Why the Greeks are not willing to do the dirty work?
Bloomberg Businessweek recently published a very interesting piece of news with general ideas that though Greece has been deeply affected by the economic recession since 2008, and the unemployment rate is as high as 27.2%, Greek citizens are still choosy for job posts: for example, they say that humble and poorly paid jobs such as picking strawberries should be completed by the underclass. And on the other hand, though some politicians declare that immigrants have carried off the jobs of local residents, the local people try to avoid farm work and other labor intensive work as far as possible — and these jobs are just done by immigrants.
Actually, the attitude of Greek citizens can be found in most places. For example, in many Chinese large and medium-sized cities, many residents complain that the ever-increasing external population is encroaching on the job opportunities of the local residents. But does the inburst of external population really lead to the decrease of job opportunities? Not necessarily. Because the jobs that most external population are engaged in are not mixed with the employment of local residents: the local people rarely are interested in the work of security guards, dustmen and waiters in restaurants that migrant workers are engaged in.
Then, why they are not willing to be engaged in these jobs? Being dirty, tired and poorly paid are the very important factors. For those people who just enter cities, they don’t care much for these. For them, the primary task of entering a city is to find a job with income. As for whether the job is honorable, it is another matter. Just because of this reason, many jobs that urban residents look down upon have all been undertaken by those people who just enter a city. With more and more people have been engaged in these jobs, those dirty and tiring jobs that originally seem very rough can also be further subdivided, and big money can also be earned — often on media reports spreading that the rich and powerful people are from the rubbish villages, and they are a vivid reflection for these jobs. Through picking up rubbish, people may become rich and powerful, most people may not think of it.
But what is even strange is that, when many country folks see that picking up rubbish may get rich, they all join the industry, villagers in some villages and even in whole villages make a living by picking up rubbish outside, and through the job, they have built new houses in villages, and even have bought houses in cities. Why so many people can excavate gold ore from the rubbish, but the unemployment group in cities can not find the treasure? What is even strange is that, why more and more country folks join the industry but urban residents are still indifferent?
The usual explanation is that these jobs are not honorable, just like the Greeks mentioned above who disdain being engaged in the “humble and poorly paid jobs” such as picking strawberries. This is a reason, but I’m afraid that it is not the most important reason. Generally speaking, when choosing a job, income is the most important factor, but “whether the job is honorable” is also an influencing factor. Then in which case whether a job is honorable become a decisive factor, and income retreats to the second?
In my opinion, the social capital may explain the phenomenon. For the so-called social capital, though there are various explanations, and in different disciplines, there are different definitions, but I personally more tends to regard it as the summation of resources or abilities through mobilizing social networks for the purpose of realizing instrumental or emotional purposes. If you still can not understand what on earth social capital refers to, then I will explain it with the word of “relationship.”
Let me assume that when some urban residents see that country folks get rich through the so-called “low level labor” such as picking rubbish etc., they may also have little hesitation in mind: should I also do such a job? But on second thought, forget it, if I do such a job, how will my family members look upon me? How will my former colleagues look upon me? What about the skills I learned before? Finally various worries have made him give up the idea, and he decides to firstly stay at home and see if there are any suitable jobs. In other words, if he is engaged in the profession, then all the social relationship network that he has accumulated through many years’ work will be cleared zero, so the work that soon he is going to do not only has no relationship with his former jobs, and even may harm the possible future relational network. Just based on the worry for the social network i.e. social capital, urban residents rarely are engaged in the relevant jobs.
But those people who just enter a city do not have such a worry. Before they come to the city, all their social capital in this city is almost zero, and when they are engaged in “the low level labor” that originally urban residents look down upon, those people they know may be their whole social capital in the city. Through the social network, they may let the job be handier. For those fellow-villagers who join the work later, the reason is interlinked: before they leave their hometown and join the main forces of “low level labor,” everything on the city is based on the introduction of these fellow-villagers, so the most cost-efficient decision is to be engaged in the same work of other fellow-villagers — they not only avoid the cost of making contact with an unfamiliar city, but also they can utilize their relational network that they have originally accumulated in the countryside. In other words, when he moves into a city, he is not a person alone, but a social network.
But for urban residents, if you do not join the originally unfamiliar industry at first time, then the future access threshold will be higher and higher, because the background and experiences of the employment group in the industry have almost no similarities, with the increase of the group in the industry, the local people will be completely marginalized there. As a result, there will be less and less local people , and they even almost disappear.
Of course, the so-called “low level labor” such as picking up rubbish is just an extreme example. In fact, such a phenomenon not only exists in dirty and tiring jobs like picking up rubbish, but also exist in almost all non-mainstream professions that the urban residents originally do not pay attention to: in private hospitals, workers come mainly from Putian City, Fujian Province; workers in copy shops around colleges and universities may mainly from Loudi City, Hunan Province; in small commodity wholesale markets, formerly workers mainly came from Zhejiang Province etc. Now for the express industry that now seems a rising-sun industry, workers mainly come from Tonglu City, Zhejiang Province (the founders of main private express companies are all from Tonglu).
Why city residents are hard to find these advantages? Because their former social networks restrict their development in the non-mainstream industries, but those people who newly enter cities do not have such restriction. More importantly, though those urban residents have lost the chances for these gold washing, their original social networks may find similar jobs — though the time for re-employment may be longer, because of the former accumulation and social insurance network guaranteed by the government, it’s unlikely that they can not find jobs for this reason. Therefore for them, the most rational choice is to wait continuously, and wait till the upturn in the economy.
As a result, we may see such a phenomenon in cities, some people are complaining about the unemployment due to bad economic situation, and other people are complaining about insufficient manpower. It seems out of all reason, but it is so well-reasoned.
Originally published on China Times | 2013-6-15
