China Wants You: The Social Construction of Skilled Labor in Three Employment Sectors

Abstract

This paper describes the policies of the People's Republic of China (PRC) for attracting skilled migrants and uses ethnographic fieldwork to discuss the actual employment situations of non-Chinese skilled migrants. Employing the concept of social fields, it describes skilled migrants in three employment sectors in the PRC: (1) Chinese academic and research institutions, (2) managerial work in multinational corporations, and (3) skilled culinary work in international restaurants. The discussion shows that ideas of “skill” are constructed with reference to cultural and ethnic traits perceived as assets in particular economic fields or ethnic capital. Moreover, migrants' ability to adjust to their professional contexts depends both on their cultural and ethnic capital and on their structural positions in the relevant field of work.