Immigrants From Pingxiang To Xiamen

Under the framework of the social network theory, the study focuses on immigrants from underdeveloped Pinxiang, and access social recourses through their own networks to make a living in developed Xiamen. In order to discuss the importance of ties to them, the article uses case study of immigrants from Pingxiang, and describes their life stages in Xiamen: 1,being away from home for jobs;2,making a living in Xiamen;3,upward mobility.Based on the author's interviews, the Pingxiang immigrants succeeded in moving to Xiamen by making a chain migration of their own original ties. In order to possess more resources, they needed to break the limitation of their original ties, and expanded their own networks. So they could establish the new social capital which does good for their integration in Xiamen. Because of the importance of social ties,"achieving the status"itself means the process of establishing and maintaining the ties, during the process, people access social resources through their intimate and given networks, and achieve their aims of upward mobility and self-development.By using the diachronic method, the study points out that Pingxiang immigrants make rational use of different ties at the given stages in the changing environment. The investments in the reciprocal exchange are also different according to the kind of the ties. The ties are changed into their own social capital for higher status. It's an important way for the immigrants that they access all the resources they need through non-system factors, with the help of their own social networks.