Real Adaption or Not: New Generation Internal Migrant Workers Social Adaption in China

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1 Real Adaption or Not: New Generation Internal Migrant Workers Social Adaption in China Huanjun Zhang* School of Sociology and Population Studies, Renmin University of China, Beijing, China *Corresponding author, I. INTRODUCTION Among the floating people, the new generation of internal migrant workers, who is currently in the key stage of adapting to the flowing-in area, has become a social group that cannot be ignored in China cities. Understanding the characteristics of their social adaption is of great significance for the healthy development of China s urbanization. This paper aims at finding out the social adaption situation of the new generation of migrant workers in China s urbanization progress, evaluating the current adaption level, and analyzing the main factors that influence their social adaption. A. Background Along with the process of industrialization and modernization, transition from rural agricultural population to non-agricultural population has been a worldwide phenomenon, which is an inevitable result of all-round social advancement, fast economic development and improvement of living standard. The conclusion can be drew that the migration from rural areas to urban areas, the transition from farmers to citizens, the transfer from primary industry to secondary and tertiary industry, and realization of population urbanization is the objective requirement and inevitable tendency of economic development, social advancement and modernization of a country. There appears an intergenerational differentiation within the migrant workers, and the transition of the new generation of migrant workers to citizens will definitely be an important way to accelerate urbanization process during the 12th Five-year Plan period. It will also have a profound impact on the way of life and economic and social structure of Chinese people, to promote the healthy and steady development of China s modernization. Within the transition progress from farmers to citizens, the adaption to the city of the new generation of migrant workers is one of the premises for the smooth development of urbanization. B. Literature Review The study of the new generation of migrant workers starts from the exploration and discussion of the intergenerational difference of migrant workers. When studying the stratification of migrant workers, some researchers focus on the heterogeneity inside this group; in fact, heterogeneity study is a part of intergenerational difference. Therefore, researchers start to pay attention to the difference of characteristic between the two generations of migrant workers, leading to the research of the new generation. Wang Chunguang uses the term the new generation of rural floating population, while Liu Chuanjiang identifies it as the second generation of migrant workers. There are two basic characteristics of this group; first, they are born after 1980s; second, they first go out for work in 1990s. In fact, what they study is the same group, the new generation of migrant workers. The new generation of migrant workers is the floating rural population between the first and second generation. They are not born or raised up during the time when the first generation of migrant workers goes out. They have different cognition, life expectancy and behavior compared to the first generation, which is the reason to distinguish them and do research separately. Han Zhenfang (2009) has concluded the characteristic of the new generation of migrant workers as 3-high and 1-low : high education level, high job expectancy, high requirement for material and spiritual life, and low tolerance for work. Yang Juhua (2010) has concluded it as 5-low and 2-bad : low job reputation, low income, low social welfare, low working time standard, and low recognition; bad employment industry and bad housing condition. II. DATA AND METHOD A. Data Source The data of this paper is from the New Generation of Migrant Workers Research (2011) conduced in January The research studies 1400 migrant workers from 24 provinces and cities in China by questionnaire and in-depth interview. Efficacious questionnaire number is 1201, and the response rate has reached the general requirement of social science. 1

2 B. The content of the research includes basic individual and family information, working situation, and evaluation of cognition, attitude and behavior, social adaption and recognition status, and love and marriage value. This research defines the new generation of migrant workers as the rural floating population who is born after 1980 with agricultural Hukou, and has working experience in city more than 6 months.research Framework Yang Juhua s definition for social adaption is used in this paper, which tends to the single-way adaption of the new generation of migrant workers to citizens. And adaption is a active entrance of adaptor, thus, the subjective evaluation is used for analysis. There are two active forces in this process; one is the process of migrant workers go into, and the other is the acceptation in flow-in area. The logic analyzing framework is shown in Fig. 1. During the adaption process, flow-in and flowout area is connected with the migrant workers. For flow-out area, the leaving of migrant workers is an active process, so the pull force of flow-out area is not discussed in this paper. The adaption includes two elements, namely willing and ability. For the self-evaluation of the new generation of migrant workers, willing means the assimilation ability into flow-in area, such as income and housing level, while ability is the recognition for citizen and farmer, supposing the two identities has a relevant negative correlation. For the evaluation of migrant workers for flow-in area, willing mainly means the acceptation level of immigrant area. Acceptation here is objective, measured from the new generation of migrant workers. refers to adaption justice, which is the evaluation for the policy environment of the flow-in area. Flow-out Area The New Generation of Migrant Workers Flow-in Area generation of migrant workers as assimilation ability, identity recognition ofsocial acceptation, fairness of adaption, and home-leaving, expecting to demonstrate the current situation and basic connotation of social adaption of the new generation of migrant workers. A. Construction of Evaluation System First, the five dimensions, namely assimilation ability, identity recognition, social acceptation, fairness of adaption, and home-leaving, are used as the first-class index of the evaluation system. Second, the content of corresponding second-class index is determined. Assimilation ability index includes income, housing and social security status. Identity recognition refers to self-definition of identity, attitude for city, future plan, city recognition, self-recognition of adaption possibility and love and marriage value. Self-recognition element of social acceptation involves self-recognition, discrimination, interaction and language. Fairness of adaption focuses on the official approval of policy, which consists of equity of system and wage arrears. Home-leaving is explained by communicating language and hometown affection. Third, the evaluation index system is constructed. According to the methods and steps explained above, the evaluation index system for the social adaption of the new generation of migrant workers is constructed, and weight is given in turns. In this paper, equal weight is applied in all weight, which means giving the same weight to every subsystem and every index of the same domain. This provides convenience for operation, and avoid subjective tendency in setting the weight. Therefore, in the comprehensive evaluation index, level of social adaption (L) cumulated by 5-dimension evaluation index (first-class index) of equal-weight (set as 0.2). It is also used when composing first-class index from secondclass index and second-class index from third-class index. TABLE 1 SOCIAL ADAPTION LEVEL INDEX SYSTEM OF THE NEW GENERATION MIGRANT WORKERS first-class index second-class third-class Assimi lation Identity recogniti on Recogniti on Homeleaving Residents Selfrecognit ion of social acceptat ion Policy Fairn ess of Adap tion L: L= A +I +S +F +H 0.2 A- Assimilation A1Income situation A2 Housing A3 Welfare How do you feel about your current economic statue? What type of house are you living in? Do you have insurance in your company? A6 C17 C18 III. Figure 1. Research framework EVALUATION OF THE ADAPTION LEVEL OF THE NEW GENERATION OF MIGRANT WORKERS According to the definition of the social adaption as mentioned above and the all-round, scientific and systematic requirement for the evaluation index, this paper sets the evaluation dimensions of the social adaption of the new 0.2 I- Identity Recognition I1 selfdefinition of identity what's your position in this city, you think? Do you treat yourself as a resident of flow-in E3 E19 I2 attitude for Are you reluctant to E20 2

3 city leave the Do you have a feeling of going Home when you are in city E21 B. Evaluation Result As shown in Fig. 2, the social adaption level of the new generation of migrant workers appears as normal distribution, which proves the applicability of this evaluation index from another side. I3 future plan What are your plans for future life? E25 What is your plan for future housing? E26 I4 city recognition Do you want to be a member of flowin E5 I5 selfrecognition of adaption possibility Is there feasibility that migrant can be a member of flowin cit? E2 0.2 S- Selfrecognition element of social acceptation I6 marriage value S1 selfrecognition S2 discrimination Do you want to marry an anmember of flow-in cit The difference between resident and flowing people? Is there discrimination in the city you are working in? F3 E13 E12 Figure 2. Distribution of index L The evaluation result of social adaption level of the new generation of migrant workers is demonstrated in the Fig. 2, from which it can be seen that the main characteristics of the social adaption process are: First, the new generation of migrant workers is in the moderate level of social adaption. The social adaption level of the whole group has reached 51%. S3 interaction S4 language Difficulty with the people in the flowin city Do you speak in accent in the flowin E10 E9 Second, it can be seen from the five dimensions, the assimilation ability and identity recognition level is relatively low, while fairness of adaption and home-leaving level is relatively high. This collides with the conclusion that the new generation of migrant workers has stronger feeling of deprivation. 0.2 F- Fairness of Adaption F1 equity of system F2 wage arrears Do you think are they general in the city Is there wage arrears happen to you in the recent year E14 D4 TABLE 2 SOCIAL ADAPTION EVALUATION RESULT OF THE NEW GENERATION OF MIGRANT WORKERS Social Adaption Index Mean Standard deviation Sample Volume L Level of General Social Adaption Index A Assimilation H- homeleaving H1 communicating language When talking to the friends of hometown, you usually speak? E8 I Identity Recognition S Self-recognition of Social Acceptation F Fairness of Adaption H2 hometown affection When leaving hometown, do you feel not glad to? Do you feel that hometown provides you a sense of safety E17 E18 H Home-leaving Third, looking from the different individual characteristics (as shown in Fig. 3), the female s citizenization level is higher than male. For the single child in the new generation of migrant workers, their social adaption level is generally a bit lower. The citizenization level of migrant workers who have farming experience is lower than those who do not have. With the increase in education level, the citizenization level gradually improves. 3

4 TABLE 3 SOCIAL ADAPTION EVALUATION RESULT ACCORDING TO DIFFERENT INDIVIDUAL CHARACTERISTICS Individual Characteristic Mean Standard Deviation Gender Female Male Education Level Primary School Junior High Senior High College Higher Single Child No Yes Having Farming No Yes Hukou Area East Middle West IV. ANALYSIS OF INFLUENCING FACTORS ON SOCIAL ADAPTION OF NEW GENERATION MIGRANT WORKERS A. Variable selection Based on the research results we have already got, to investigate the social adaption level of the new generation migrant workers, we select personal characteristics, family characteristics, as well as social capital & human capital as the three different variables (shown in Table 4). It is assumed that all these variables affect the social adaption level of the new generation migrant workers. The variables which reflect the personal characteristics are gender, age, education level, only child or non-only child, whether of production capability in agriculture. Where, gender=1 refers to male, 0 refers to female; the age is calculated using the real age, which is a continuous variable. When considering the education level, primary school or below is utilized as the reference. As for the only child or non-only child, whether he or she has the agricultural capability and the agriculture production experience, the answer of No is adopted as the reference. The variables reflecting the family characteristics contain the family migration, if the mother and the father are working out of the hometown, the answer of No is adopted as the reference. TABLE 4 VARIABLE SELECTION OF THE INFLUENCING FACTORS ON SOCIAL ADAPTION OF NEW GENERATION MIGRANT WORKERS Variables Definition Mean Standard Deviation Personal characteristics Age Gender (Female=Reference) Male Education Level (Primary School or below=reference) Junior Middle School Male=1, female= Senior High School College Diploma Bachelor or above Only child Possess Production Capability of Agriculture Place of Domicile (East Areas =Reference) Middle Areas West Areas Family Characteristics Father Working out of Mother Working out of Yes=0, No = Family Migration Social Capital & Human Capital How the First Job Ends The Age of the First Time Working out of The Way to Get the Job Relative=1, (Nonrelative=Reference) Nonrelative=0 Live with the Family while Working Working areas (East Areas=Reference) Middle Areas West Areas B. Regression Analysis Hypotheses Based on the above-mentioned analytical results and the references, in view of the factors affecting the social adaption level of the new generation migrant workers, we present in this paper the following hypothesis: The personal characteristics of the new generation migrant workers have an effect on their social adaption level; The new generation migrant workers are more independent, their family characteristics have litter effect on their social adaption level; The higher human capital the new generation migrant workers have, the higher level of social adaption they reach, while the social capital may not significantly correlate with the workers social adaption level. C. Regression Results Analysis This article constructs three models about the influencing factors on social adaption of the new generation migrant workers, gradually taking into consideration of the personal characteristic variables, family characteristic variables, as well as the social capital & human capital variables. All of the three models passed the F Testing, R 2 reaches as high as 24.8%, the regression results as demonstrated in Table 5. TABLE 5 REGRESSION RESULTS OF THE INFLUENCING FACTORS ON SOCIAL ADAPTION LEVEL OF NEW GENERATION MIGRANT WORKERS Model 1 Model 2 Model 3 Personal characteristics Age Gender(Female=Reference) 4

5 Male Education Level (Primary School or below =Reference) Junior Middle School.060**.060***.054*** Senior High School.068***.064***.058*** College Diploma.095***.089***.080*** Bachelor or above Only Child Possess Production Capability of -.024* -.023* -.023* Agriculture Place of Domicile (East areas=reference) Middle areas -.032* -.032* West area -.042** -.039** Family Characteristics Father working out of hometown -.024** Mother working out of hometown Family Migration.036***.015 Social Capital & Human Capital How the first job ends.023 The age of the first time working out of hometown The way to get the job (Nonrelative =Reference) Live with the family while.033*** working Working Areas (East Areas =Reference) Middle Areas West Areas Constant.440***.435***.436*** R Adjust R Sig N * * * p< ; * * p< 0. 01; * p< In the aspect of new generation migrant workers personal characteristics, there is no significant effect of their gender on their social adaption level, but the adaption level of males is lower than that of females. Since there is only a small age difference among the new generation migrant workers, and there is also a large homogeneity. Therefore, the influence of age on the level of their citizenization does not pass the significance test. It should be noticed that the higher education level the new generation migrant workers possess, the higher social adaption level they can reach. Compared with those with primary school (or below) education background, the migrant workers with junior middle school, senior high school and college educations get higher adaption level, that is to say, the education level has a prominent influence on their social adaption levels. Moreover, the new generation migrant workers with the production capability of agriculture achieve a higher adaption level than those without such capability, this proves indirectly the fact that the migrant workers without agriculture production experience integrate into the city life more easily. In model 2, when the family characteristics are induced into the equation, its explanatory power is increased. However, the regression results reveal that whether the father is working out of hometown and whether the family migrates have significant effects on the social adaption. When the father had working experience, the new generation worker has an even lower adaption level, the reason for which is supposed to be the influence of older generation s unpleasant working experience on the new generation, which results into a lower adaption level. Nevertheless, the family migration has a positive correlation on the adaption level, indicating that the psychological support from the family, the decreased sense of loneliness in city, and the reduced risk of life in city lead to a easier way for the new generation migrant workers to integrate into the city life. In model 3, the factor of social capital & human capital is added, as shown in the regression results, there is a remarkable effect on the social adaption level of living with the family members while working, manifesting that the new generation migrant workers with social capital integrate into the city more easily, and it is also found that the family support in the aspect of social capital plays the leading role. The human capital variable does not pass the significance test. V. CONCLUSION To analysis the social adaption of new generation migrant workers, we can have these conclusions below: The social a adaption status of the new generation migrant workers is at the intermediate level, which is in accordance with the research results of Guixin Wang, et al. It demonstrates that the adaption process of the new generation migrant workers into the city life is changing, which is related with the short time of the adaption process, and the limited support the new generation migrant workers can get. In the aspect of personal subjective assessment of the new generation migrant workers, the level of leaving their native places and fairness of adaption are higher, while assimilation ability and the identify recognition level are lower, selfrecognition of social acceptation medium. This disagrees with the previous research results, which considered the new generation migrant workers had a strong feeling of deprivation. The present research demonstrates that the new generation migrant workers do not think subjectively of a high level of exclusion from the city, while the affirmation level of personal identity and assimilation ability into the city is low, which indicates that there is still an enormous room for the growth of the social adaption level of the new generation migrant workers. Family (family mobility and the capital of relative in flowing-in city) is another important factor influencing on the social adaption of the new generation migrant workers, which disagrees with the hypotheses of the research. In this article, we are apt to explain it from the point of social support. The floating population in China relies mainly on affiliation and geographic relation, new generation migrant workers are a part of which. Their education background is limited, and the rate of constructing social capital in their working city is slow. Moreover, they sometimes are deposited in the frontier fields and space as the non-native and frontier population, so most of the migrant workers are at a status of semi-citizenization, even at a status of virtual-citizenization. Nevertheless, the working experience, which is related to the human capital of the floating population, does not significantly affect the social acceptation level of the new generation migrant workers. 5