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< Posted 2010-3-23 11:09 Only show this user's posts
New generation of migrant workers, a mixed blessing
China is seeing a new generation of migrant workers flowing into its biggest cities. Unlike their parents, this group has no desire to return to their villages. They want to live in modern and urban lifestyles. This year the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State council put forward the concept of the "New Generation Migrant workers" for the first time in the No.1 Document.
This new generation of migrant workers symbolizes the changing landscape of China's labor force. These young workers are now the major driving force of the millions of people who leave their villages for the cities each year.
Analysts also point out that most of the younger generation is better educated than the generation of their parents. They have taken a different world view compared with their parents. They don't just work for money. They also hope to gain more experience, to pursue a better life in the future.
The new generation of migrant workers were born in the 1980s and 1990s. Although they are still registered as rural residents, most of them have actually been brought up in big cities. They are familiar with urban lifestyles, and expect higher salaries, better working conditions and employment opportunities, than their parent's generation.
This also contributes to a paradox: The new generation of migrant workers is generally fastidious but incompetent and with high life expectations but little ability to achieve any of such. Sandwiched in between rural identity and urban experience, they feel confused about themselves. Some even suffer mental problems or commit crimes after having struggled in the mixed feeling of inferiority and inadequacy as well as a touch of pride of being city dwellers.
Where to settle them and how to position them seem to be noy only a probelm pressing to the new generation of migrant workers, but a problem posed to the Chinese society while in its stage of transformation.
By People Forum
They are often referred to, in contempt, as 'people floating in city' or 'people walking in the margin of city' by the 'genuine city dwellers' , and they could also marginalize themselves when feeling they are left in cold.
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