Human capital and the upward occupational mobility of rural migrant workers in China

Abstract

Research on the human capital and occupational mobility of Chinese rural migrant workers often focuses on how formal education is linked to upward mobility, and rarely accounts for the heterogeneity in the origin occupations. Conditioning on origin occupations, this study uses multivariable logistic regression models to explore the relationship between four human capital factors including formal education, professional training, professional certificates and the knowledge of foreign languages, and the likelihood of upward occupational mobility among rural migrant workers in the urban labor market in China. The findings confirmed the overall positive associations between human capital and upward occupational mobility, net of family background and demographic characteristics. Nevertheless, heterogeneous marginal effects exist for different human capital factors. Formal education is associated with the upward mobility of migrant workers whose first occupations are professional technicians. Foreign language proficiency is associated with the upward mobility for those with an origin occupation of industrial production personnel or business and service personnel. There is evidence for cohort differences, that foreign language proficiency is associated with the upward mobility of the older cohort with an occupational origin of industrial production personnel, and of the younger cohort with an occupational origin of business personnel, whereas high school degree only matters for the older cohort. This study contributes understanding to the mobility and stratification literature by: 1) distinguishing between four human capital factors including formal education, professional training, certificates, and foreign language proficiency, and revealing the heterogeneity in their relationship with upward mobility; 2) providing an innovative empirical approach to understand the relationship between human capital and occupational mobility that accounts for the origin and destination occupations of mobility; 3) contributing a life course perspective by revealing the link between origin and destination occupations, between education and employment, between the younger and older cohort, and between structural barriers (or incentives) and individual agency for human capital investment.