The flow of Chinese farmers can be measured in three waves over the past 30 years,he said. In the first wave, which started in the 1980s, they worked in their hometowns forrural enterprises. In the second, they left their villages for temporary work in cities. Thecountry is now experiencing the third wave in which farmers are settling in cities and beingjoined by their entire families. However, Gu said many regulations, such as the hukou- registered place of residence - system, are blocking the flow of labor and causingfrustration for rural people.
“I already thought I was a city man after living here for so long, but suddenly I don’tfeel like I belong to any group. As long as I’m classed as a migrant worker, I’ll always beseen as a second-class citizen,” said Sun. “Debt collectors visit my apartment every day. Ihoped I could become a real member of the city through hard work but now it seems it istoo hard.”
Despite the budding entrepreneur’s hukou being in the Jilin countryside, he hasabsolutely no experience of working in the fields and, if he had to leave the city, he said hewould not know where to start with farming. “I feel like I have nowhere to go,” he said.
Even people who were raised in cities by migrant worker parents are still registeredin the countryside. Although their attitudes are different from previous generations,the opportunities open to those without hukou have not. Like their parents, they stillmust sweat it out on construction sites and busy assembly lines, or get menial jobs inbarbershops, bars and restaurants.
“I would rather pick up trash in Shenzhen than toil the land in my home village,” saidLiao Fan, 22, a migrant worker who “fled the bad environment and transport networks”
of Huaihua, Hunan province. “Most young people in my village have left for jobs in cities.
When I go back home, there are no other young people and no fun.”
Although he also hopes of one day getting hukou in Shenzhen, as well as a “decent jobthat pays a high salary” and a house, he said he knows it is a pipe dream.
“New-generation migrant workers hold rural residence but most of them do not haveany experience in the fields,” said Xie Jianshe, vice-director of the Guangzhou developmentacademy under Guangzhou University. “They are not qualified to be farmers. They are usedto life in the city but they don’t have much education or skills. They are inferior to theircity peers and have to do hard work with meager pay.”
They may look like city slickers with their fashionable clothes and hairstyles, butwithout hukou, staying in the city is no easy option, say analysts.
The issue has not escaped the attention of the central government and was a majortopic of discussion during the annual sessions of the National People’s Congress andChinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC). Premier Wen Jiabaohighlighted the plight of new-generation migrant workers in his Government WorkReport, in which he vowed to introduce measures to ease their burden.
In its annual guidance report on rural development, the State Council also urgedgovernments at all levels to employ “well-targeted measures to handle the issue”.
“Reform of the household registration system is crucial to solving the dilemmaof these young migrant workers,” said Su Liqing, former president of the All-ChinaFederation of Trade Unions. “However, a system that has existed for more than 50 yearscannot simply be cancelled overnight. Government officials need to work out more waysto help younger workers solve their most urgent needs, either through creating more jobs,raising the minimum wage or enhancing social security.”
For a start, the central government should relax residence registration rules in smalland medium-sized cities, said Gu. China has only 655 cities, compared to more than10,000 in the United States, and “some of our 2,800 counties can be built into cities withpopulations of 100,000 to 300,000. Many migrant workers can become urban residentsthis way,” he said. In small cities, the government can encourage migrant workers to starttheir own businesses, and provide incentives such as tax breaks and small loans, he said.
The sights of new-generation migrant workers are set far higher than theirpredecessors, both with working and living conditions, and unlike their fathers they arenot satisfied with menial, repetitive jobs, say analysts.
“The labor shortage in the Pearl and Yangtze river deltas after the Lunar New Yearholidays is just one example that displays the higher needs of new-generation migrantworkers,” said Su. “Short-term labor contracts add to their sense of alienation because thereis no security. They simply live in the city, do unstable jobs and get irregular pay.”
Enterprises should improve their management and take more responsibilities in trainingyoung people, he said. “If they just focus on cheap labor, one day the workforce will vanish.”
For decades migrant workers have fueled the development of Chinese cities, butexperts fear that the 100 million or more young people who now flock in from thecountryside every year could clog the system.
Without a solution, the influx of unsettled, underpaid, over-motivated workers couldbe a serious threat to social security, say analysts.
In a recent survey of 3,230 inmates at three prisons in Guangzhou, academy directorXie found that robbery, burglary and intentional damage made up more than 80 percent ofthe crimes committed by young migrant workers. “Sex-related crimes and gang crimes alsoaccounted for a high proportion,” he said.
“They need to learn more about the law and to solve the disputes through regular channels,and not resort to violence,” said He Bei, a defense lawyer with Beijing Boru law firm.
However, Xie disagreed and said that the poor living conditions, insufficient educationand fragile psychological conditions of new-generation migrant workers are what is drivingthem to crime.
