Resumen de Labor mobility under the background of industrial relocation
Due to the high land price and consumption levels, the demand for resources and cheap labour, as well as the environmental problems in the east, enterprises and industries that had previously gathered on the coast have begun to relocate or semi-relocate to the central and west of China. Simultaneously, the relax of the household registration allows migrants to move wherever they please, which is driving the development of the labour market and industrialisation due to labour mobility and labour reallocation. As a result, analysing labour mobility in light of enterprise relocation is important in terms of balancing regional development and reasonable population policies. This thesis posits that despite the coastal area of China being dominant in the labour market since the 1990s, an “east-to-central and west” labour migration tendency, accompanied with enterprise relocation, has occurred.
The whole thesis is organised based on the principle of “put forward the question—analyse the question—solve the problem”. In order to study the relationship between industrial relocation and labor mobility, the research methods will combine the theoretical research and empirical studies with both quantitative and qualitative analysis. Despite the traditional method of obtaining evidence----questionnaire, this thesis uses in-depth interviews to improve the authenticity and objectivity.
Fist of all, the interaction value model was used to analyse the regional migration pattern in China, whereby it was concluded that the “gradient eastern-ward one-way migration” has been replaced by a “stronger eastern-ward and weaker western-ward bidirectional migration”. Simultaneously, the future prediction of the interprovincial migration, based on the constrained gravity model, confirmed this returning tendency. After a brief introduction of industrial relocation in China, the general relationship between industrial relocation and population migration was analysed, which offers a direct impression in terms of the influences of industrial relocation on mobility. Besides, determinants of respondents’ intentions to go back to their places of household registration are investigated, and results show that personal attributes, working condition, social participation and job satisfaction as well as location can all predict respondent´s return intentions in the in-migrated region, while none variables related with location and job satisfaction are significant in the out-migrated region. This is followed by the analysis on influences of industrial relocation on people’s willingness to migrate with job. Personal attributes, working condition and industrial relocation are all associated with their willingness to move, especially the enterprise relocation factors such as in-migrated enterprises in employee´s resident or working places and range of industrial relocation. The interviews with the staffs in Foxconn also confirm the impacts of industrial relocation on workers’ intention to migrate. This thesis, studying the relationship between industrial relocation and labor mobility, attempts to promote provide theoretical basis for migration policy and regional sustainable development.
