Migrant Workers Fuel Chinese Economy
By George Thomas
CBN News Senior Reporter
March 30, 2008
CBNNews.com - JIANGSU PROVINCE, China - Donghsan village in Jiangsu Province is some 120 miles west of Shanghai. Like many other villages in the province, the majority of farms there are run by women.
"It was never like this," said Wan Zhilan, a farmer from Dongshan village. "The men were always on the farms doing the bulk of the labor."
Women in Charge
The Chinese government recently completed a census of more than 630,000 villages across the country.
The new government census showed that the countryside was increasingly relying on older people, as well as young children, to take care of the farmland.
"Doing it by myself is hard, but this is the new reality of life in China," said Zhu Qin. who has a farm she looks after on the outskirts of Donghsan village. "My husband used to work on the farm but now has moved to Shanghai to find better job opportunities."
The Great Migration
Zhu Qin's husband is not alone. Some 150 million Chinese peasants, mostly men, have quit their villages and headed to the cities to look for higher paying jobs.
"This is all I am taking on my journey to the city: a blanket, a few clothes, and a small mattress," said Zhang Youjiang, a peasant farmer who was waiting for a ride to Shanghai.
"All my friends here in the village are moving to the cities and are making more money so why should I stay?" he added.
Youjiang's wife is making the trip with him to the city to help him find a place to stay. He'll be gone for at least six months.
"I will miss him, but I know this is helping us to survive," his wife said.
Life of Migrant Workers
The majority of China's 1.3 billion people live in rural communities. For decades they were treated as second-class citizens, with their ability to move to urban areas tightly controlled.
But in the past two decades, farmers have been pouring out of the countryside and into big cities.
Yan Zhengshen is working on what soon will become Shanghai's tallest building.
He moved to the city from the countryside less than a week ago. He works 12 hours a day, 7 days a week and rarely sees his wife and children. But he says it is worth it.
"I make more money working here in the city than on the farm," said Zhengshen. "Sure, it's difficult being away from my family, but I send money home and that keeps everyone happy."
Zhengshen and millions of other migrant laborers are powering the country's fast-growing economy by working as construction and factory workers, restaurant staff, domestic servants and drivers.
Life for them is hard and dangerous. They are often mistreated by their employers or deceived for their money.
The government and many businesses are trying to improve their living and working conditions.
Village Tensions
In the meantime, Beijing is focusing on the countryside, where tensions are rising as the income gap between city dwellers and villagers grows wider.
In recent years, angry farmers throughout China have protested government plans to convert farmland into businesses.
"The government is trying to improve the working conditions in the rural areas and has begun a process of urbanizing the countryside," said Dr. Chen Zhao, an associate professor at Fudan University in Shanghai.
But not fast enough for some. Back in Dongshan village, Zhu Qin struggles to run the farm and raise her 2-year-old daughter.
She hopes that one day soon, she too can join her husband in chasing their dreams of life together in the big city.
"That's what I'm hoping for so that we don't have to spend all this time apart from each other," said Qin.
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