移民网络、社会资源配置与中国东北新移民--美国旧金山湾区田野调查札记

在田野调查访谈的基础上,本文以美国旧金山湾区的中国东北新移民为研究实例,对社会资本和非制度性的社会资源配置在当代中国的跨国移民活动中所扮演的具体角色进行考察和分析。本文认为,近年来迅速崛起的东北新移民已开始成为当代中国国际移民潮的主要成员之一。近10多年来东北地区之所以会出现大规模移民海外的现象,其中既有古典经济学移民理论所提出的经济层面的原因,也有中国社会内部制度变迁的深层因素。而非制度性社会资源配置机制中的强、弱两种关系网,尤其是海外新移民社会中的弱关系网络,则对当代东北人的跨境迁徙活动及其在海外移居社会寻找工作等方面做出了莫大的贡献。

Migration Networks, Social Resource Distribution and New Migrants from Northeast China: Fieldwork Notes from San Francisco Bay Area

Based on fieldwork interviews conducted in San Francisco Bay Area of the United States,this paper studies new migrants from northeast China with a focus on a theoretical analysis of the roles played by social capital and non-institutional social resource distribution in current Chinese transnational migration outflow.The authors argue that while new migrants from northeastern China provinces have rapidly emerged as one of the major cohorts of Chinese international migration waves over the past decade,they are on the whole lacking solidarity and internal cohesion,resulting in a less success in their economic development overseas.Different driving forces have been at work in terms of mass outflows from(China's) northeastern provinces since the 1980s.Of them,economic motivation advocated by classical economics migration theory and a hidden pushing force triggered by the economic reform and institutional transformation of Chinese state-owned enterprises could be advanced as the two leading factors.A closer observation would also reveal that "Strong Ties" and "Weak Ties",the two types of network in non-institutional social resource distribution,have been significantly contributing towards the transcontinental emigration from(China's) northeastern provinces and the job seeking success among Chinese new migrants in society overseas,the weak ties existing in the new migrant communities in particular.