Migrant workers younger, more vocal
Source: Agencies/Shanghai Daily |
June 23, 2010, Wednesday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
YOUNGER workers now make up the majority of China's migrant labor force and are quicker to speak up when they feel their rights are being violated than older workers, according to a report by the country's official trade union that hints at one reason for the recent wave of labor unrest.
The report by the All-China Federation of Trade Unions comes in the wake of high-profile strikes at plants run by foreign car makers including Toyota Motor Corp and Honda Motor Co.
A spate of worker suicides at the enormous complex operated by iPhone maker Foxconn in the southern city of Shenzhen has also drawn attention to the intolerable stresses many young workers face in factory complexes.
Young migrant workers between the ages of 16 and 30 number about 100 million, making up nearly two-thirds of China's estimated 150 million migrant laborers and nearly half of the country's 230 million workers overall, said the study.
It characterized the younger generation - known as the "post-80s generation" - as more willing to file complaints when their rights are violated and less fearful of retaliation than the older generation.
The study noted that younger migrant workers "are more aware of equality and rights," and have higher expectations of getting equal jobs, labor and social welfare, education, and other basic public services.
It said they are "showing a higher willingness to defend their rights."
The report said resolving the problems facing the new generation was important to avoid social unrest.
"The accumulation of these demands and problems has begun to have negative effects on our country's political and social stability and sustainable economic development," it said.
Unlike their fathers, these migrant workers don't just want to make some money before returning to farming - they largely abandoned the idea of going back to their economically backward homes, the report states.
Though most were from the rural villages, the report said that 89 percent of these young migrants don't know how to do farm work.
The report said 71 percent of those interviewed said they chose to come to the cities to have some fun as well as to realize their dreams: to move to the cities permanently.
They hope to get married in cities and have a decent urban life like other city dwellers. One survey found 56 percent of young migrant workers planned to "buy housing and settle down" in the cities they work in, the report said.
But their goals are frustrated by measly pay, soaring house prices, and the strict household registration system.
Compared to their parents, of whom 80 percent had wives and children back home when they left for the cities, only 20 percent of the new generation of migrants were married. That's an estimated 80 million youngsters with an average age of 23 who were single at the time.
Loneliness was thus a huge problem for the young migrant workers, with more than 70 percent of those interviewed by the research team saying this was torturing them all the time.
The report by the All-China Federation of Trade Unions comes in the wake of high-profile strikes at plants run by foreign car makers including Toyota Motor Corp and Honda Motor Co.
A spate of worker suicides at the enormous complex operated by iPhone maker Foxconn in the southern city of Shenzhen has also drawn attention to the intolerable stresses many young workers face in factory complexes.
Young migrant workers between the ages of 16 and 30 number about 100 million, making up nearly two-thirds of China's estimated 150 million migrant laborers and nearly half of the country's 230 million workers overall, said the study.
It characterized the younger generation - known as the "post-80s generation" - as more willing to file complaints when their rights are violated and less fearful of retaliation than the older generation.
The study noted that younger migrant workers "are more aware of equality and rights," and have higher expectations of getting equal jobs, labor and social welfare, education, and other basic public services.
It said they are "showing a higher willingness to defend their rights."
The report said resolving the problems facing the new generation was important to avoid social unrest.
"The accumulation of these demands and problems has begun to have negative effects on our country's political and social stability and sustainable economic development," it said.
Unlike their fathers, these migrant workers don't just want to make some money before returning to farming - they largely abandoned the idea of going back to their economically backward homes, the report states.
Though most were from the rural villages, the report said that 89 percent of these young migrants don't know how to do farm work.
The report said 71 percent of those interviewed said they chose to come to the cities to have some fun as well as to realize their dreams: to move to the cities permanently.
They hope to get married in cities and have a decent urban life like other city dwellers. One survey found 56 percent of young migrant workers planned to "buy housing and settle down" in the cities they work in, the report said.
But their goals are frustrated by measly pay, soaring house prices, and the strict household registration system.
Compared to their parents, of whom 80 percent had wives and children back home when they left for the cities, only 20 percent of the new generation of migrants were married. That's an estimated 80 million youngsters with an average age of 23 who were single at the time.
Loneliness was thus a huge problem for the young migrant workers, with more than 70 percent of those interviewed by the research team saying this was torturing them all the time.
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