“侨乡社会资本”解读：以当代福建跨境移民潮为例

本文以当代福建跨境移民潮为研究实例,提出并梳理"侨乡社会资本"命题的理论意义,力图赋予侨乡文化以新的理论视角.本文提出跨国民间网络是侨乡社会资本的基本载体,跨国互惠期望是侨乡社会资本的运作机制,跨国链接增殖是侨乡社会资本的效益特性.侨乡通过已定居移民、信息网络和人情互惠提高移民操作的成功率及获益率的能力,是一种社会资本.这种资本有望转化为经济资本、文化资本乃至政治资本,但这种转化只有在如愿跨境输出人力资源的条件下才能实现.侨乡社会资本的特殊性体现在它与发达国家劳动力市场的链接,其效益通过其投资对象--"移民"进入发达国家劳动力市场而实现转换与增值.当移民作为一种投资途径并且存在有效运作空间时,移民行为必然生生不息,而侨乡社会资本正是通过一次次诸如此类的跨国运作不断增殖.

Understanding Qiaoxiang Social Capital: A Study of Contemporary Migration Wave in Fujian Province

Qiaoxiang is a popularly used Chinese term meaning the region of large scale outmigration. Recently, irregular emigrants from some well known Fujian Qiaoxiang areas have drawn a great deal of attention in many developed Western countries. On the basis of proposing a concept of Qiaoxiang Social Capital, this paper attempts to explore the factors that have affected the continual emigration waves. The author argues that the network of prompt information exchange and the unwritten custom of mutual benefits successfully established between the settled emigrants and their home community have formed the basis of qiaoxiang social capital. Such social capital can be transferred to economic capital, cultural capital or even political capital only when the manpower in Qiaoxiang has been successfully sent abroad. Since there exists a considerable need for cheap labor in the potential immigration countries, the social capital of qiaoxiang continues to make considerable interests by linking the cheap labor in qiaoxiang with the labor markets of developed countries. When making transnational emigration appears to be a profitable investigation, irregular emigration cannot be easily stopped. $$$$