Informal job-seeking agencies and their role in the 'World Factory&rsquo|of the Pearl River Delta: A case study in Tangxia Township, Dongguan City, Guangdong Province

Abstract

Previous research findings have often suggested that rural migrant workers rely on social networks as a job-seeking strategy.But in Dongguan city,a typical area of the Pearl River Delta 'world factory',our study has revealed the existence of many informal and semi-legal small-scale private job agencies. The case study was conducted in Tangxia,a township in Dongguan city.The informal job agencies were examined through thorough research,focusing on their spatial distribution,organisational structure and operational processes.Furthermore,the aim was to understand the conditions of the agencies' appearance and utilities for the involved actors.The methodology employed includes explorative field investigation,participant observation,mapping of 45 informal agencies,a survey of 585 migrant workers in the manufacturing sector,interviews and casual talks with 22 migrants and agents. Their location along a street in the 138 Industrial Zone is suitable for collecting job demand information from the firms in the vicinity.The entire process of the agencies' operations is characterised by informality.Five main reasons for the existence of the informal job agencies were identified.The informal job agencies' advantages are that they are non-binding and offer comparably low cost services and flexibility.The attitude of the local government to these informal job agencies is one of tolerations,opening one eye,and closing the other eye. Moreover,it has become obvious that the informal job-seeking agencies are playing an increasingly important role in the migrant workers' second and further job seeking after they have become familiar with the environment of the 'world factory'. Finally,it became apparent that(1) the informal job agencies' services cover not only the township of Tangxia,but also several places across Dongguan and Shenzhen.This facilitates intraregional information flow and labour mobility within the Pearl River Delta.(2) Most of the involved stakeholders are previous factory workers who gathered personal contacts to staffing departments of factories.(3) Most informal job agencies have been established in a niche,serving both consumers and suppliers of labour,but the lack of control and sanctions to prevent fraud gives them a bad reputation.