

Independent Variables Model 1 s.d. Model 2 s.d. Model 3 s.d Age Groups (ref.=55 and above)

M I G M

Parameter Estimates

15-24 -0.1541’ 0.0137 25-34 -0.3545d 0.0130 35-44 -0.1355’ 0.0165 45-54 0.4223a 0.0202

Male 0.2781a 0.0086

Single 0.4837“ 0.0106

Primary school and less -4.8877” 0.0216 Secondary to high school -3.2410’ 0.0107

6 to 12 months 1 to 3 years 3 to 5 years

Nonagricultural

Most developed region Moderately developed region

Gender (Female=O)

Marital Status (Non-single=O)

Education (ref.=college and above)

Length of residence in BJ (ref.=5yrs or more)

Type of Hukou (agricultural=O)

Regions of Origin (ref.=least developed)

-0.1240” -0.3537” -0.1 1 15* 0.4291&

0.3384“

0.5417”

-4.8 122’ -3.1447”

-0.9520” -0.2324“ -0.2460’

0.0159 0.0148 0.0189 0.0231

0.0 100

0.0 124

0.0254 0.0129

0.0137 0.0127 0.0150

0.0204 -0.279 1‘ -0.1708’ 0.2315*

0.4839“

0.51 92’

-3.672@ -2.2323=

-0.8704a -0.2343” -0.2243’

1.5424‘

-0.0021 0.0792”

0.0164 0.0151 0.0193 0.0235

0.0102

0.0127

0.0267 0.0144

0.0140 0.0129 0.0152

0.0106

0.0124 0.0114 - -

Number 1,809,869 1,198,228 1,198,228 Notes: ’Significant at P<O.Ol,

bSignificant at p<0.05. White-collar occupations include professionals, technicians, government officials, managers, clerks, and ofice workers. All other occupations are “non-white-collar- occupations.

sidered, the effects of length of residence and education are slightly reduced. Type of hukou clearly affects a migrant‘s chance of getting a white-collar job. Although equally weak and temporary in the competition for better jobs compared to their local counterparts, migrants who hold nonagricultural status are relatively advantaged compared to those who hold agricultural hukou. The relatively greater success in getting white-collar jobs results from their hukou status, which has equipped them well in terms of their access to information and other skills in job market competition. It seems clear that a nonagricultural hukou status is a kind of “portable power” that people are able to carry with them and make good use of when needed, even far away from the place where they are formally registered.

Among all variables, education is the most significant factor in explaining one’s chance of getting a white-collar job. Relatively, education outweighs hukou status when all other factors are the same. As indicated in Table 5 , the possibility of getting a white-collar job for a university degree holder is 30

THE IMPACT OF HUKOU STATUS O N MIGRANTS’ EMPLOYMENT 727

TABLE 5

(Dependent variable=Employment Sector: Formal sector=l, Informal sector=O) PREDICTED ~ROBABILITY OF WORKING IN WHITE-COLLAR OCCUPAnONS FOR MIGRANTS IN BEIIING

Predicted Probability (%) Model 2 Model 3 Independent variables Model 1

Age Groups 15-24 3.85 4.97 4.42 25-34 3.38 4.28 3.66 35-44 3.76 4.87 3.77 45-54 6.18 7.83 5.39 55 and above 4.98 6.21 4.78

Male 4.62 5.96 5.11 Female 3.54 4.32 3.21

Gender

Marital Status Single 5.59 7.28 5.89 Non-single 3.52 4.37 3.59

Education Primary school and less 0.09 0.19 0.24 Secondary to high school 1.63 2.13 2.27 College and above 52.10 53.20 30.58

6 to 12 months 2.96 2.53 Length of residence in Beijing

1 to 3 years 4.63 3.77 3 to 5 years 5.34 4.37 5 years or more 7.89 6.30

Nonagricultural 14.38 Type of Hukou

Agricultural 3.47

Moderately developed region 4.55

Regions of Origin Most developed regions 4.36

Leasr developed region 4.22 Notes: White-collar occupations include Professionals, technicians, government ofticials, managers, clerks, and oftice workers. All other occupations are “non-white-collar” occupations.

percent, while it is only 14 percent for a person with a nonagricultural hukou. Table 5 shows that when the variable hukou was introduced into the analysis, the effect of education on one’s chance of securing a white collar job was reduced from 53 percent to 30 percent. A university degree holder with a nonagricultural hukou status is in the most competitive position in the job market, while a poorly educated migrant with an agricultural status is the least competitive.

Model 3 in Table 5 also shows that the level of social and economic development at the migrant’s place of origin does not have a significant effect on a migrant’s chance of getting a white-collar job in Beijing. Regardless of one’s place of origin, either from the most developed regions or the least developed regions, the chance of securing a white-collar job is more or less the same. This suggests that the life chance of a migrant, represented by chance


of getting a white-collar job at the receiving place, is largely determined by the personal qualifications, not by the level of development at their place of origin. Although the level of development at the place of origin may have had a strong impact on the decision to migrate in the first place, it does not seem important in determining one’s chance of getting a better job in Beijing.

In short, the results from the above analysis indicate that although access to white collar occupations in Beijing is still selective, migrants who possess degrees are better able to compete for white-collar jobs with locals. In Beijing society, access to white-collar jobs still indicates one’s social status and economic well-being. Beijingers’ exclusive access to these jobs is now being challenged by the aggressive accession of highly qualified migrants from other places. If one possesses a university degree, one may be able to overcome the institutional barriers to high level occupations. Compared to education, the previously predominant institutional mechanism, bukou, has become less dominant in determining occupational success.

DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION The comparison of occupational structures of Beijing usual residents and migrants suggests that migrant workers in Chinese cities are disadvantaged in the job market. Overall, a very small proportion of migrants are able to advance into professional or technical jobs. Few have access to jobs as office workers and clerical personnel in the cities. A great proportion of migrants found jobs as industrial workers, service workers, or street vendors, jobs that few local residents are willing to take. A considerable decrease in the job category of industrial workers among Beijing usual residents from 1990 to 1995 may have reflected the penetration of migrant workers into this sector in the last decade of the twentieth century.

The analysis shows that migrants’ access to jobs in the formal sector in Beijing is still partly determined by institutional factors, such as hukou. The labor recruitment system in Chinese cities still relies on this mechanism. A migrant with an agricultural hukou status is unlikely to land a job with a large, stable employer, while one with a nonagricultural status is more likely to do so, even though they both have temporary status in Beijing. One’s nonagricultural hukou, even registered somewhere else, seems to have continuous effects on one’s chance of landing a job with particular employers, as well as on one’s chance having a white-collar job.

Thus, hukou, the institutionalized social status inherited from one’s family, continues to have strong effects on a person’s life chances throughout


his or her life course, as his or her access to certain enterprises and occupations is largely determined by it. When hukou is taken into account, other individual social and demographic factors, with the exception of education, do not show very significant effects on the likelihood of migrants’ access to the formal and informal sectors. The question is whether this is due to the social stigma attached to being of agricultural birth and background or whether rural migrants’ networks automatically channel them into specific types of occupations from which they find it hard to break out.

Results from fieldwork in a migrant community by one of the authors show that most recent migrants move to Beijing with help from friends or relatives who had already moved to Beijing.3 Initially, they take jobs that require intensive physical labor or long working hours, such as manual laborers or street vendors. The advantage of taking such lower level jobs is that they do not need to have much money or good connections in the job market to get these types of jobs, as the jobs are not desired by local residents and the competition is therefore relatively less intense. Migrants are likely to start with lower-end jobs and move up to better jobs if the opportunities are available.

Having equal access to jobs with large, more stable employers is seen as an indicator of having equal employment opportunity for all members of the society. To many people, the “half-opened door” is better than the previous situation since at least some people without local registration are now able to step into the traditionally local-only job market. To many others, the half- opened door is not enough. They expect the rapid economic development resulting from reforms to create a parallel process of social change and rural- urban integration. They criticize the fact that the segregation between locals and non-locals or the exclusion of migrants from particular enterprises is still legitimized and accepted by the majority of society.

Finally, the study shows the independent and overriding role of education in determining a migrant’s occupational outcome. A university-educated migrant is most likely to have a job with a large employer, especially a white- collar occupation, regardless of his or her hukou. It indicates that education, especially higher education, is the only important means for migrants to overcome institutional obstacles and gain power in the job market. Thus, the role of education in enabling social mobility has come to be just as important in China as it is in many other societies.

3Fieldwork conducted by Fei Guo from 1997 to 1998 in a rural migrant community in Bei- jing, supported by the Mellon Foundation, to investigate fertility behavior of rural-to-urban migrants.

730 INTERNATIONAL MIGRATION h V I E W

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