Careers and cities: an examination of skilled domestic migrants in Shenzhen, China

Abstract

This thesis explores the impact of geographical context, especially cities, on individual careers. It comprises three stand-alone articles (a systematic review and two qualitative studies) that each sheds light on one aspect of this phenomenon. Together, the three papers unpack the influences of geographical context on individual career success (the first study), different types of skilled domestic migrants in the city context (the second study), and the maintenance of long work hours norm in Shenzhen’s IT Industry (the third study). The first paper integrates the findings of 95 articles published between 1970 to 2023 by conducting a systematic literature review informed by the Conservation of Resources and Career Ecosystem theoretical lenses. It presents three mechanisms through which geographical factors influence individuals’ career success: imprinting, (de) mobilising, and contingency. The second paper, adopting a qualitative research approach, draws on interviews with 35 skilled domestic migrants who navigate their careers in the IT industry in Shenzhen— a ‘high-tech’ new city (built only 40 years ago) in China with 17 million population, of which 69% are skilled domestic migrants—that represents an extreme career ecosystem case in multiple aspects. This study, informed by psychological contract and work-nonwork literature, proposes a typology that puts forward six types of skilled domestic migrants, namely visitor, opportunist, life-explorer, go-getter, settler, and workaholic, based on two dimensions of work centralism and intention to stay grounded in the data. The third paper is based on a re-analysis of the 35 interviews, but with a new focus on the long work hours norm in Shenzhen’s IT industry and draws on the Social Impact theoretical perspective. It illustrates the career trajectories of IT professionals in this city and reveals their specific career actions and behaviours that have a bottom-up effect on the maintenance of such a work norm at the industry level. This thesis contributes to career theory and skilled-migrant scholarship in three main ways. First, it extends our understanding of organisational careers by making visible the role of geographical context in career success. Second, it complements existent international migrant literature by presenting the city experiences of a significant yet understudied domestic migrant group. In doing so, it also facilitates a more inclusive understanding of the migration phenomenon. Third, it contributes to research on institutions by revealing the individual career actions and decisions that have a bottom-up impact on the reinforcement of institutions over the long term, namely, industry-wide long work hours norm. At a practical level, our findings help domestic migrants make more informed career decisions; also, we help employers, city officials and national policymakers better accommodate domestic migrants and support their career development, thereby enhancing human capital and achieving local and national growth goals.

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Identifiers

ORCID for Huainan Wang: orcid.org/0000-0001-7251-6362

ORCID for Yehuda Baruch: orcid.org/0000-0002-0678-6273

ORCID for Mina Beigi: orcid.org/0000-0002-4866-7205

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