社会杂志 ›› 2019, Vol. 39 ›› Issue (2): 160-185.

• 专题二：社会关系的聚与分 • 上一篇    下一篇

同乡网络的另一幅脸孔:雇主—工人同乡关系对劳工个体权益的影响

魏万青, 高伟   

  1. 广西大学公共管理学院、广西高校人文社科重点基地“区域社会治理创新中心”
  • 出版日期:2019-03-20 发布日期:2019-03-20
  • 作者简介:高伟,E-mail:lisa_wei_gao@163.com

A Different Face of Social Network: Employer-based Enclave and Migrant Workers' Rights and Interests

WEI Wanqing, GAO Wei   

  1. School of Public Policy & Management, Guangxi University
  • Online:2019-03-20 Published:2019-03-20

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摘要：

移民研究文献强调同乡网络是移民重要的社会资本，对保护移民权益发挥着积极作用，而劳工研究文献则强调同乡网络对移民权益的剥夺作用。本文基于一个具有代表性的调查数据，采取倾向值匹配方法克服样本的选择性偏误，分析了“雇主—工人同乡”关系对农民工权益的影响。研究发现：（1）这种同乡网络对农民工人身权利等底线权益具有一定的保护作用，（2）但与更多的超时加班以及不符合最低工资标准等状况联系在一起，阻碍了农民工基本权益的实现，（3）与此同时，这种同乡关系对农民工社保福利等发展型权益的实现影响也不显著。最后，本文分析了农民工权益保护中同乡网络等社会资本的作用与限度，提出维护农民工权益的关键是制度建设与工会组织建设，以及农民工个体尽快脱离原始型社会资本，构建跨越型社会资本。

关键词: 劳工权益, 同乡网络, 农民工

Abstract:

In China, rural-to-urban migrant workers who are from the same place of origin tend to concentrate in the same workplace. If the concentration is sufficiently dense, it means those migrant workers build up a social network that could be defined as native place enclave (NPE). Progress has been achieved in increasing the understanding of NPE in migrant workers studies. What is the relationship between NPE and migrant workers' rights and interests? Answers to the question can be roughly categorized into two groups. The first group includes immigration research that emphasizes that the network of NPE is an important social capital of migrants and plays a positive role in the rights and interests of migrants. The concept of social capital has been used as a frame to discuss NPE in immigration research literature. NPE has played an important role for migrant workers to adapt to the city in China, and the “enclave thesis” speculates that immigrants benefit from working in enclaves. However, the second group contained labor research emphasizes negative perception of NPE. They emphasized that the function of NPE was not to control migrant workers but rather to guide them by using soft rules of interpersonal relationships. Based on previous studies, we argued that there was still a knowledge gap to fill concerning both sides of the coin, that is, the dark side and the bright side of informal networking. When migrant workers and their employers come from a NPE, they probably enter in a reciprocity relationship. Migrant workers can benefit from their employers when they look for jobs and pursue promotion. At the same time, employers can play emotional cards to persuade the migrant workers to cooperate even if they have to work overtime and intensely.
In this paper, based on the data from a 2010 survey of migrant workers in the Pearl River Delta and the Yangtze River Delta, we discussed whether there were differences between enclave workers and non-enclave workers in migrant workers' rights and interests. We divide migrant workers' rights and interests into baseline rights (BR) and development-oriented rights and interests (DR). We found that the relationship between NPE and migrant workers' rights and interests is two sides of the coin. First, the relationship between NPE and baseline rights of migrant workers, such as basic personal rights, arrears of wages, was positive. Second, enclave participation has a significant negative influence on migrant workers' development-oriented rights and interests. Compared to non-enclave workers, enclave workers were more overtime and more likely to fail to meet the minimum wage standard.
Our results implied that lack of institutional protection and dependence on informal system were very limited in improving the rights and interests of migrant workers.

Key words: migrant workers, native place enclaves, migrant workers' rights and interests