Interpac Business and Migration Solutions Melbourne Australia

(December 9, 2011)

BEIJING - Village life was losing its charm for the majority of young migrant workers, a surveyshowed.

Only about 4 percent of the new generation of migrant workers, or those who were bornbetween 1980 and early 1990s, said they were willing to take up a job in agriculture, accordingto a survey released on Thursday.

A migrant laborer who works as a cleaner stands on the ledge of a high-rise building in Shanghai'sPudong New Area on Aug 21. A recent survey finds that a very small number of young migrant workersare willing to go back home to a rural life. [Photo / Xinhua]

The survey, in which more than 2,500 migrant workers from 20 to 31 years old were pollednationwide, was conducted by the Chinese Research Society of Family Culture, an instituteaffiliated to the All-China Women's Federation.

By contrast, nearly 38 percent of the respondents chose "starting new businesses" as their idealoccupation, and about 20 percent ticked "administrative staff" or "technician".

Settling down in cities was also the first choice for more than half of those polled. Noticeably,more women wish to move to the cities - 60 percent of female migrant workers said they wantedto stay in urban areas, some 5 percent higher than their male counterparts.

Only one out of eight polled said they planned to go back to their home village.

"I want to settle down in Beijing as it offers many opportunities for everyone," said Xiao Li, awaitress in a restaurant in the capital city.

The 23-year-old, from a poor rural family in East China's Jiangsu province, started working aftergraduating from a junior high school in order to support her two siblings to continue theirschooling.

Chinese cities attracted about 230 million migrant workers, among whom about 85 millionbelonged to the generation born after 1980, according to figures published by the NationalBureau of Statistics in 2009.

"Compared to the older generation, young migrant workers have less affection for thecountryside and farmlands," said Hong Tianhui, vice-president of the All-China Women'sFederation.

"Working and living in urban set-ups is their new dream."

The survey also indicates that young migrant workers frequently change their jobs and move toa new city once they are not happy with their situation.

On an average, the respondents have been spending about 4.7 years in urban areas, androughly two thirds of the people surveyed have worked in two or more cities.

Nearly 80 percent changed their jobs once. The survey also found out that men tend to changetheir work more frequently than women. All the 1,137 male respondents changed their jobsabout four times on an average, almost one more time than the women.

When asked about how they saw themselves in the next two years, more than 60 percent feltoptimistic, while less than 2 percent foresaw a gloomy future if they were to continue living incities.

Surplus labor moving from rural to urban areas is an inevitable process in China as thecountry's per capita arable land is among the lowest in the world, which creates little profits, saysZhou Tianyong, a professor of the Party School of the Communist Party of China CentralCommittee, on his Sina Weibo micro blog.

The fact that most educational and medical resources are located in cities also contributes tothe migrant workers' preference for urban life, he says.

"Migrant workers should not be treated as cheap laborers, instead, the government shouldaddress their needs for development to create a harmonious society," said Jing Tiankui, formerdirector of the Sociology Institute of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

Duan Chengrong, a professor from school of sociology and population at Renmin University ofChina, believed that the government should prioritize expanding the coverage of socialinsurance network on migrant workers and ensure their children have equal access toeducation, being the top concerns of most migrant workers.

Source from Chinadaily.com