Young migrant workers in cities unwilling to return to farmland
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Only one percent of the new generation of migrant workers in China's southern city of Shenzhen, Guangdong Province, intend to return to their home village to do farm work in the future, said a report published in Monday's People's Daily.
The report, based on a survey of 5,000 respondents, was jointly released by the municipal trade union in Shenzhen and the Institute of Labor Law and Social Security Law of Shenzhen University.
The term "new generation of migrant workers" refers to the young workers who were born after 1980.
Unlike the previous generation of farmer-turned workers, most of the new migrant workers had lived in cities for a long time and had little knowledge of farm work, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao said during an on-line interview in February.
However, the new report reveals that they still struggle to become fully integrated into urban society. One reason is they cannot afford a "normal social life," often having to live in dorms with other migrant workers provided by factories they are employed with.
The average monthly wage for new migrant workers in Shenzhen is 1838.6 yuan (about 270 U.S. dollars), only about half the amount Shenzhen resident employees get, the report said.
The surveyed young migrant workers thought 2,600 yuan per month was a reasonable amount, however, if they wanted to settle down and raise children in Shenzhen they said they would need 4,200 yuan per month.
The report added that most of the new migrant workers were working in labor-intensive industries, and few of them working were in management and executive positions than the previous generation, even though they were better educated.
The report also indicates that the new generation were conscious of their political rights but had little awareness of employment rights, and that was part of the reason why they changed jobs more often than the previous generation.
