Socio-economic integration experience of Chinese educationally channeled labor migrants in the Netherlands

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Socio-economic Integration Experience of Chinese Educationally

Channeled Labor Migrants in the Netherlands

A Master Thesis, by Xi Yang Student Number 10443614

Program Comparative Organization and Labor Study First Supervisor Dr. Valentina Di Stasio

Second Supervisor Dr. Marie-Louise Janssen Date of Submission 2014-7-2

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Summary

This thesis investigates the socio-economic integration experience of Chinese educationally channeled labor migrants (CECLMs) in the Netherlands, with the guidance of Dr. Valentina Di Stasio and Dr. Marie-Louise Janssen. Educationally channeled international labor migrants are those international students who stay in the host country to search career after graduation. The aim of this thesis is to discover how do CECLMs integrate into the Dutch labor market and how does social network work in the process of socio-economic integration. Social network perspective and gender perspecitve are employed to help understanding and explaining CECLMs’ experiences of integration. The research question is that “what role does social network play in the process of socio-economic integration for

Chinese educationally channeled labor migrants (CECLMs) in the Netherlands and how does it play, and does CECLMs’ experiences differ across male and female? If so, why?”

With the help of the strength of weak ties theory which presented by Granovetter in 1973, the theoretical framework is built. Granovetter asserted the importance of weak ties in terms of job searching. However, many migration studies have different opinions about the function of the networks on migrants. Some agreed with Granovetter and stated weak ties benefit migrants more, while some others argued that strong ties provide migrants resources more efficiently. However, different migrants may have quite diverse experience and behavior. In the Chinese context, “guanxi” is a term to describe “a person’s network of social connections composed of family, close friends, and people who are interpersonally connected to one’s family and friends, as well as individuals linked by traditional connections, like classmates, teachers and students” (Taomina & Gao, 2010 :1196). Theoretically, “guanxi” is more vital than weak ties for Chinese to obtain jobs.

Qualitative research method is adopted in this study. Semi-structued in-depth interview was utilized to collect data from seven male CECLMs and seven female CECLMs. According to these informants’ stories, they did not plan to be labor migrants before. After studying and living in the Netherlands for years, they have got used to Dutch custom. Furthermore, they felt hard to integrate into the social network in the hometown and they have a good impression on Dutch working environment where colleagues are nice and hardworking.

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Page|2 Consequently, they chose to overstay in the Netherlands and enter into the Dutch labor market.

Informants’ experiences show that Internet searching and help from friends or people they met in the working environment are two main ways to obtain jobs. Both weak ties and strong ties provide information, while what strong ties offer are more efficient. Moreover, CECLMs believed that “guanxi” only works in China and they cannot rely on it to get jobs in the Netherlands.

Besides, in CECLMs’ eyes, socio-economic integration means having similar income and occupational position as Dutch people who have the same educational background. Furthermore, they do not consider working in a Chinese company or an international company as real integration. The real integration according to informants’ opinions is working in a native Dutch company.

Moreover,CECLMs’ job searching experiences did not differ across gender. However, according to CECLMs’ views, female is easier to socio-economic integrate as they have better language skills and more connections than male. In my opinion, female CECLMs benefit more from the gender equality of the Netherlands than male CECLMs. Dutch society provides a liberated platform for female to discover themselves and show their talents.

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Chapter 1: Introduction

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Nowadays, high education becomes a modern attractive factor of immigration. Under the background of global economy and labor mobility, the internationalization and commodification of high education is an ongoing process. Studying abroad is increasingly popular. Especially for those students who come from developing countries, studying in wealthy developed countries is not only an investment for high education, but also an investment for further career in the receiving country.

Massey and Malone’s (2002) study shows that 22% of international students acceded to permanent residences by employers in the US in the year of 1996. International student migration is becoming a more and more vital part of global immigration and international education is indeed a channel of labor migration (Liu-Farrer, 2009; Madge, Raghuram, & Noxolo, 2008). Liu-Farrer (2009) uses the term “educationally channeled international labor mobility” to present the overlapped trends of labor mobility and international student migration. Based on this term, we can use “educationally channeled international labor migrants” (ECILM) to describe those international students who stay in the host country to search career after graduation (Yang, 2013).

The issue of immigration has been discussing for a long period, while less literature refers to such a special group – ECILM. Have these ECILM already planned to be labor migrants at the beginning of movement? If not, why do they change minds? After making the decision to overstay, how do they find jobs and how do they integrate into the environment out of school? How do they consider their situation? Many studies emphasize the vital role of social network to migrants in terms of finding jobs (e.g. Massey, Goldring, & Durand, 1994; Bagchi, 2001). Are ECILM’s experiences similar? This thesis aims to explore this special group. Furthermore, the study of migration could be approached from a gender perspective. As shown in many quantitative researches, male and female migrants have different motivations, risks and norms which structure and promote their movement and integration process. Nonetheless, these quantitative researches hold a common assumption that

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Page|6 networks act in the same way and have the same effect on male and female (Pessar, 1999). The potential differences across genders are not considered.

But some aspects of the gender perspective are considerably important and interesting in the study of ECILM integration experience. For example, “Would male ECILM and female ECILM behavior vary in terms of searching a job?”, “Would networks work differently for different gender?”, “What are the experiences of male ECILM and female ECILM while integrating into the host labor market?” etc. These blank areas of ECILM integration experience are evidently needed to be filled in by investigating in the study of the gender perspective. This paper aims at contributing to fill in this gap and increasing the sense of gender in immigration study by emphasizing the interactions between gender and some other factors, especially the relationship with networks.

Specifically, I choose Chinese educationally channeled labor migrants who finished their last degrees in the Netherlands as the informants of this study. Nowadays, China is a top sending country of international students. During the year of 2013, China has sent around 450 thousands students abroad1. Most Chinese international students study English taught programs all over the world. Now the Netherlands is one of the most popular destinations because of the relatively high quality of high education and lower study cost. Moreover, the Netherlands provides an orientation year for international students to search for jobs after graduation, which is also a key attraction to Chinese international students. However, besides the orientation year provided by Dutch government, the qualification of working permit requires ECILM to earn 2.297,16 euros per month (pre-tax) minimum, which is a relatively medium level income in the Netherlands2, but higher than the native average income3. This requires ECILM to find a job which can pay them at least the bottom line for getting working permit.

Based on the discussion about the requirements for entering the Dutch labor market, some questions for the ECILM are brought out. First of all, when the Chinese international

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Source from: http://edu.sina.com.cn/a/2013-12-16/1446237588.shtml. 2

Source from Immigration and Naturalization Service: https://ind.nl/EN/individuals/employee/costs-income-requirements/Income-requirements/Pages/default.aspx.

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Page|7 students search a job after graduation and integrate into the Dutch labor market, what situation will they meet? With the pressure of the income requirement, will they mainly rely on networks to find a job? And the last but not the least, are the experiences different between male and female?

The exact research question of this thesis is:

What role does social network play in the process of socio-economic integration for Chinese educationally channeled labor migrants (CECLMs) in the Netherlands and how does it play, and does CECLMs’ experiences differ across male and female? If so, why?

In order to elaborate and investigate the research question in a clear and logical way, five sub-questions are designed:

- How does social network influence CECLMs’ decision to overstay?

- Which kinds of social networks of migrants do CECLMs have before and after entering

into the Dutch labor market?

- What does socio-economic integration mean to CECLMs?

- Does social network facilitate CECLMs’ socio-economic integration process? If so, how does it work? If not, why?

- In terms of socio-economic integration, how do male CECLMs and female CECLMs

experience differently?

The main concepts of this thesis are Chinese educationally channeled labor migrants (CECLMs), socio-economic integration and social network of migrants. Before examining the sub-questions, these three concepts are clarified. The existing views and opinions from previous literature are used to build a theoretical framework of social network for CECLMs in terms of socio-economic integration. Except investigating literature, this thesis applies semi-structured in-depth interview to gather data and help answering sub-questions practically.

Generally, this thesis is operated as the following description. It begins by introducing three main concepts - Chinese educationally channeled labor migrants (CECLMs), socio-economic integration and social network of migrants. Then a framework of social network theories about job searching behavior is presented, mainly focusing on the strength of weak ties

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Page|8 theory and “guanxi” which is a core term in Chinese social network study. Gender perspective is also included in the theoretical framework. Then, the qualitative research method is elaborated before moving on to the analysis part of the research findings. In order to combine theories and practical data, five sub-questions are explained respectively in three data analysis parts– studying and living in the Netherlands, finding a job as a CECLM, and gendered experience of integration. At last, conclusion and discussion are drawn from the analytical results.

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Chapter 2: Theoretical Framework

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In this chapter, three main concepts – Chinese educationally channeled international labor migrants, social network of migrants, and socio-economic integration are explained firstly. Secondly, the strength of weak ties theory is elaborated in terms of job searching. Besides, another social network term – “guanxi” and relative studies in the Chinese context is introduced. Thirdly, gender perspective is presented to discuss the differences between male and female regarding the main topic. This chapter also includes a final note to conclude main opinions.

2.1 Concepts

Chinese Educationally Channeled Labor Migrants

Human migration refers to the movement of people from the area of origin to a new area. The distance of two areas could range from crossing cities, provinces (internal migration) and even countries (international migration). Migration is an everlasting phenomenon in human history. The concept met its popularity after 18th century due to the First and Second World War. Nowadays, migration has become a common way for individuals to seek their career in wealthy countries. This kind of migration is named labor migration. Currently, the population of labor migration equals the number of the fifth most populous country in the world. 4

Among the labor migrants, a part of them come to the new country to find a job directly, and another part of them prefer having a transnational period before entering the labor market. The transnational period could be realized by following international study programs and being international students first or other methods. According to the definition of the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), international students are the students who cross borders to a foreign country for the

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Page|10 purpose of study (OECD, 2011). Liu-Farrer (2009) presented the term “educationally channeled international labor mobility” to describe the overlapped trends of labor mobility and international student migration. Based on this term, we can use “educationally channeled international labor migrants” to represent the group of international students who stay in the host country and wish to integrate into the host labor market after graduation. This thesis focuses on Chinese migrant so that the term Chinese educationally channeled labor migrant (CECLM) is adopted.

However, the reasons for the Chinese international students preferring searching jobs in a foreign country after graduation remain unstudied. Furthermore, some detailed questions like whether they have already planned to search a job before studying abroad, if and how social network affect their decisions are to be clarified. The first sub-question which should be made clear is: how does social network influence CECLMs’ decision to overstay?

Moreover, social network of CECLMs should be elucidated as well. As long as CECLMs move from hometown to the foreign country, their network changes as migrants. CECLMs’ social network is introduced in the following part.

Social Network of Migrants

A social network is a social structure composed of social actors and dyadic ties between actors (Wasserman & Faust, 1994). The actor could be individuals as well as organizations, and the tie is the relationship (e.g. friendship, kinship, cooperation) between two actors (Ye, 2006). In line with such characteristics, social network of migrants includes sets of interpersonal ties (like kinship and friendship) which connect former migrants, current migrants and even non-migrants in their original areas and host areas (Massey & Arango, 1993).

Indeed, after leaving family and friends in the initial country, those migrants - Chinese educationally channeled international labor migrants, have to build new social networks in the host country. Hendrickson, Rosen and Aune (2011) reviewed prior research and identified three kinds of friendship networks that international students develop – co-national/ co-ethnic network ( including individuals from their own countries), multi-national

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Page|11 network (including individuals from other foreign countries) and host-national network (including individuals in the host country). Moreover, Hendrickson’s classification of network includes all kinds of people that a migrant may meet in any country. It not only applies to international students, but also applies to labor migrants. After graduation, CECLMs may also build up connections with Chinese people, native people in host country or foreigners from any other country. The category of interpersonal ties of CECLMs reflects their networking behavior and integration experience to some extent. Here I would like to present the second sub-question: which kinds of social network do CECLMs have before and after entering into the Dutch labor market?

However, it is not easy for international students to establish host-national network and multi-national network due to different cultural norms, language barriers and different nature of friendship (Smith & Khawaja, 2011). Especially for Chinese international students who study in the Netherlands, whose cultural background is significantly different from native students and most international students from the western countries. Due to the hardness for establishing host-national network and multi-national network, co-ethnic network is international students’ primary friendship network (Hendrickson, Rosen, & Aune, 2011). By discussion and intellectual exchange with co-ethnic friends who have the same cultural emotions, those students can better understand the new culture (Woolf, 2007). At the beginning of studying abroad, co-ethnic network provides vital and efficient social support. Nonetheless, in the long run, if international students still spend most time with friends from co-ethnic network, it may hinder their integration process (Kim, 2001). The network building up problem and hinder problem also exist when a Chinese international student graduate from school and start entering the local labor market.

Then the study of the exact content of integration and the way to measure integration would be the next topic. In the following part, the definitions of integration and socio-economic integration are introduced.

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Page|12 Socio-economic Integration

To understand socio-economic integration, it is necessary to consider the definition of integration, which is a broad term in migration study. It was firstly presented by the sociologist Emile Durkheim. In his conceptualization, integration describes how migrants’ lives change after they enter into the receiving society (Turner, 1981).

After the initial definition of integration by Durkheim, many other scholars further defined integration in different ways. For example, Snel etc. (2006) defined it as the incorporation of new elements in a certain society. According to Rubin etc. (2006), integration is the “quantity and quality of social connections and interaction” that migrants have with other people, especially with those natives. Both of them stressed on the side of migrants and implied that it is migants’ duty to make efforts to integrate into the native society. However, some other scholars disagreed with unilateral integration and asserted that integration should be mutual accommodation. Ellingsen is one of those scholars. In his words, integration is “the inclusion of individuals or groups into mainstream society or various social arenas on equal term” (Ellingsen, 2003:7).

In line with aspects of human life, integration has four dimensions – economic, social, cultural and political (Gidarakou, Kazakopoulos, & Koutsouris, 2011). In Dutch migration literature, a typology of two dimensions is widely used - social and cultural integration and socio-economic integration (Snel, Engbersen, & Leerkes, 2006). The former one refers to two points – migrants’ informal social contacts with natives, and the extent that migrants adapt to the host society’s norms, customs and values (Snel, Engbersen, & Leerkes, 2006). This thesis mainly focuses on socio-economic integration, referring to “access to the relevant institutional realm” (e.g. the equal rights of labor and social security comparing with the natives) and the social status in the host society (Gidarakou, Kazakopoulos, & Koutsouris, 2011; Water & Jimmenez , 2005). The first indicator mainly depends on the immigration policy of the receiving country, and the second indicator, socio-economic status can be reflected by three variables – educational level, occupational position and income level (Water & Jimmenez, 2005; Snel, Engbersen, & Leerkes, 2006). In other words, migrants need both right and ability to achieve socio-economic integration. Furthermore, for migrants who want to seek career in the host country, socio-economic integration is the

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Page|13 most important part of integration and employment is the key factor. To some extent, migrants who are better integrated into the host society must be better off in socio-economic integration (Ode, 2002).

In this study, CECLMs are the first generation of migrants and they come to the Netherlands for further study initially. Their educational levels are related to their economic capital in China and their personal desires for study5. Consequently, educational level is not appropriate to evaluate their socio-economic status in the Netherlands directly, but occupational position and income level still affect the socio-economic status significantly. As a comsequence, for CECLMs, getting a job and integrating into the Dutch labor market indicates the socio-economic integration.

Nonetheless, these descriptions and discussions about integration and socio-economic integration are only generally theoretical statements. A question is whether the generally theoretical statements about integration and socio-economic integration could also be applied to the specific group CECLMs. We would like to investigate the view of CECLMs about integration and socio-economic integration in the further interview.

Through in-depth interview, this thesis aims to explore the third sub-question:

- What does socio-economic integration mean to Chinese educationally channeled labor

migrants (CECLMs)?

So far, the three main concepts have been clarified. In the following section, a framework of social network theory is built to investigate the role of social network in the socio-economic integration process of CECLMs.

2.2 Social Network Theory

With the disadvantage identity of migrants and the requirement of income in the Netherlands, how do CECLMs search jobs and integrate into the Dutch labor market. Many

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Some CECLMs may go back to university to pursue a higher degree after working for a period. In that situation, educational level does relate to the socio-economic integration in the host country. This thesis only talks about CECLMs who do not continue studying after entering into the Dutch labor market.

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Page|14 studies assert the importance of networks for migrants to find jobs (e.g., Aguilera & Massey, 2003; Chiswick & Miller, 1996). Nonetheless, due to the fact that CECLMs is a particular group with special Chinese cultural background, how would the networks affect their job searching procedure and integration in the Dutch labor market is to be studied. For example, would the networks still take an important role for migrants, is there any other important method for CECLMs to search job and integrate into the Dutch labor market.

This section introduces a network theory which relates to job searching – the strength of weak ties theory. Moreover, a special term under the Chinese context, “guanxi” is also presented.

Social network is important for employment because it provides job seekers with valuable job information which they cannot get from formal applications (Granovetter, 1973; Harvey, 2008). Interpersonal relations which link to social contacts are channels to get information. Granovetter’s (1973, 1985) divides interpersonal relations into strong ties and weak ties and stresses on the importance of weak ties in employment. He asserts that individuals benefit more from weak ties than strong ties because weak ties provide more non-redundant job resource (Granovetter, 1973;Granovetter, 1985). The following content explains the strength of weak ties theory amply. Even though Grannovetter did not focus on migrants, his work provides implications for understanding some behavior which migrants may have when trying to find jobs.

The Strength of Weak Ties

Granovetter uses the term “tie” to describe the relation between two individuals in a social network and divides ties into strong ties and weak ties by its “strength” (Granvotter, 1973). According to his description, the strength of a tie is “a (probably linear) combination of the amount of time, the emotional intensity, the intimacy (mutual confiding), and the reciprocal services which characterize the tie” (Granvotter, 1973:1361). Generally, strong ties are intimate relationships and such ties have a tendency to show similarities in backgrounds, attitudes and experience (Ye, 2006), such as close family members and intimates. On

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Page|15 contrary, people who are connected by weak ties are not that familiar with each other, like acquaintances that have less intimate exchanges.

The strength of weak ties theory consists of two arguments. The first argument is that the stronger the tie between two individuals, the more similar they are (Granovetter, 1973), and they have similar social connections (Borgatti & Halgin, 2011). For example, if A and B have a strong tie, A and C have a strong tie as well, then B and C have a weak tie at least.

The second argument of the strength of weak theory is that weak ties are “potential source of novel ideas” (Borgatti & Halgin, 2011). This kind of weak ties is named bridge ties, which connect two networks through two individuals who have it. Through this bridge tie, a person can get novel information which he or she cannot know from strong ties.

Taking job information flow into consideration, Granovetter (1973) concluded that strong ties are unlikely to spread novel information, but weak ties can help achieving more beneficial information and opportunities. This is because weak ties connect individuals who are likely to have various backgrounds and they know more third parties with more non-redundant information. In the situation of searching jobs, the more weak ties you have, the more non-redundant job opportunities you can get. However, in the network of strong ties, individuals tend to have highly similar characteristics, so does the information they offer to each other. Consequently, on one hand, weak ties are more likely to provide new job information through those different third parties. On the other hand, weak ties sometimes are bridge ties which connect different networks. Through the bridge ties, different novel information (e.g. job opportunities) can be spread to the individuals.

With regard of the strength of weak ties theory in terms of finding jobs, Lin Nan argued that, weak ties tend to get access to novel and useful information in other social circles, while Granovetter did not indicate that weak ties rather than strong ties can help to get a better statuses of jobs (Lin,1999). The strength of ties is not the key factor to find a better job, but the resources obtaining from ties is (Lin, 1999). Weak or strong ties are not only the way to access information, but also the channel to obtain social resources. In other words, if an individual owns ties with people who have affluent social resources, he or she is more likely to have an access to better job information.

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Page|16 Here social resources refer to “the wealth, status, power as well as social ties of those who are directly or indirectly linked to the individuals” (Lin, Ensel, & Vaughn, 1981). Contacts who have affluent social resources usually have much wealth, higher status, more powerful or more valuable social ties. According to Lin etc.(1981), society is comprised by a structure with individuals whose positions are ranked in line with certain nomative rewords and honors, like wealth, power and status. Such structure is like a pyramid, the higher position, the less occupants and the more resources embedded in the position. However, how to get access to resources from higher positions who have affluent social resources? To be noted, people from different positions in such social structure hold less-similar social capital, and they are always linked by weak ties. When an individual pursues instrumental aims, weak ties provide a channel between low positions and relatively high positions, thus provide access to higher social capital (Granovetter, 1995).

The social structure further suggests that individuals within the structure must be affected by such characteristic: the structure and the individuals’ various social capital influence and constrain the individuals and the results of behavior by the individuals (Lin,1999; Lin, 2001; Lin, Ensel, & Vaughn, 1981). Consequently, people who own different social resources would meet different social restrictions and opportunities in terms of obtaining jobs. With the increment of job experience, “a person relies more on constructed rather than ascribed relations, and the strong tie between his or her contact and the hiring firm becomes increasingly important” (Lin, Ensel, & Vaughn, 1981).

In conclusion, weak ties can provide more non-redundant job information than strong ties. A person is more likely to get better job resources if his or her contacts have higher social positions and affluent social resources. Moreover, weak ties also provide channels to link low positons and relatively high positions, thus helping people access valuable information and jobs with better status. Besides, as the job seeker’s experience increases, he or she progressively relies more on constructed relations rather than ascribed relations.

The above discussion suggests that weak ties are very important for finding jobs. In migration study, many scholars also studied migrant job searching experience in terms of using social relations in the network. The previous study generally proved that social

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Page|17 relations, no matter strong ties or weak ties, do strengthen employment opportunities for migrants, while its effect on earning is not obvious (Amuedo-Dorantes & Mundra, 2007). Some scholars argue that weak ties play a more important role for highly educated migrants than lower educated migrants to find jobs (Bagchi, 2001; Ooka & Wellman, 2003; Harvey, 2008). Bagchi (2001) examined Asian professionals in the U.S. and concluded that weak ties are more important for potential employers of Asian professionals. They use their skills to attract employers and get sponsorship. Through sponsorship provided by employers, the Asian professionals get access to citizen visa or working permit in the U.S. (Bagchi, 2001). This suggests that better educated migrants have more diverse social contacts and are less likely to rely on close friends and family ties (Harvey, 2008).

However, Ooka and Wellman (2003) stated that highly skilled migrants benefit more from “intra-ethnic ties” than “inter-ethnic ties” in terms of finding jobs. They prefer using their own close expatriate networks to obtain job information and opportunities (Ooka & Wellman, 2003). By contrast, lower educated migrants prefer “inter-ethnic ties” for searching for jobs (Ooka & Wellman, 2003). In other words, highly skilled migrants tend to choose strong ties to get job information, while low skilled migrants are more likely to rely on weak ties.

Other scholars also suggested that migrants tend to use strong ties rather than weak ties. For example, Massey etc. (1994) argued that, for migrants, strong ties are more important than weak ties in socio-economic integration. They studied male migrants in nineteen Mexican communities and found that having strong ties with post migrants makes job searching more efficient and effective, and ensures higher wages (Massey, Goldring, & Durand, 1994).

From the literature mentioned, it is still unclear to what extent do different migrants utilize different kinds of ties to get jobs, as migrants with various backgrounds may behave quite differently from each other (Aguilera & Massey, 2003). Though they all come as new arrivals with few weak ties, their opportunities to access job resources beyond the immediate situation depend on how they establish and utilize the weak ties (Ryan, 2007).

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Page|18 In this paper, we focus on Chinese educationally channeled labor migrants (CECLMs), who initially migrate for study in the Netherlands. In the beginning period, the students groups, including schoolmates and students from other schools are the main contacts for CECLMs. In addition, Chinese students have a very different cultural background from local Dutch students and other international students. Consequently, the CECLMs group is obviously a special migrant group which needs to be studied specifically.

“Guanxi”

In Chinese social network study, the core term “guanxi” is adopted to describe personal connections between two people or among more people(Hussain, Scott, Harrison, & Millman, 2010). Specifically, “guanxi” is defined as “a person’s network of social connections composed of family, close friends, and people who are interpersonally connected to one’s family and friends, as well as individuals linked by traditional connections, like classmates, teachers and students” (Taomina & Gao, 2010 :1196). Moreover, “guanxi” is built on maintaining long term relationships, loyalty, obligation, reciprocal exchange of favours and mutual commitment (Smith, Huang, & Torres, 2012). Generally, “guanxi” occurs among immediate family members, friends and relatives (Yue, Li, Jin, & Feldman, 2012).

Unlike the argument about the strength of the weak ties theory, in Chinese cultural background, “guanxi” takes its advantage in terms of finding jobs. First of all, in Chinese society, resources exchange among people always happens in the social network bonding by strong ties. According to Peter Blau’s social exchange theory, individuals’ voluntary actions are motivated by the returns that they expected (Blau, 1964). Furthermore, unlike economic exchange which is immediate, social exchange needs more time to achieve the “returnability” (Emerson, 1976). Hence, exchange behavior happens on the basis that both sides of the exchange know and trust each other well. Moreover, “guanxi” guarantee the mutual loyalty, protect exchange behavior and decrease the risk that exchange people may face, which suggests that valuable information and resources, like job opportunities, are spread among “guanxi” in terms of Chinese culture (Bian & Ang, 1997).

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Page|19 Secondly, in Chinese social communication, obligation is much more important than information. In addition, strong ties building on trust are the bridges to spread individuals’ obligation. Practically, many Chinese scholars examined the process of acquiring positions and the process of career mobility, and proved that, in the Chinese context, jobs opportunities are always gained from strong ties rather than weak ties (Bian, 1997; Bian & Zhang,2001). Valuable resources and helpful materials rather than information from ties are much more significant in Chinese networks. That’s the reason that weak ties cannot play vital roles in Chinese society.

As discussed above, the literature support the importance of both weak ties and strong ties, as the previous studies are focus on different groups. CECLMs are a special migrant group of migrants - they have the experience of studying and living in the host country and have the chance to build networks, also to adjust to the new environment before entering the receiving labor market. Moreover, they come from China where “guanxi” is more vital than weak ties for job searching.

The fourth sub-question in this paper could be whether social networks facilitate CECLMs’ socio-economic integration process, based on the fact that the migrants groups with different backgrounds behave significantly different from other groups. Further, we investigate in the question that how the social network help with the integration process, or if no facilitation exists, what the reason is that for social network not facilitating CECLMs’ socio-economic integration process.

2.3 Gendered Perspective

It is also essential to take the question that how gender may affect migrants’ experience of socio-economic integration into consideration. Migration study has always assumed gender-neutrality and ignored gender differences. Recently, the role of gender in migration is attracting more attention (Ryan, 2011). Nonetheless, Kofman (2004) argued that recent attention to the feminization of migration leds to a study trend to socially disadvantaged women, like those who are constrained by domestic work in migrant families or as maids in the host labor market (Ryan, 2007). Other types of female migrants are ignored by this

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Page|20 tendency. For example, more and more skilled female migrants have taken part in the foreign labor market with professional occupations, and they often migrate by themselves rather than as wifes or part of a family (Raghuram, 2004). The networking and job searching experience of these skillful female migrants must be different from those domestic females. Thus, it is important to take the characteristics of female migrants into consideration in the migration study.

As a special group of educationally channeled labor migrants, female CECLMs also worth to be considered specifically. This thesis employs a gender perspective and tries to examine the differences between male CECLMs and female CECLMs in terms of socio-economic integration experience. Before discussing job searching experience, networking behavior of male and female is examinated to help understanding the characteristics differences between men and women.

Male & Weak Ties and Female & Strong Ties

Literature about the gender preference of making friends and types of ties is discussed here. For women who are relatively sensitive and sociable, they have a tendency to create and maintain a relationship to a greater extent than men (Igarashi, Takai & Yoshida, 2005). They communicate much more frequently and exchange more supports within the networks than men (Hays & Oxley, 1986). Moreover, women have more ties to kin and neighbors, and thus they have more intimate networks with a bigger range of age and less diversity of racial ethnic as well as religion (Smith-Lovin & McPherson, 1993;Wheeler, Reis, & Nezlek, 1983). Compared with females, males have more ties with colleagues and tend to join voluntary activities and prefer task-oriented social networks (Igarashi, Takai, & Yoshida, 2005; Smith-Lovin & McPherson, 1993). The age and gender diversity in male networks is lower than that in female networks. These differences indicate that female relies more on intimate networks and prefers strong ties like kin and neighbors, while male prefers weak ties.

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Page|21 Gendered Behavior of Job Searching

Back to the perspective of social network, the strength of weak ties theory asserts that as bridges of information, weak ties have more advantages than strong ties in terms of searching career (Granovetter, 1973;Granovetter, 1983). Furthermore, job information refers to valuable information resources, which plays a key role in acquiring job positions and the process of job mobility. However, Granovetter drew that conclusion without taking gender difference into consideration.

If we only focus on samples of working males, using weak ties do affect his ability to get access to contacts of high status, which has direct and strong influence on valuable information of jobs (Lin, Ensel, & Vaughn, 1981). However, whether working female would face the same situation is questionable. Bridges and Villemez surveyed data of employed adults in Chicago and suggested that, weak ties are more effective than strong ties in terms of finding jobs, while when additional controls are employed for measures of invidual productivity characteristics, including race, gender, education and experience, such effectiveness becomes extremely diminished (Bridges & Villemez, 1986). Some female migrants study (e.g. Bagchi, 2001) also asserts that, compared with men in the same profession, women rely more heavily on strong ties than weak ties.

We have drawn that women prefer more strong ties and rely more on intimate networks, which suggests that in terms of finding a job, men prefer to use weak ties while women prefer strong ties. The fifth sub-question aims to make such assumption clear: in terms of

socio-economic integration, how do male CECLMs and female CECLMs experience differently?

2.4 A Last Note

This chapter introduces three main concepts - Chinese educationally channeled labor migrants (CECLMs), socio-economic integration and social network of migrants, and a framework of social network theory with the gender perspective. The previous discussion in last section indicates several points of our conclusion as following. Firstly, CECLMs may have three kinds of networks in the host country – co-ethnic network, multi-national network and

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Page|22 host-national network (Hendrickson, Rosen, & Aune, 2011). Furthermore, co-ethnic provides useful social support at the beginning time and CECLMs tend to build ties with friends who have similar backgrounds, while maintaining more strong ties with co-ethnic network may be an obstacle to integration (Kim, 2001).

Secondly, socio-economic integration plays a key role in the integration of CECLMs, and finding a job is the entrance to integrate into the labor market. Thirdly, weak ties help job seekers to access job resources and contacts with higher status more efficiently than strong ties (Granovetter,1973;Granovetter, 1995). However, situations become more complex for different migrants. Some migrants rely more on weak ties while others do not. Specifically, CECLMs came from China where another tie - “guanxi” is very popular for obtaining jobs, their behavior may be very different from other migrants, but wheher CECLMs would rely on “guanxi” to find jobs in the Netherlands is to be studied. Moreover, theoretically, male and female do have different searching behavior.

Finally, no matter what genders the job seekers are and which ties they prefer, their contacts’ status affect the success and prestige of the attained job. Contacts who own affluent social resources could provide better job information (Lin, Ensel, & Vaughn, 1981). Furthermore, as people’ experience increases, their job searching behavior changes and they tend to rely more on strong ties (Lin, Ensel, & Vaughn, 1981).

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Chapter 3: Research Methods

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3.1 Methodological Choice: Qualitative Research Method

This thesis employs qualitative research method, which is a study tool to help researchers with identifying how people’s behavior is shaped by economic, social, physical or cultural context in the society which they live in (Hennink , Hutter, & Bailey, 2011). The qualitative research method is efficient for drawing questions about “why” and “how”, exploring new topics, understanding complex issues, explaining behavior and identifying social or cultural norms (Hennink , Hutter, & Bailey, 2011). Two of main particular features of qualitative research method are collecting most data face-to-face from participants and allowing researchers to make sense of informants in terms of meanings and interpretations that participants bring to them (Trumbull , 2005). To be noted, this method asks researchers to study things in their natural settings. In order to be sober and objective while facing the emotional context, reflexivity is always needed. Keeping a field note or memo during collecting and analyzing data is the typical reflexivity. It reminds researchers how subjective data like social background of participants may affect the research process and how to make research smoothly and objectively.

This thesis intends to explore the socio-economic integration experience of Chinese educationally channeled labor migrants in the Netherlands by social network perspective and gender perspective. On one hand, integration represents a complex issue which has been discussed for a long time. On the other hand, few integration studies refer to the experience of (Chinese) educationally channeled labor migrants and consider the gender perspective. Therefore, qualitative research is an efficient way to explore this gap, by identifying complex problems and behavior of particular targets. Besides, qualitative research can tell more about the “precise nature, intensity, durability and reciprocity of networking relationships” (Ryan, 2011).

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3.2 Informants and Sampling

The informants of this thesis are Chinese educationally channeled labor migrants who finished the last degree in the Netherlands after 2008 (including the year of 2008). “Educationally channeled labor migrant” is based on the term “educationally channeled international labor mobility”, which is firstly presented by Liu-Farrer (2009). He used that term to describe the overlapped trends of labor mobility and international student migration. In line with the term “educationally channeled international labor mobility”, educationally channeled labor migrants stand for those international students who are employed in the foreign country where they studied after graduation and becoming the first generation labor migrants. Nowadays, China is a top sending country of international students and it sent around 450 thousands students abroad in 2013. Among these students, many of them aim at migration and make the efforts to get jobs after graduation in the receiving country. The students mentioned above are “Chinese educationally channeled labor migrants” by definition. Additionally, in this case, all samples in this paper graduated after the year of 2008 in the host country.

The Netherlands is one of wealthy European countries, and it is famous for the spirit of freedom, openness and fairness. A large number of people all over the world move to the Netherlands in various ways. In the beginning of 2012, those inflowing people accounted for 21% of the entire Dutch population (OECD, 2013). As a consequence, the Netherlands provides a free and fair platform with multiple culture and different voices. Moreover, the high quality of Dutch education also attracts lots of international students. In the year of 2011, there were 11.7 thousands international students in the Netherlands. Comparing to other educationally popular countries such as the US and the UK, tuition fee and living fee in the Netherlands is much cheaper, thus the Netherlands attracts many international students coming from developing area like China. At the same time, Dutch government offers an orientation year which lasts twelve months for non-European students that hold Dutch degree (Bachelor degree or Master degree) to search career after graduation from high education6. This policy plays a role that significantly encourages highly educated

6

Source from Immigration and Naturalization Service: https://ind.nl/en/individuals/residence-wizard/work/orientation-year-for-graduates-in-the-netherlands/Pages/default.aspx .

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Page|25 international students who are from developing country to stay longer to be labor migrants in the Netherlands. In conclusion, firstly, Netherlands is a friendly country for migrants so that it is convenient to talk with migrants about their experience and collect reliable information. Secondly, relatively high education quality and cheap fees as well as the orientation year policy are obviously appealing for non-European students so that many of those students are becoming (potential) labor migrants. Consequently the study population is ensured.

As widely known, in 2008, the financial crisis swept over the world. Later the Eurozone crisis broke out. Some scholars stated that these crises did not affect the Netherlands “too much” (Masselink & van den Noord, 2009) but had a political impact that leads to a power shift. Indeed, only the employment and unemployment rates of local citizen kept relatively stable from 2008 to 2011, while the employment rate of migrants decreased from 67.5% in 2008 to 63.6% in 2011 and the unemployment rate of migrants increased from 5.8% in 2008 to 10.5% 2011, almost increased twice.7 Moreover, the economic scholar did not mention any influence that the new political power may bring to the migrants psychology and the policies of immigration. Migrants’ situation does not look optimistic after 2008 and their wandering life in the foreign country may be full of challenge. Under such unrest background, migrants may have more experiences and stories to tell, which are worth to be heard. Therefore, this study chooses Chinese educationally channeled labor migrants who finished the last degree in the Netherlands and entered into the Dutch labor market after 2008.

As study informants are clearly identified, this thesis utilizes purposive sampling which is a kind of non-probability sampling and is a most effective method to study a group in the certain social context (Tongco, 2007). Purposive sampling is adopted in order to access to potential interviewees through two channels. The first channel is the interviewer’s personal network. Some friends of the interviewer have already graduated and currently are employed in the Netherlands. The second one is the Chinese network institution, such as Chinese Youth Christian fellowships. After contacting gatekeepers, the participant observations in two fellowships were implemented several times to build trust relationships with people there to find out appropriate potential interviewees. Based on those two

7

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Page|26 channels, in order to ensure that a sizeable number of interviews could be conducted, snowball sampling method was also utilized. The interviewees were asked to introduce their friends who fit the interview target for more interviews contacts.

Fieldwork collected 14 interviews with 7 men and 7 women. The basic information of the interviewees at the interviewing time is stated as the following chart:

Interviewee Gender (M/F) Age Current Occupation Educational level Time of graduation Working Seniority (year) MU F 25 Trade Master 2011 <2 MA F 33 Accounting and Finance Bachelor 2008 5.5

OC M 34 Trade and Hotel Bachelor 2009 5

SH F 27 Marketing Master 2013 <2

AA M 25 Accounting and

Administration Master 2013 <2

MI M 28 Industrial Design Bachelor 2012 2

SE M 25 Marketing Master 2013 <2 JU M 28 Supply Chain Management Bachelor 2010 4 Cu F 27 Accounting Master 2011 3 XI F 25 Trainee Master 2012 <2 ZH F 26 Marketing Master 2013 <2 DA M 25 Software Development Bachelor 2013 <2

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ZHT M 32 Software

Development Master 2008 6

HA F 26 Tourism Bachelor 2013 <2

From the chart, we can see that the age of participants ranges from 25 to 34. Each participant holds a highly educational background, either Bachelor degree or Master degree in the Netherlands. Six of them have entered into the Dutch labor market more than 2 years. Additionally, there are six interviewees got the first job position in the company where he or she worked as an intern before. Only one interviewee got married.

3.3 Collecting and Analyzing Data

This thesis applies semi-structured in-depth interviews to collect data. The interview guide was made in line with five sub-questions of the research (see Appendix). Two ways are adopted to do the interview - face-to-face talk or online chatting. All interviews were done in Chinese because using the interviewees’ mother tongue is easier and more efficient to communicate in a leisurely way and get more deep information which may not make sense in other languages like English. Moreover, audio recording and fieldwork notes were taken after getting permission from interviewees. The sense of reflexivity was kept all the time during the interview to ensure the smoothness and objectivity of the study, furthermore a record file and a fieldwork note were maintained for each interviewee.

Right after each interview, the transcription was completed in time. Then the focused codes according to the interview guide were made by investigating each line of data. Codes and corresponding contents were collected in an Excel form for further analysis.

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3.4 Ethical Issue

As the interviews refer to personal information, ethical issues should be considered seriously. Firstly, interviewees’ choices and wills should be respected. Some interviewees preferred to talk face to face, so the interviews would be taken in a familiar, convenient and safe place, like the interviewees’ home, cafe or church they always go to. If the interviewee does not want to show up, one-to-one online chatting is another way to complete the interview. Though chatting online ensures the privacy of interviewers, the interaction between interviewer and interviewees tend to be less effective than face-to-face interview (Orthmann, 2000), which may be a barrier for the two parts in the interviews to understand each other completely well. Therefore, during the online conversation, the research and questions are amply explained to make sure that interviewees understand the intentions of the questions and the research. Also, more detailed questions were asked immediately as long as the interviewees’ answers were not so clear or not proper for the interview questions.

Secondly, during the whole process, both in-depth interview and participant observation are implemented. The study purpose is always clarified for the interviewees before collecting data, and record would only be taken after participants’ permissions. The interview guide was prepared for the participants who wanted to get acquaintance with the interview content in advance. The interviewees were able to make the decisions to accept or reject the invitation to the interviews after they acknowledged about the interview guide. Moreover, if a participant intends to stop the interview halfway, his requirement would be respected and accepted without doubt. After collecting data, the specific information would not be recognized to make sure the interviewees’ identities, according to their demands. At last, this study promises that the interviewees have the rights to read the final version of this thesis and the rights to review and to manipulate the records and transcriptions if they require to.

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Chapter 4: Studying and Living in the Netherlands

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4.1 Basic Information

Being International Students

Among all interviewees, only one of them had one-year working experience before starting the study in the Netherlands, ten of them came to pursue further education right after graduation of high school, college or university, and the other three terminated their undergraduate programs in China then applied Dutch universities.

During interviews, most participants showed a favorable impression on the Netherlands. They thought the Netherlands is not only a wealthy western country, but also a country with many advantages among European countries. Two most attractive advantages are relatively cheap tuition fee and widespread English. That’s why they chose to be international students in the Netherlands.

The Initial Plan

Liu-Farrer (2009) presented the term “educationally channeled international labor mobility” to describe the overlapped trends of labor mobility and international student migration. However, he did not explain why and how such mobility happens. Thousands of students migrate to foreign countries for study, but only part of them overstay after graduation. Why did they make the decision to stay and does social network influence their decision? Before examining these questions directly, this thesis tries to discover the answer from their ideas in the beginning of migration.

Even though all interviewees are working in the Netherlands now, most of them did not intend to find a job here when they came. Some of them planned to go back to China as soon as graduation, because they could not adjust to the new life, like a girl, ZH said:

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“When I arrived here, I really wanted to go back right after graduation, because I did not like the Netherlands. I did not like its environment and food, its customs and human

environment.”

A man, OC, mentioned that Dutch is not a migrant country so that he did not think about to overstay:

“I did not think about (to stay here and find a job), because I knew Dutch is not a migrant country in the Europe. Generally, I planned to go back after finishing study.”

Some of interviewees even did not have a clear purpose. They just wanted to study firstly, like ME:

“I did not think too much, just wanted to try to apply (a Dutch university), and I even do not know whether I can make it successfully.”

And SH:

“I did not think too much at that time, and I did not have any clear purpose.”

It is understandable that they were young students who lack both life and working experiences, so that their purposes merely focus on study. Only one participant, JU, came to reunite with his mother, but he still mentioned the importance of study:

“I was eighteen or nineteen and I really had no plan, nothing. I just wanted to see my mom and study. At that moment, I was indeed a child who was curious about the new world. My mum was there. And I just wanted to graduate on time. That’s all. ”

The other two interviewees said they wanted to work in the Netherlands for a period, but they planned to go back as well, like MU:

“Initially I wanted to go back to China after working for one or two years here. I just wanted to learn some working experience after graduation.”

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“I did not think too much before coming to the Netherlands, since I was too young and too naive. And what I considered was getting a diploma, and working for several years after graduation, then going back.”

According to the data, those interviewees had three kinds of preliminary plans: going back right after graduation, no plan, and going back after working for a short period. The majority preferred the first two categories. Nobody wished to be a CECLM when they just arrived. Moreover, only one mentioned the social network in the initial plan – the one who came to the Netherlands to reunite with his mother. Generally, social network does not affect CECLMs’ initial plans, unless they have relatives or friends in the Netherlands before they came.

The Reason of Overstay

The last part concludes that only two participants wanted to overstay after graduation initially. However, now all of them are working in the Netherlands. The reasons why they changed minds and chose to enter into the Dutch labor market are elaborated in the following content.

Firstly, they have got used to Dutch life after staying for a long time. ZH said she did not plan to overstay since she did not like the Netherlands. After several years, she has already adjusted to the Dutch society, so she changed mind. So does OC.

“Since I have been here for several years, and I’m attached to here. And it’s pity to go back soon, so I decided to work for a period. At this point, I changed my original intention… Now I have already got used to here, and I do not reject Dutch environment that much, so I decided to stay and work here. ” (ZH)

“I have been in the Netherlands for a long time. I’m used to the Dutch life style. The pressure here is not that high, the life is leisure and the working pace is not that fast. So I chose to stay.” (OC)

Secondly, adjusting to the Dutch society indicates that it may be a risk to change living environment, like going back to China. Even though China is hometown and CECLMs must

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Page|32 have friends and relatives there, they still worry about going back. MU said she is really afraid to change again, and she could not be used to the social order of China anymore:

“Now, after working for two years, gradually, I may not go back and I want to stay in the Netherlands…I’m afraid to change. Now I was not that impulse as before… Formerly I could accommodate myself to the circumstances and it did not matter to go anywhere. However, currently I have stayed here for a long time. When I back to China during festival holiday, I felt I cannot fit into the society. Cars were very fast on the road, and I dared not to cross the road without anyone else. ” (MU)

Moreover, friends in China also have an influence on CECLMs. MU said that she could not catch up with friends at hometown any longer. She felt she was far away from them and she even did not know how to get well with them anymore.

And when I chat with friends, they spoke so fast, and you even did not know what they were talking about the society. When I hang out with them, I felt they were very mature, but I was still like a child who does not grow up…” (MU)

In SE’s case, he recognized that he may be more jealous of friends with better wealth status when he was in China. This is because, in the Chinese context, friends are likely to compare with each other. Many CECLMs complained to me about this custom.

“I went back to do my thesis before, and I felt very blundering. If I see a colleague driving a nice car, I will feel nothing. But if I see a friend driving a nice car in China, I will want to buy one. It is inexplicable and I do not know why. ” (SE)

By contrast, in the Netherlands, CECLMs feel easier to maintain informal relationships with friends without many comparisons. Besides, in the working environment, CECLMs are affected by colleagues as well. CECLMs think Dutch working environment is better than Chinese working environment due to nice and hardworking colleagues in the Netherlands.

“I worked in an Internet company in China. So I know my current working environment is very hard-won. It is very simple. Everybody is focusing on working. Our leader always asks me to go back earlier or tries to work at home. I think such environment is very good for fresh careers, because if your boss always asks you to work overtime, your

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tasks must be very stable and you have to repeat them all the time. Now I can keep learning fresh experience here. ” (XI)

“I did not have much more ideas before, while as study time went by, gradually, I want to stay here and join a design team in the future. Indeed, in the Netherlands, their ways of design, their investments and experience are much better than China. It is very good for personal development. ” (MI)

Fourthly, transnational marriage determines CECLMs’ overstay. ME has a native Dutch partner and they have established the family in Amsterdam. She said family goes first, and she will go with her family anywhere.

In conclusion, in the beginning of migration, most interviewees did not plan to overstay and the social network does not affect CECLMs’ minds, except those who had friends or relatives in the Netherlands before. When CECLMs gradually got used to Dutch customs, they started to change. They worried about going back to China and chose to stay in the Netherlands, because they could not adapt to Chinese culture to some extent. Specifically, on one hand, they could get well with friends of the hometown and they hate the custom of comparison among friends in China. On the other hand, CECLMs considered that Dutch working environment is better than China because colleagues in the Netherlands are nice and hardworking. CECLMs believed they can benefit more in Dutch working environment. The pull factor from Dutch colleagues and push factor from friends in the hometown do affect their decision in an indirect way. Moreover, social networks also directly have an influence on CECLM’s decision of overstay, especially for those who married foreign people and established family in the Netherlands.

4.2 Social Network of CECLMs

This section tries to answer the second sub-question which about CECLMs’ networks before and after entering into the labor market. Among all interviewees, six of them became regular employees after finishing internships. Job searching periods of the other eight are different, while none of them spent longer than half year. As the period between graduation

Socio-economic integration experience of Chinese educationally channeled labor migrants in the Netherlands