The Stages Of Transition In Social Network For Rural-to-urban Migration And The Policy Analysis Of Social Support System

For a long time,the process of rural population's citizenization seriously lagged behind the process of urbanization,most of the rural-to-urban migrant groups could not enjoy the basic public services provided by the local government,and therefore they would not be able to enjoy the benefits of urbanization and urban economic growth.This situation showed that,China's economic and social development was lack of inclusiveness,the division between urban and rural area was becoming more and more serious,the gap among different social groups in city was increasingly apparent,the conflicts between new immigrants and local citizens was significantly growing,and the factors of social instability was also increasing.So in this social reality,how to provide effective social support for the rural-to-urban migrant groups in order to help them to integrate into urban society as soon as possible was particularly urgent.In this research field,instead of the differentiation perspective,academic circles were mostly took the rural-to-urban migrants as a whole to discuss the social support issue,and the overlook of heterogeneous may lead to the lack of precision and accuracy of social support system.Thus,this study would focus on the internaldifferentiation of migration group,and the key research topics including how to define the different stage of the process of rural to urban migration;what were the different needs and demands among the different migration stage;how to realize the effective coordination between social actors to provide social supports in order to match their variety demands;whether the social support pattern had the feasibility in practical operations and theoretical basis;and also,what were the policy implications for the current government's policy to reduce social exclusion etc.This doctoral dissertation followed the paradigm of scientific research,and unfolded as follows,literature review--methodology--classification of migration stage--social network analysis on different stage--construction of staged social support system--theoretical implication and innovation--policy implication.To be specific,this research was based on the immigration system theory,immigration network theory and social capital theory,and then used the methods of social network analysis,multi-body analysis,case study,etc.Follow this research framework and analytical tool,the main research findings listed below:Firstly,according to the existing policy design,and combined with Chi-square test and Bonferroni correction method,this study divided the process of rural-to-urban migration into three stages:early stage of migration(living in city less than 6 months);rising stage of migration(living in city more than 6 months but less than 5 years);mature stage of migration(living in city more than 5 years).There were several remarkable differences among above three stages,especially in the field of local friends and social communication,children's education,civil rights protection and their attitudes on government's public service.Secondly,according to the social network analysis on the individuals from different stage of migration,this research found that for those who was in the first stage of migration,their social network was mainly based on hometown friends,relatives,co-workers,roommates or staffs in local community;for those who was in the second stage of migration,the expansion of their social network was mainly based on local landlords,local communities or local friends,this situation showed that they had a closer relation with local society and a stronger desire to settle down in city compared to those who was in the first migration stage;for those migration who was in the third stage,they had closer exchanges with teachers in local schools,local officials and even the volunteers of local citizen groups,and their social network was spread to the outside based on above node roles.Thirdly,according to the exploration on the characteristics of social network in the different migration stage,this research also found that in the first stage,migrants were under immense pressure to meet urban life,in particular,their job seeking was tough and lack of enough social communications;in the second stage of migration,they began to look for the possibilities of gaining a stronger foothold in the cities,and they also began to pursue a better life quality and living conditions.However,the excessive-priced housing repel them to move to suburb where the housing price was comparatively low,thus lots of migration gathered in several areas lead to the appearance of Ghetto;in the third stage of migration,they had a keen appetite for full citizenships,and they wanted to enjoy the equal rights of accessing to public services,such as the rights of compulsory education,household registration and housing security.Fourthly,according to the demonstration on the different feature of social network and diversified appeals in daily life,this research suggested that in the first stage of migration,the collaboration between the enterprise and community could become an effective model of social support for rural-to-urban migration.The enterprise could take some actions to alleviate the pressure of job-seeking of migrant groups job and then provide more humanistic care;in the second stage of migration,the government and community could lead the construction of social support.The government was in charge of the provision of public rental housing,and the community's function focused on the community management and the delivery of service;in the third stage of migration,the role of government and social organizations was enhancing to disassemble the differential pattern of citizenship between migrants and urban residents.The government was the leading body to make affirmative action policies in order to reduce the gap between social groups,and the empowerment by social organizations could also become a better way to eliminate the social exclusion on migrant group.Finally,to realize the citizenization of rural-to-urban migrants,it depended enormously on not only the social support provided by multi social bodies,but thedegree of openness and inclusiveness of government policy.Thus,this research suggested that,in the process of policy design,we should pay attention to the needs assessment of migration and reducing the institutional exclusion for them;for the policy means,we should concentrate on the consolidation of multiple actors to enhance the effectiveness of social support;and in terms of the policy evaluation,we should focus on the advocacy of multiculturalism in order to promote migrant's psychological involvement.