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(2008) Knowledge, Technology & Policy 21 (2).
The relationship of mobile telephony to job mobility in China's Pearl river delta
Raymond Ngan, Stephen Ma
pp. 55-63
In southern China, the use of mobile phones is becoming a ubiquitous part of everyday life for young migrant workers. What could be the possible relationship between mobile telephony and job mobility among migrants? A study of 655 migrant workers conducted in 2006 in the Pearl River Delta found a relationship between job change among migrant workers and the increasing use of mobile phones due to more information on jobs with better pay and working conditions being sent to them by friends, former coworkers, and clansmen. However, this portrait of migrant worker e-actors operating in a "broadband information society" can only be viewed in the context of the migrant labor shortage in southern China since 2004. Of fundamental concern are the vagrant identities of this new generation of young migrant workers who are excluded from the host society in which they work but also feel uncomfortable with their farmer status in their home towns.
Publication details
DOI: 10.1007/s12130-008-9046-8
Full citation:
Ngan, R. , Ma, S. (2008). The relationship of mobile telephony to job mobility in China's Pearl river delta. Knowledge, Technology & Policy 21 (2), pp. 55-63.
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