“Mutual Molding between Structure and Individual”: The Story of a Grain of Dust and a Seed
p. 194-203
Note de l’éditeur
Translated by ZHOU Rong, Master of Literature in Chinese Philosophy, Beijing Language and Culture University, holding the Translator Level II Certificate approved by the China Foreign Languages Publishing & Distribution Administration.
Texte intégral
1The relationship between structure and individual is an eternal topic in sociological studies. In exploring social order and social conflict, we can sense the complicated relationship between structure and individual. Some people would lament that an individual is only an invisible speck of dust, which is tiny, powerless, and useless. Without doubt, there are people who “intend to achieve success with strong will” and “walk day by day, then we will not be afraid of passing thousands of li; work day by day, then we will not be afraid of handling thousands of affairs” (aphorisms). So, are individual and structure in simply an either-or dual opposition? The German sociologist Norbert Elias believed that, “The individuality and the social relatedness of a person are not antithetical to each other, rather the special shaping and differentiation of mental functions that we refer to as ‘individuality’ is only possible for a person who grows up in a group, a society” (Elias 2003, 26). That is to say, the individuality of a person is shaped in a society; however, this does not mean that the individuality of everyone in the same society is the same—identity is not individuality. Some people have greater power to influence the society, while others would stay silent. The study of mobility of immigrants has prominent advantages in revealing the multi-variant relationship between individual and structure. Therefore, in judging the depth and research values of a case study of immigrants, we should assess if it can present the multivariant relations between individual and structure and the operational mechanism behind them.
The Opportunities, Expectations, and Barriers in the Intergenerational Mobility of Immigrants
2A successful case study should not be restricted merely to understanding the respondent himself or herself, rather, it should further reflect the operational trajectory of social economy and reveal the structural properties of the society they are in and the corresponding influence on the individual’s life course. The case study of Niu basically has met such a requirement. In terms of the dimension of time, Niu’s case has involved three generations: his parents, himself, and his children, who have basically covered the reform and opening-up policy and the urbanization process of China over the past 40 years. In the categorization of our study, Niu’s parents are the first generation of the migrant population, most of whom started to go out for work or business in the 1980s and 1990s, including workers who went to cities and towns and developed coastal areas; Niu, meanwhile, is a rural migrant of the new generation (Wang 2001), who was born in the 1980s or later, grew up in the place of departure in his childhood, and was brought to the place of arrival by his parents later. On the one hand, although such children grew up in rural areas, they identified little with rural society, nor did they have a circle of intimate friends or knowledge of agriculture and rural culture. In this sense, they could not return to the rural areas. On the other hand, they are immigrants in cities. To be more specific, they are a floating population or a permanent resident population, which is similar in some places to the long-term residence permit holders in Europe—for example, they cannot vote in the elections of the place to which they immigrate. However, there are some different aspects, for example, once people get a long-term residence permit in some European or American countries, they can enjoy all the rights of citizens other than the right to vote and the right to hold elected office. But the floating population or permanent resident population in Chinese cities is not entitled to similar citizen’s rights. For example, the minors who move with their parents cannot enjoy the same rights as their peers in the city; they can only enter schools for children of migrant workers, or else poorer public schools in the city, and they cannot enjoy the right to college entrance examinations in the place of arrival. The studying experience of Niu serves as powerful proof of this.
3It can be seen through Niu’s statement that in the span between his and his father’s generation, the policies and systems of the city with regard to immigrant populations are not unchanged, but there is an “loosening” trend in general. Although his parents had the opportunity of the implementation of the blue-print residence registration system in Shanghai, on the one hand, the blue-print residence registration was not free, and not everyone in the floating population had the ability to get it; on the other hand, the system was abolished after a short period of implementation. At present, some megacities like Shanghai have adopted the city points system, which sets high requirements for rural immigrants to meet the standard. Meanwhile, cities have adopted the residence permit system. People who hold residence permits can enjoy some rights, such as benefiting from pension insurance and medical insurance, and their children can also enter some public schools. However, the cities did not fully accept these people, and there are prominent differences and inequalities in citizens’ rights, which thus affect their identity with the society. Niu believed that his father failing to get the blue-print residence registration was a serious mistake, one which affected his social identity and even the social identity of the next generation. Therefore, his biggest goal at present is to meet the standards of the city points system and get the Shanghai residence registration. The greatest driving force comes from the endeavor to get his newborn child the identity of a Shanghai citizen. Therefore, becoming a Shanghai citizen and becoming fully integrated in Shanghai is Niu’s ideal. The first generation did not hold such a strong impetus and aspiration, since they had very strong self-identification with the rural areas and corresponding social circle; therefore, it was not difficult for them to return to the rural areas.
Spatial Construction and Survival Development Experience of Immigrants
4The survey on Niu’s case did not overlook the spatial dimension of immigrants. The behavior of “migrating” is just the process of changing life, social communication, and employment space. The space here has not only geographic properties, but social properties as well. Niu stayed in his hometown in Henan before the fifth grade in elementary school. Later, his parents took him to Shanghai to study, and he then returned to Henan for high school and junior college. After graduating from university, he returned to work in Shanghai. He had three jobs, and at last he started a business. It is thus clear that he has been flowing between different spaces; of course, basically he has still been flowing upward. Seen from conditions of different aspects, Shanghai is apparently better than Henan, and it is especially better than rural areas of Henan. Shanghai’s per capita income is much higher than that of Henan, and public facilities, public services, modernization levels, and development opportunities are all better in Shanghai, so Shanghai has attracted talent and rural migrants from all over the country. Among the rural migrants working and doing business in Shanghai, people from Henan, Anhui, Jiangsu, and Jiangxi are the majority, and that of course also has a lot to do with the geographical proximity of these provinces to Shanghai. Due to the large development gap between Henan and Shanghai, Shanghai is more attractive to the new generation of rural people from Henan, like Niu. Although he had to return to Henan to study in senior high school and college, being restricted by the household system and his academic performance, after graduation he still chose to return to Shanghai to find a job and set up a home, and he endeavored to settle down there for a long period and acquire citizenship.
5Niu’s return to Shanghai for development is also directly related to his parents, classmates, and fellow villagers who formed his life space in Shanghai. Immigration space is a mechanism of protection and conversion for immigrants to survive and integrate into the migratory society. The concept of immigration space refers to the scope of immigrants’ living, production and management, social communication, and cultural activities—that is to say, the migration activities within a certain range, which seems to be a geographical space but also a social economic and cultural space. It has its own boundaries and reflects the relationship with the society of the inflow place (Zhou 2012). With such mechanisms, immigrants got settled, and at the same time they were able to rely on these mechanisms to slowly break through the constraints of mainstream society and achieve deeper integration and development. Niu’s residence and communication in Shanghai occurred in the immigration space constructed by him and even his parents. He moved from the school in his hometown to Shanghai, and he still entered the school for the children of migrant workers. “The students in the class are from Anhui, Shandong, Henan, Fujian and other provinces, all of them are children from other places.” And the parents of some of the children in the class are engaged in the container freight industry, like Niu’s parents. He also entered an after-school sports school in Shanghai; he played football for four years and established a certain social relationship network with Shanghai residents, which had some effect in allowing him to step out of his immigration space and enter the mainstream society. However, later he was still looking for career and development opportunities in his immigration space: his first and second jobs were in software companies. The salary was low, and the companies were associated with pyramid schemes, so it didn’t take long before Niu turned to his cousin’s export freight agency company, and finally followed his father into the container shipping business. On the one hand, his father laid a solid foundation for him, but on the other hand, Niu could expand his business by relying on the circle of fellow villagers, classmates, and colleagues he had established. From his education to his work and marriage, and even his family life, what we have seen is that as immigrants (floating population), Niu and his family expanded their relationship with Shanghai’s mainstream society based on their own immigration space.
The Three-Dimensional Forces That Mold Migratory Action: Time, Space, and System
6We find that time, space, and system are the three important structural forces that affect immigration. It can be seen that migrants live in a certain space for a long time; not only is this caused by the arrangement of certain immigration systems, but it also will reshape the system, thus forming a three-dimensional structural force of mutual influence. It can be seen that, from the interview case of Niu, we can find the structure composed by the three-dimensional forces—time, space, and system—and the evolutionary trajectory generated by their interaction, which is also the Shanghai citizenization trajectory of immigrants. The dimensions of time and space gradually forced the system to reform and make adjustments, and to promote the citizenization of the migrant population; however, the system has the aspect of solidified resilience, which confines migrant populations in the immigration space with the help of the time dimension, and solidifies the immigration space and forms an unequal social structure layout. In other words, the evolution of time and space will induce changes in the system, weaken the migrant identity of the floating population, and tend to be consistent with the identity and social rights of the residents in the inflow area, which is what this paper refers to as citizenization. The concept of citizenization is widely used in China because of the identity system left over from the planning era in China (identity differences and inequality between local people and outsiders, urban residents and rural residents, etc.).
7Among the rural migrant population, Niu is in the group with better conditions. Compared with their parents’ generation, this group did not solely work for others; instead, they were small business owners and accumulated certain economic resources and social capital—therefore, they had access to a better immigration space (Wang 2017), and this provided a relatively good development foundation for Niu. Such intergenerational accumulation of resources facilitated Niu with better citizenization conditions in the place of arrival, while it certainly does not exclude the importance of individual endeavor and action there. Therefore, immigrants are like grains of dust relative to the times, but they can also turn into seeds under certain conditions and germinate into seedlings until they grow up and break through some structural constraints. However, there are more migrant populations that do not possess Niu’s conditions and live in the marginal belts of cities with a lower level of citizenization; thus, in this sense Niu’s case is not representative, but it is a typical case, and the citizenization mechanism it reveals can illustrate some basic trajectories of urbanization in China to some extent.
Similarities and Differences of Circumstances That International Immigrants and Domestic Immigrants Face
8In comparison, the in-depth interview with Bahia in the city of Givors in the greater Lyon region in France gave me a feeling and impact less profound than those in Niu’s case, so it is difficult to find more macro backgrounds, as I understand the latter. I have conducted field surveys of immigrants from Wenzhou, China, in the greater Paris area many times, and also met some immigrants like Bahia. The first thing that needs to be explained here is that the rural migrant population in China is different from the immigrants in France in many ways: although they are all migrants, the rural immigrants in China move from rural to urban areas without changing their citizenship, while French immigrants were originally not French citizens but citizens of other countries, and then changed their nationality and citizenship in France. Second, the rural migrant population in China does not have the problems of ethnic groups (only a minority are members of ethnic groups), while there are problems of ethnic groups in French immigrants. Third, the rural migrant population in China presents the general phenomenon of circular flow. Most of the immigrants would return to their hometown at a certain age, but most of immigrants in France live in France for a long time, and there are fewer people who will come back to their country of origin. This is especially true for the Wenzhounese who have immigrated to France. Fourth, there are distinct features of culture and religion for French immigrants, while there are much fewer problems with regard to culture and religion for rural migrant populations in China. Fifth, different French immigrants have many differences in social integration; for example, Wenzhou people very quickly improved their economic and living conditions and made progress in politics, but they had many difficulties regarding culture, while for immigrants from the Maghreb and sub-Saharan regions, as well as immigrants from the Middle East, it was easier for them to integrate into France in terms of language and politics, but they confronted greater difficulties regarding religion and economy than the immigrants from Wenzhou, China, did. Meanwhile, China’s rural migrants may encounter more obstacles and inequities in the system, while facing less serious problems regarding culture. Without doubt, they are immigrants (or a migrant population) that are faced with problems of integration and adaptation to the mainstream society.
9Now, let us return to the interview case of Bahia. Other than having a better understanding of Wenzhou immigrants in France, I do not have much knowledge of or opinions about other immigrants in France. I do not have the clear historical, cultural, and policy background that I have for domestic immigrants in China, but I can do relevance thinking and analysis of events on individuals and changes in social structure. However, I once made a survey on Aubervilliers in the suburbs of Paris, which much resembles Givors, where Bahia once lived. It was a center of the French industrialization era (especially after World War II). Due to its relatively developed industry and the demand for a lot of labor, it attracted many labor immigrants from neighboring countries, such as Portugal, Spain, and Italy, and so it gradually became their living community. Later, the industrial companies moved away (de-industrialization), and this place declined. Since the 1980s, a great deal of migrants have come to France from the Middle East and North Africa and settled down in Aubervilliers. When I was there for investigation, a commerce market run by Wenzhou people had arisen there. Givors, where Bahia stayed, was originally one of the previous industrial centers of France. Later, it experienced transformation and declined, mostly in immigrant communities. Givors has a population of more than 19,000, many of whom are immigrants or descendants of Spain, Portugal, and the Maghreb and sub-Saharan regions of North Africa. It can be seen that the origin places of the two communities of Givors and Aubervilliers were the same. Bahia’s father was a Spanish immigrant, while her mother was an Algerian immigrant. She was born in Vienne and was taken to Givors by her parents after the age of 2, and she lived and studied there, although her father and mother returned to Vienne after their divorce. Bahia was quite familiar with Givors and had a complicated affection for this city. There are many places and corners in this city where she and her friends played and learned, and some spaces that reflect her personality and even rebellious behaviors. Although I had no concrete feelings about the city, I learned from Bahia’s statements that she and her parents had many behavioral differences in space, and how these differences lead to the results of being evaluated by adults. Besides, I could also get to know the relationship and interaction between her and the bludgers at her age in space. Different corners of the space show her happiness, fear, sorrow, resistance and growth, social relations, and identity. Bahia encountered two problems in her growth: One is the problem of intergenerational immigration. The older generation of immigrants began to form their own immigration culture. For example, Spanish immigrants built some cultural norms and symbols that reflect their own identity, while the younger generation held ambivalence: on the one hand, they grew up in such a culture, and they were subtly influenced and socialized, but on the other hand, they had the mind of betrayal and did not want to carry on the relevant cultural habits completely. As a result, friction, evasion, conflicts, rebellion, and other issues arose between the younger and older generations. Of course, this problem is directly associated with another, that is, the younger immigrant descendants had greater intentions of integrating into the mainstream society in France, but they were confronted by some invisible “barriers,” including those in the aspects of culture, education, employment, social stratum, and even social identification. For example, in France, although there is no discrimination in education policies, the educational quality in immigrant community schools is not as good as it is in schools in other places, and immigrant students together will also form a certain educational atmosphere, affecting children’s learning concepts, motivations, and behaviors, and restricting their involvement in the educational competition of mainstream society in the future. There is another example regarding the process of finding employment—since they live in immigrant communities, the address written on their cover letter will affect the employer’s decision. Such invisible “barriers” impeded the upward possibilities and opportunities for younger immigrant descendants to some extent, and in turn molded their outlook on life and their attitude in life. This point is embodied by Bahia to some extent. Although France and the European Union have been striving to eliminate the social exclusion of immigrants, because these exclusions are socially structured, it is difficult to eliminate or weaken them with policies.
10In conclusion, everyone will live in different spaces throughout their whole life, so space and time constitute the two important dimensions of life; however, these are not just two natural dimensions, but social structural dimensions as well. A person’s social status determines his or her activity space, and only by breaking through the activity space can he or she change the social status. It does not matter whether Niu and his parents moved from rural areas of Henan to Shanghai, or whether Bahia and her parents and even her grandparents moved from other countries to Givors, they faced the change of space at first, with the purpose of improving life and social status; second, in the place of arrival, there were also space restrictions in settlement, because different spaces meant different social statuses, and different spaces offered different opportunities; thus, immigration space was created. The space of the place of arrival where the immigrants live was formed in history and embodies social status, so the reason for many immigrants’ failure to leave the area in which they live is that they were unable to change their status (Zhou 2012). I found in my survey of Wenzhou immigrants in Paris that immigration space has multiple borders. Immigrants who can cross borders possess more development opportunities and higher social status than immigrants who are unable to cross borders, and vice versa. The two interview cases in China and France can basically reveal the operational mechanism of time and space where the immigrants are, and in turn they offer a fresh and vivid factual basis for understanding the fate of individual immigrants. The two cases further proved Elias’s view: The individuality and the social relatedness of a person are not only not antithetical to each other but are shaped by each other. An individual might be a grain of dust in society, but once having found suitable space and soil of the times, it might become a seed of hope. And this is the real driving force for the immigrants to settle down in another place despite all of the difficulties it entails. Here, the macro social structural form has a very important influence on the social mobility of immigrants: Although immigrants (floating population) face social exclusion in one way or another in China and France, due to different macro social structures and forms, there are different fates. Since China has been in the stage of reform and opening-up and rapid economic development in the past 40 years, the social structure is still in the course of changing to allow some upward mobility space and opportunities for members of the floating population, like Niu, who realized an improvement of social status in mobility. The French society has passed the stage of rapid development and is in the stage of relatively stable social structure; therefore, for Bahia, there are much fewer opportunities in flowing upward and breaking through the relatively stable social structure. This is why the states of social structure of the two countries have different influences on the changes of social status for immigrants.
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Auteurs
WANG Chunguang is deputy director of the Institute of Sociology at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, researcher and doctoral supervisor and director of the Social Policy Research Center at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences; president of the China Rural Sociology professional committee; executive director of the Chinese Society of Sociology; and vice president of the China Social Policy Committee. His main research fields include social structure, rural sociology, social mobility, social policy, social governance and social construction, social integration of migration, rural anti-poverty research, etc. He has published over 120 papers in journals such as Social Sciences in China, Sociological Studies, Population Research, etc. His research on Wenzhou People’s special social integration mode in Beijing and Paris and the follow-up study on the triple migration space have had a significant influence on Chinese migration studies. He is the author of Constructing space: A Longitudinal Study of Immigrants from Wenzhou in Paris (2017).
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