Chinese Journal of Sociology ›› 2019, Vol. 39 ›› Issue (2): 160-185.

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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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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