Tag Archives: Social networks

From “floating population” to “guest Beijinger”

Li Wei (2013),From “Floating Population” to “Guest Beijinger”:Identity Formation of Migrant Workers in Beijing, CiNii Scholarly and Academic Information Navigator.

This study analyzes how floating migrant workers settle in the suburban area of Beijing and pays special attention to factors affecting their identity formation as “guest Beijingers”. Firstly, it examines the Chinese “hukou” policy and reveals the institutional restrictions on gaining the Beijing “hukou”.

Secondly, it attempts to show how migrant workers settle down and strive to construct the place identity through the place affiliation and social networks. Specifically, it links the existence of pace identities in the social context of migrant settlement with the varied factors that contribute to these identities. In other words, how migrants construct a sense of being On the one hand, migrants are not granted urban citizenship, since “hukou” restrictions largely prerent them from becoming future Beijing citizens. On the other hand, place identity grows with regard to the expansion and intensification of migrant networks in the receiving society, some of the migrants are not floating anymore and grow strong ambitions for permanent residence in Beijing.

Full text available on line : https://qir.kyushu-u.ac.jp/dspace/bitstream/2324/26017/1/p091.pdf (accessed 21 November 2013)

Léa Daures

Léa Daures, historian and student at the Ecole des Bibliothécaires Documentalistes (School for Librarians and Information Professions, http://www.ebd.fr), works part-time at the UMR China Korea Japan. She is currently monitoring information online on the subject of migrants in China for UrbaChina.

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