Trials, tribulations of a rural migrant worker
Print Edition
Unlike Apple fans who queue up overnight to buy the latest smartphone, Li Xiang casts a cold eye over the iPhones that pass through his hands every day.
For two years, Li has been working 11 hours every day painting and assembling iPhones at the Foxconn plant in Zhengzhou, capital of central China’s Henan Province, and earning around 2,000 yuan (US$325) a month. Returning to his dormitory after a hard day’s work, the 26-year-old often asks himself, “My youth has been wasted here, who can tell me where my future lies?”
Li is among the 1.2 million workers at plants run by Foxconn, a leading supplier for Apple, Dell and Sony.
Li grew up in a single-parent family in a rural village in Xinyang City in Henan, which is a major source of migrant workers in the country. He went to a vocational school and majored in benchwork after his teacher told him that type of work paid well.
But after graduating, he couldn’t find a job that matched his major. To make ends meet, he took up unskilled jobs in economy-booming cities in southern coastal areas, earning around 1,000 yuan per month. In 2011, a recruitment advert for workers at Foxconn’s new plant in Zhengzhou rekindled his hope.
“I thought working in a Top 500 company would be very attractive and the pay would be satisfactory,” he recalled.
He recorded his despair on his microblog regularly.
“Too tired and too sleepy to stay awake at the toilet,” “Overtime work makes my mind wander,” and “My salary has been less than 2,000 yuan for seven consecutive months,” he wrote in his posts. Li was promoted as a technician but it did not thrill him as the post was the second lowest in the plant’s 13-level ranking.
Fan Ming, a professor on market economy at the Henan University of Economics and Law, said the new generation of migrant workers are unlike their fathers, who earned money and returned home. Young workers want to be accepted and rooted in cities to enjoy an urban life.
“Recognition and living with dignity in cities is very hard for them,” Fan said.
The government has underlined the need to help migrant workers become urban residents. Efforts will be made to reform the household registration system and loosen requirements for obtaining residence permits in small and medium-sized cities and townships.
Luckily for Li, he met his girlfriend a few months ago at work. They are planning to buy an apartment with money borrowed from their relatives, and start a new life in his hometown.
“I want a life with a family,” he said.
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