Social Mobility And Immigrants Discrimination

With the economic system reform and the rapid economic development,hundreds of millions of residents left their hometown for another city or town.They are difficult to get the local Hukou for limiting by the Hukou system.Compared with the local urban residents in the urban social space,they are floating population groups.So immigrants' integrated into the city life gains wide attention from academia.The local urban residents' attitudes towards immigrants(emotional discrimination or psychological acceptance)is of great significance to the immigrants'integrated into the city life.Previous studies mainly focused on single static factors such as social structure,social system,social capital,but neglected dynamic factors such as social interaction,social trust,social structure position,subjective experience which cause change by social mobility during life course.In fact,foreign studies have paid more attention on the relations of social mobility and out-group discrimination,but the subject is ignored by the Chinese research.The relation of social mobility and out-group discrimination is not consistent in different country or area.This also means that when analyzing the relation of social mobility and out-group discrimination,we must take the local social reality background into consideration.Therefore,Based on the current frequent and massive social mobility background due to the rapid social transformation,Inspecting urban residents discrimination against immigrants from the dynamic view of the social mobility is a relatively new and useful exploration research perspective,Which will enrich the results of influence and consequence of social mobility and out-group discrimination.And the research will provide much experience for reducing discrimination against immigrants and promoting immigrants' integrated into the city life.Based on "China general social survey(CGSS2005)" data," China social network and job experience investigation in 8 cities"(JSNET2009)data,"Immigrant workers' social integration in 13 cities(2014)" survey data,This study examines the local urban residents' dynamic change rules of discrimination on immigrants and describes and explains the difference between different group,social class and area.On the basis of the description,the study explores the direct effect of social mobility(intergenerational occupational mobility,intrageneration occupational mobility,intergenerational education mobility and intergenerational Hukou mobility)affecting immigrant discrimination.And the research further examines whether social mobility will indirectly affect immigrant discrimination through intervening mechanism such as relative deprivation(vertical and horizontal deprivation),social trust(interpersonal trust and government trust),social fairness(opportunity fairness and distributive justice),social interaction(community participation and actual social intercourse),life satisfaction(well-being).At last we put forward suggestion of reducing the urban residents discrimination against immigrants from the perspective of social mechanism and urban residents.The results show that:Contemporary Chinese urban residents still discriminate against immigrants'work,housing,daily communication,marriage in different degrees.Discrimination towards work is the weakest;but discrimination against childrens' marriage is the strongest.From 2005 to 2014,urban residents' discrimination against immigrants is experiencing inverted u-shaped trend.Research suggests that social and economic development,policy discourse transformation,the open social structure together lead to the emergence of this trend.Although urban residents' discrimination against immigrants is overall decline,but it remained at a high level position,the problem still cannot be ignored.Different demographic characteristics,class,regional urban residents' discrimination against immigrants are very different.Female,married,elder's discrimination against migrants is relatively strong.The higher the class status is,the weaker the discrimination against immigrants is.The higher the city level and the immigrants scale are,the greater the discrimination against immigrants is.Social mobility has a significant effect on discrimination against immigrants.Different social mobility experience presents certain differences on discrimination against immigrants.Compared with those who did not experience social mobility,upward social mobility(occupational,education and Hukou mobility)can significantly reduce discrimination against immigrants.Upward social mobility raises the social status,reduces the uncertainty risk of social interaction with immigrants,promotes social cognitive ability,and they are more likely to enter the atmosphere of lower class discrimination,these all help to reduce the discrimination against immigrants.And downward social mobility(intergenerational occupational mobility,intrageneration occupational mobility,intergenerational education mobility)does not necessarily lead to more intense discrimination.We argue that this is concerned with family material resources endowment and cultural resources endowment,and individual social cognition and so on.The study further analyzes the indirect effect of social mobility.We found that social mobility will indirectly affect the discrimination through relative deprivation,social trust,social fairness,social interaction,life satisfaction.In general,the upward social mobility will be lower individual's perception of relative deprivation,which can reduce discrimination against immigrants.But the other groups of mediation mechanisms are difference in different type of social mobility.Intergenerational occupational upward mobility significantly improve the level of strangers trust and government trust,strength social cognitive of opportunity fairness and life satisfaction,all these changes can significantly reduce discrimination against immigrants.Intergenerational occupational upward mobility through enhacing government trust,life satisfaction,distribution justice perception and actual social interactions indirectly reduce discrimination against immigrants.Intrageneration occupational upward mobility will promote government trust,perception of distribution justice,life satisfaction and actual social interactions,which indirectly reduce discrimination against immigrants.Intergenerational education upward mobility can enhance strangers trust,life happiness,perception of distribution justice,community participation,they will lead to be less discrimination against immigrants.Intergenerational Hukou upward mobility can help to raise strangers trust,government trust,perception of distribution justice,actual social interactions,which indirectly reduce discrimination against immigrants.Based on the above research results,this study suggests that under the current Hukou system,we can reduce urban residents' discrimination against immigrants from the angel of the social mechanism and urban residents.For example,the government should promote the upward social mobility and increase the openness of social structure by vigorously developing the economy.It is also necessary to cultivate urban residents'social capital and civic qualities and increase the intergroup communication and interaction with immigrants.