Moving to ‘Bei–Shang–Guang’? Internal migration, local hukou barriers and labour market outcomes among college graduates in China

Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen, as the major metropolitan areas in China, offer good opportunities for economic and social mobility for in‐migrants. As such, these four locations have become the primary employment destinations for recent college graduates. Meanwhile, these cities have the most stringent hukou policies nationwide, which play a key role in the urban labour market segmentation between local residents and in‐migrants. Using three waves of data from a nationally representative survey, the China College Student Survey (2010, 2013, and 2015), this paper, for the first time, examined whether Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen have emerged as an ‘upward social class escalator region’ for young adults in China. After accounting for observed demographic and human capital characteristics and migrant selectivity, migrating into Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen has been found to be positively associated with earnings attainment, and the economic benefit from relocation is greater than that experienced by migrants elsewhere in the system. However, in‐migrants to Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen have fewer opportunities to enter government organisations and public enterprises. These results cast doubt on the potential for Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen to act as escalators for individuals wishing to achieve all‐around upwards social mobility in China's urban labour market. The local hukou barrier may still be a salient factor in shaping migrants' labour market outcomes in China. This study contributes to existing knowledge on escalator theory by providing empirical evidence from an emerging market country, China. More importantly, it shed light on the role of location (such as large urban centres) in the complicated relationship between social mobility and migration.