Human Capital and the Upward Occupational Mobility of Rural Migrant Workers in China

What do the upwardly mobile think they deserve, and why? A multi-method investigation

The purpose of this article is to identify the occupational mobility trajectories of non-EU migrant workers in Europe and to test empirical data against the neoclassical human capital theory that predicts upward occupational mobility in the course of time and the segmented labour market theory that predicts immigrant’s confinement to secondary segments of the labour market. We use survey and semi-structured interviews (2,514 and 357 respectively) with migrants from three origin countries (Brazil, Morocco, Ukraine) in four destination countries (the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, United Kingdom). Using both quantitative analysis and complementary qualitative evidence, we find support for the segmented labour market hypothesis of limited upward occupational mobility in the course of time after migration. However, immigrants with longer residence in the destination country have higher changes of upward occupational mobility, giving also support to the human capital theory. Frail legal status negatively impacts upward mobility changes. Men experience upward mobility more often than women. Following education in the destination country also positively affects the changes of upward mobility. Therefore, destination countries should have policies that enable immigrants to enhance their human capital.

Purpose To identify the trajectories of occupational mobility among non-EU immigrant workers in Europe and to test empirical data against neoclassical human capital theory that predicts upward occupational mobility and labor market segmentation theories proposing immigrant confinement to secondary segments. Methodology/approach Data from survey and semi-structured interviews (2,859 and 357, respectively) with immigrants from Brazil, Ukraine, and Morocco in the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Portugal, and Norway. Multinomial regression analysis to test the likelihood of moving downward, upward, or stability and identify explanatory factors, complemented with qualitative evidence. Findings We found support for the thesis of segmented labor market theories of limited upward occupational mobility following migration. However, immigrants with longer residence in the destination country have higher chances of upward mobility compared to stability and downward mobility, giving also support for the neoclassical human capital theory. Frail legal status impacts negatively on upward mobility chances and men more often experience upward mobility after migration than women. Research limitations/implications Findings reflect the specific situation of immigrants from three origin countries in four destination areas and cannot be taken as representative. In the multinomial regression we cannot distinguish between cohort effects and duration of stay. Social implications Education obtained in the destination country is very important for migrants’ upward occupational mobility, bearing important policy implications with regards to migrants’ integration. Originality/value of paper Its focus on trajectories of mobility through migration looking at two important transitions: (1) from last occupation in the origin country to first occupation at destination and (2) from first occupation to current occupation and offers a wide cross-country comparison both in terms of origin and destination countries in Europe.

BackgroundAs measured through body mass index (BMI), obesity is more prevalent among upwardly mobile adults than among adults born into middle-class families. Although BMI reflects general adiposity, health risks are...

Using a human capital theory framework, this study examines the impact of educational mismatches on earnings and occupational mobility. Occupational mobility theory suggests that overeducated workers observe greater upward occupational mobility and undereducated workers observe lower upward occupational mobility. By extension, this leads to relatively high earnings growth for overeducated workers and relatively low earnings growth for undereducated workers. Moreover, overeducated workers are probably transient relative to their undereducated counterparts, so employers have few incentives to invest in their human capital. Accordingly, their experience will be rewarded at lower rates. These results may also occur if the unused human capital of overeducated workers depreciates with nonuse. The data verify these predictions. Insights on the link between experience and educational mismatches are also examined.

"What do you do?" I asked Miriam, a forty-year-old second-generation Moroccan immigrant woman in Israel. "I am in education." "Are you a teacher?" "No," she answered. "Are you a principal in a school?" "No. I am a kindergarten teacher's assistant," she replied proudly. Miriam's self-definition as an educator reveals an alternate strategy by which second-generation immigrant women can conform to the hegemonic cultural norm of upward educational and occupational mobility, characteristic of Israeli society and of modernity in Western societies. Israeli society recognizes this strategy through the granting of semi-professional status by means of credentials to certain roles—in this case, the role of the kindergarten teacher's assistant. Many studies have noted that the first generation of North African immigrants to Israel, the majority of whom were from Morocco,1 possessed lower levels of education and occupational-professional skills than the European immigrants. They became clustered in the low-income strata, while the Europeans became clustered in the middle and upper-income strata. Thus, an ethnic stratification evolved between these two groups, in which those of European ethnic origin became the superordinate status group, while those of North African origin became the subordinate status group. This was equally true for the women in these two ethnic groups.2 More recent studies on the daughters [End Page 50] of these women, the second generation, show that the socio-economic differences between the women in these two ethnic groups have persisted, if not increased.3 However, studies have also revealed that approximately one third of those belonging to the North Africans groups, Moroccans among them, have accomplished upward mobility into the middle class.4 In spite of this, little research has focused on women within the second generation of Moroccan immigrants who are upwardly mobile, or on how they have achieved their mobility. The purpose of this paper is to serve as a corrective to this neglected topic. It is a case study of a second-generation Moroccan immigrant woman, Miriam, who accomplished limited upward mobility by moving out of the physical labor working class of her immigrant parents and into a semi-professional status. While this semi-profession provided only a low income and little opportunity for advancement, it offered symbolic rewards of status and prestige that compensated somewhat for the low material reward. Miriam achieved this mobility by using a particular non-mainstream type of educational structure consisting of a two-year course and continuing courses. This granted her semi-professional accreditation and increased her educational qualifications, providing an institutionalized path for her mobility. Research on immigrant women in Western capitalist societies and in Israel has shown that first-generation immigrant women, generally those with low human capital, have used entrepreneurship as an alternate strategy to educational attainment in order to accomplish upward mobility.5 The present case study shows how second-generation Moroccan immigrant women, typified by Miriam, can use education acquired through a non-mainstream educational structure as another alternate strategy to accomplish such mobility. I argue that the importance of non-mainstream education in relation to second-generation immigrant women's mobility lies in the options it provides for accomplishing upward mobility. The expansion of various types of educational opportunities for "mature" and "non-traditional" groups of students in Western capitalist societies and in Israel6 has increased the opportunities for second-generation immigrant women to use diverse educational structures as a means of accomplishing occupational mobility. In Israeli society, Moroccan immigrant women of the second generation have by now reached mid-life and, probably, their maximum mobility attainments. This enables us to study the mobility outcomes of their use of the non-mainstream structure of education. [End Page 51] Mainstream and Non...

Due to short-term asymmetric information, overeducated and undereducated workers are shown to have different optimal strategies in seeking upward occupational mobility into their next positions. Undereducated workers typically have other human capital strengths, but these strengths are not marketable to outsiders. Overeducated workers typically have other human capital weaknesses that are not apparent to outsiders while their excess schooling is marketable in labour markets with dynamic asymmetric information. This article presents empirical evidence showing that job tenure increases the probability of upward occupational mobility more if individuals are undereducated. Moreover, the probability of finding upward occupational mobility is increased by overeducated workers engaging in firm switching. This article also validates prior empirical studies finding overeducated workers more likely to self report engaging in firm switching activities and more likely to experience upward occupational mobility than others.

Objective: To explore the relation between risk factors (RF) and occupational mobility in working men. Setting: 20 000 volunteers working at the French National Electricity and Gas Company (GAZEL cohort)....

Relationships between motive to avoid failure and long-term occupational social class mobility were examined. Individuals low in motive to avoid failure, operationalized as test anxiety, were upwardly mobile in social class level of occupational attainment from 1966 to 1985; individuals high in motive to avoid failure were not. A cause-effect relationship was inferred; a strong avoidance motive inhibited upward occupational class mobility. The data suggest that individuals with high motive to avoid failure reach a ceiling occupational class level at a relatively early age whereas individuals with low motive to avoid failure continue longer to achieve further upward mobility. Implications of motive causality are discussed.

Examining geographic and occupational mobility: A loglinear modelling approach

How does social mobility influence cultural taste and participation? Cultural reproduction theory predicts little change, while cultural mobility theory suggests more substantial makeover. This article explores the influence of upward educational and occupational mobility in reading literature, participation in highbrow activities, television watching, and music and food tastes, focusing on mobility from the secondary-level education and the working class to the higher education and the middle class. By analysing survey data (N = 2,813) collected in Finland in 2007 and 2018 with ordinary least squares regression, we show that educational mobility and occupational mobility are mostly differently related to tastes and participation. Both educationally and occupationally upwardly mobile people tend to participate more in highbrow activities, watch less television and dislike meat-heavy food, as is more typical to their social destination than to their social origins. Conversely, the educationally upwardly mobile, again more typical to their destination, tend to read more books, like light-ethnic food and classical music, and dislike popular folk, but occupational mobility is not associated with reading or liking light-ethnic food, and the occupationally mobile retain their original tastes in classical and popular folk music when education is controlled for. We discuss the implications of our results.

Journal Article Inter-generational Occupational Mobility and Legislative Voting Behavior Get access Samuel C. Patterson Samuel C. Patterson State University of Iowa Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Social Forces, Volume 43, Issue 1, October 1964, Pages 90–93, https://doi.org/10.1093/sf/43.1.90 Published: 01 October 1964

The current scholarship on inequality of occupational attainment between rural migrant workers (RMW) and urban resident workers (URW) is largely dominated by evidence suggesting a landscape of occupational segregation, whilst there is a lack of studies researching the equality of occupational mobility. To fill this gap, this study compares the occupational mobilities between RMW and URW in China's urban labor market. Three heatmaps are used to visualize the differences between these two groups in the outflow distributions of occupational mobility. The results show a marked disadvantage of RMW's mobility into white-collar occupations and a relatively high tendency for them to move to or to stay in the manual and agricultural occupations.

PurposeThe study aims to study the effect of non-cognitive ability in human capital on the wages of rural migrant workers in China. The study also examines the mechanisms by which career choice, career development and social capital influence.Design/methodology/approachBased on the new human capital theory, this paper empirically investigates the effects and mechanisms of rural migrant workers' non-cognitive ability on wages using the 2018 China Family Panel Studies database and Stata 17.0 for construct validation and hypothesis testing.FindingsThe results showed that non-cognitive ability has a significant positive effect on rural migrant workers' wages. Subsequently, the mechanism of non-cognitive ability was examined. In further analysis, the study found that non-cognitive ability has a greater effect on the wages of vulnerable individuals (females, low and medium skills) among the rural migrant workers.Originality/valueThe originality of this study is to break through the existing research perspectives, overcome the limitations of scholars' existing research perspectives focusing on the employment and competitiveness of rural migrant workers in China and explore the factors affecting the rural migrant workers' wages from the perspective of non-cognitive ability as a new entry point by combining psychology. At the same time, the study design is more rigorous, avoiding the measurement error of variables.

This paper seeks to unpick the complex relationship between an individual’s migration behaviour, their place of residence, and their occupational performance in the Scottish labour market between 1991 and 2001. We investigate whether Edinburgh has emerged as an occupational escalator region and whether individuals moving there experience more rapid upward occupational mobility than those living and moving elsewhere. Using country of birth, we also control for an individual’s propensity to make long distance moves during earlier periods of their life course. Using data from the Scottish Longitudinal Study, linking 1991 and 2001 individual census records, and logistic regressions, we show that those who migrate over long distances within or to Scotland are most likely to achieve upward occupational mobility. We also found that Edinburgh is by far the most important regional escalator in Scotland; those moving to Edinburgh are the most likely to experience upward occupational mobility from low to high occupational status jobs. This is an important finding as most of the literature on escalator regions focuses on international mega cities.