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1 Life Goes On A report of the financial crisis from the perspective of migrant workers Beijing Cultural Communication Center for Facilitators

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Life Goes On

A report of the financial crisis from the perspective of migrant

workers

Beijing Cultural Communication Center for Facilitators

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Colophon

Life Goes On ——A report of the financial crisis from the perspective of

migrant workers

This report is developed by Beijing Cultural Communication Center for

Facilitators.

No.46, Dong-si-qi-tiao Road, Dongcheng District, Beijing

Tel: (+86-10) 86219405

Fax: (+86-10) 84043576

http://www.facilitator.ngo.cn

This English version is a product of the CSR Translation Project, conducted by

Social Resources Institute

Room 212, No.7, Zi-Zhu-Yuan-Nan Road, Haidian, Beijing,

100044, China

Tel/Fax: +86 10 68437211;

www.csrglobal.cn

[email protected]

The CSR Translation Project is sponsored by

Center for Research on Multinational Corporation (SOMO).

Sarphatistraat 30 1018 GL Amsterdam Netherland

Tel: +31 20 6391291

Fax: +31 20 6391321

www.somo.nl

[email protected]

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Editor’s Note:

The Financial Crisis in My Eyes

—Behind a research report with participation of migrant workers

While worries about the global financial crisis have not disappeared, another spring has come.

If warm sunlight can bring us new hope, we will understand that in a cold weather one can never

be happy without warmth and he will be like a lonely island in a vast sea. The global economic

winter has made all of us feel cold. The plight faced by migrant workers is the same as that faced

by us all, as evidenced by 20 million migrant workers’ premature return to their hometown.

Before the Spring Festival, the staff of Cultural Communication Center for Facilitators based in

Beijing (Beijing CCCF) distributed mountains of questionnaires to migrant workers. After going

back, these migrant workers would distribute these questionnaires to other migrant workers in the

same village and interview them, and then completed an interview report.

These migrant workers, some of whom had not gone back for two or more years because of

economic considerations or the snowstorm last year, carefully squeezed the questionnaires into

their tightly-bound luggage. Some of them only had less than five days to reunite with their

families, but asked for more questionnaires, saying that there were too many migrant workers in

their villages.

Why did we carry on this research?

The financial crisis is too significant to ignore. As an agency aiming to provide services to migrant

population, if we ignore the impact of the financial crisis, it will mean we ignore the 200 million

migrant workers. We hope we can make our shares of contribution to our country.

Why did we involve the migrant workers in this research?

These migrant workers, whether in urban or rural areas, have their roots in the land. They can

better feel tremors of the earth, and are more concerned about changes in their daily life. They

understand what they are undergoing, and what their needs are.

Although most of them don’t understand why foreign banks have gone bankrupt and they have

lost their jobs, and many of them have never heard of butterfly effect and ripple effect, they have

never complained. They are also thinking and trying to find their own answers to these questions.

The urban life experience has broadened their vision and enabled them to have their own mind.

They are not what they used to be.

CCCF aims to provide services to migrant population in various communities. When the financial

storm struck, we started to pay close attention to the status of migrant workers in this context, as

what we used to do every time when serving them based on their needs. We constantly remind

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ourselves: we can do more, and we can face it together.

This research moved CCCF and made it proud once again. CCCF was moved by the strong sense

of responsibility shown by migrant workers in the research, by optimism and enthusiasm

demonstrated by migrant workers in face of the crisis, by the text message “I’m handing out the

questionnaires on the train. It’s too crowded. I really regret I only took two pencils’, by the reports

attentively written by hand, and by the words said by a 18-year-old young man who had just come

to Beijing to work: “I’m feeling sorry, because the financial crisis has caused a huge loss to our

country. I love my country.”

These migrant workers are treating what the country is suffering seriously in the way they are

dealing with the situations of their families.

At the same time, they can not bear to stand by without doing anything in this crisis. They want to

change, and have taken actions.

They are never complaining or dependent on anyone, no matter going back home or staying in the

workplace, going southward or northward. After packing their simple belongings, they embark on

another new journey.

But they also need more support, more opportunities to participate in training, and learned

techniques and skills to live and work in cities. While building their skills, they are also trying to

find opportunities to embark on a new journey. They also need more opportunities to develop in

their hometown. No matter policy support or information support, useful or not, so long as they

are aware of the attention paid by the government, they will feel warm in their heart. They also

need more employment information, more stable salary and commodity prices, and more

protection of labor rights. “We don’t ask for more. We’ll be satisfied if we can make our life better

with our hands.”

They believe firmly from the depth of their heart that the crisis will go with the time, as does

the winter, which leaves behind not mud, but a spring.

What unfolds before your eyes is not a very academic or professional research report, or maybe it

includes something unreasonable, but we beg your forgiveness. We are willing to share with you

what we have seen and heard. We believe that this report written from the perspective of migrant

workers will be an important part of the broad picture of China in the financial crisis, and the

existence of this report is a meaningful thing.

The nation which can face a crisis directly is a mature nation, while the man who can shoulder his

responsibility is a strong man.

We have felt the hope brought by the spring.

The hope comes from our migrant workers and government. To deal with the crisis, the State

Council has introduced various policies and measures, which are responsive to even small changes

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of the current situations. Putting people first and governing for people demonstrate that our

government fulfills its commitments and shoulders its responsibilities. After NPC and CPPCC, we

believe that we can gain more benefits.

Three decades of reforms and opening has taught us to be grateful. We are grateful to this age. No

time in history can be comparable to today when we face so many difficulties and challenges,

opportunities and changes. The people who live in this age are still highly hopeful, no matter what

frustrations and despairs they once experienced. We feel fortunate to be the witnesses to all this.

But we are here not to witness and experience all this. The hope we have for this age could be

meaningful only if translated into contributing back to people. Therefore, we still have a long way

to go.

----Project team of Beijing CCCF

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Cases

Life Goes On (Part 1)

—A Report of Financial Crisis from the Perspective of Migrant Workers (Cases)

□ Project team of Beijing CCCF

Preface:

We Pack Our Belongings to Go Back during this Spring Festival.

The Spring Festival is a day for reuniting with family. But during this Spring Festival, people are

not only excited and expectant, but also anxious. The global financial crisis has made this Spring

Festival a little different. Due to the reports of media, anxiety permeated the air from coastal

industrial parks to everywhere in China, which added a little cold to this spring. At the same time,

north and mid-west areas of China are as calm as before.

Before 2009 Spring Festival, CCCF sent some of its staff and volunteers to conduct this research

of migrant workers at home in the financial crisis by means of questionnaire and interview and

asking them to write reports.

What you read now is not a professional research report, but the descriptions of our hometown in

our eyes in the conditions of the financial crisis. When we focus our eyes on the people we have

not see for long, and our heart feels changes of this land, present and future of our hometown, we

try to record the stories about those small towns, villages and migrant workers, status, dreams and

hopes of the migrant population with our hands that are used to manual labor instead of pen.

We are willing to share with you what we have seen and heard. We believe that this report written

from the perspective of migrant workers will be an important part of the broad picture of China in

the financial crisis, and the existence of this report is a meaningful thing.

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n In Beijing

Changes in Daily Life

When the financial crisis started to appear on newspaper, radio and TV, the daily life of Beijing

people was as normal as before. Migrant workers continued to do their work, did odd jobs,

collected wastes, and worked on the construction sites. They did not feel the impact of the global

financial crisis. As time goes on, they start to feel small changes in their daily life, although the

media don’t sound as worrying as before.

Storms in the Depth of Alleys

Place: an alley community within Erhuan, Beijing

This is a typical old bungalow community of Beijing. In this long alley lives a floating population

of 1,300, most of whom are doing small business here, such as opening a grocery store, selling

snack food on the night market, or selling vegetables in the morning…

Xiaowang opens a grocery store in the alley. Even during the Spring Festival time, his store was

open until two o’clock in the evening. You have to work harder when it is harder to earn money.

Xiaowang said, “When the financial crisis comes, everybody becomes cautious. Some people

have money, but they feel safe putting the money in their pocket rather than spending it. For

example, you heard less firecrackers in this Spring Festival. Before, people used to buy a lot, and

you could hear fireworks for two hours. So you can see now people buy less firecrackers. They set

off firecrackers only for celebration. The next day, if they want to set off firecrackers again, they

will buy a little more. They’re not so generous as before.”

Xiaoyang, coming from Anhui, also run a grocery store in the alley together with his wife and

children. He said, “The impact of the financial crisis is really big.” When there’re fewer migrants,

then there will be fewer people coming to his store to make long-distance calls. He charges ten

cents a minute for the long-distance call. His store once had five telephones, and months ago there

were always people lining up for making calls, and the line would be longer during the Spring

Festival time. Now there are only two telephones outside his store, but still few people come here

to use them. “The migrants have all gone home. Local people will never bother to come here to

make a long-distance call.”

Fewer tourists also mean falling sales. As the migrants who used to work on the construction sites

here had no work to do, they have all gone home.

Xiaoyang has to pay a rent of RMB 1,200 every month, in addition to the tuition of his two

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children and daily expenditure. The tuition of his older child is not high, but his school often

organizes the students to travel or watch a drama. “He is in primary four. What does he know

about the drama? But he has to go and watch it. Transportation, ticket, and food all cost money.

Each time it costs us more than RMB 100. It’s really difficult to make money now.” In face of

such a situation, his wife has to do two part-time jobs, doing cleaning and cooking meals every

afternoon and evening, which can earn her more than RMB 1,000 a month. In the morning, she

has to take care of her children and the grocery store when her husband is absent.

As the breadwinner of the family, Xiaoyang is under enormous pressure. “His grandma is too old

to make the children behave themselves if I leave them going to school in our hometown. Actually,

my home is much more spacious than this. You eat what you plant and can make ends meet. You

just cannot make much money. Here we’re still not rich here. I just want to support them until they

grow up. I’m not going to save money. If I can earn enough money for the expenditure of my

families, I’m happy enough.”

Laoxia sells snack food in the night market. He sees the financial crisis in a different way. “The

financial crisis doesn’t affect us very much, but the prices are too high. My business is good this

year, and I can sell a lot.” Laoxia is 43 now. When he was young, he had strong business acumen.

He once opened a restaurant, sold clothes and fried chickens. He was richer than he is now. Later

when his wife gave birth to boy-girl twins, they were heavily fined due to violation against the

family planning policy. He has not been able to recover these years.

The financial crisis has brought opportunity to Laoxia’s business. “Now all of my children have

grown up. It’s not appropriate for us to crowd in a 10-square-meter room. I had been looking for a

less expensive house, and now I can spend more time looking for a bigger house.” Laoxia is now

planning his future life.

n In Pearl River Delta

The Storm Has Landed

For migrant workers in the Pearl River Delta, this winter was extremely long. As the holiday came

so early, the whole winter was very leisurely for them: no extra work, long holiday, and so on. But

they started to worry in this leisure. What will be tomorrow like? The orders held by the

manufacturing sector like industrial parks, companies of clothing, electronics and toys and foreign

trade companies had fallen significantly. Some companies had gone bankrupt, or downsized its

workers, or took holidays in turn, to relieve their financial burden. Anxiety and restlessness was

prevalent here. Some people left, some stayed, some left and then came back in the hope of a

warm spring.

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Draw Lots to Decide

Place: Baoan District, Shenzhen, Guangdong Province

Mrs. Chen, 45, came from Sichuan, working in a Taiwanese-invested plastic-shoe-sole factory. For

these migrants working on a production line, the direct consequence of the financial crisis was

reduction in their salary. As a matter of fact, if only their salary was reduced, they could still

sustain themselves. However, many companies introduced a policy to make its workers work in

turn: while one group of workers was working, the other group was equivalent to the jobless.

The factory where Mrs. Chen worked adopted a measure to make its workers draw lots to decide

who was to leave and who was to stay. Mrs. Chen was one of the lucky dogs. He could continue to

work in the factory. Her team had more than 20 people in total. After the Spring Festival, only half

of them could come back to work. The rest had to take a three-month leave temporarily. When the

factory returned to normal, it would call in them back.

“They’re all old, all in their forties, but without any skills. Many of them have worked here for

quite a few years, some for more than ten years. What can they do if they go back? Some have

gone home for the Spring Festival, some are waiting for coming back, hoping they can return to

work after their holiday.” said Mrs. Chen.

Mrs. Chen’s husband was working on a construction site in a different place. He could save RMB

5 thousand a year excluding his daily expenditure. Although working in the same city, they could

hardly meet each other. When talking about his work the next year, Mrs. Chen looked really

worried, “There will be no construction work to do next year, but he only got primary education,

what else can he do if not doing construction jobs?”

Diligent, But Fortunate

Place: Baoan District, Shenzhen, Guangdong Province

Mrs. Zhang, 45 years old, coming from Hubei, cooked for middle- and high-level managers of a

Taiwanese-invested company, with a monthly salary of less than RMB 1,000. Originally there

were two cooks, but now in order to reduce expenditure, the company gave a three-month leave to

the other cook. As a result, Mrs. Zhang had to do two people’s work, and got additional RMB 200

every month from the company as compensation.

None of the middle- and high-level managers were asked to leave when the company downsized

itself. Therefore, the work load of Mrs. Zhang was not alleviated at all, but she was helpless,

“What can you do? You have to work. Anyway, I can still have this job, but many of my

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workmates can’t be back for a very long time.” For example, the warehouse keeper was asked to

leave for five months, and got no pay at all when back home. Compared with the warehouse

keeper, she was much better and quite satisfied, as she still had a stable salary.

Mrs. Zhang’s husband was farming back in hometown. They had two sons, both in Shenzhen.

After graduating from college, the first son worked as a model designer in a factory based in the

outskirts of Shenzhen, earning a monthly salary of RMB 1,800, not enough to cover his own

expenses. Mrs. Zhang had to send him money from time to time to support him. The second son

came to Shenzhen after graduation from the junior high school, and had worked here for half a

month. Later he joined the army, and now worked as a security guard in Shenzhen, with a monthly

income of around RMB 1,200. Mrs. Zhang was very thrifty, only spending about RMB 20 making

calls each month. She did not spend much, and saved about RMB 900 a month. When necessary,

she would send some to his sons. She worked almost seven days every week, without any spare

time for rest. On weekend, her work would become less intensive, but she did not get any

premium pay for working on weekend. Anyway, she had an extra income, “When the bosses play

cards on weekend, I can get RMB 50 from serving water to them.” said she, quite satisfied.

Likewise, Xiaoxu, who worked as doctor in the factory, also felt fortunate.

Xiaoxu, 35 years old, coming from Hunan, earned a monthly salary of RMB 1,000. The factory

provided free accommodation and meals to him. He worked five days a week, so his work was

quite leisurely. The financial crisis was a good excuse for the factory to cut expenditure, and as

this post was more of a nominal job, the factory decided to give him a three-month leave, although

the factory could not dismiss him.

When his leave started, it was still two months away from the Spring Festival. “I can’t go home at

this time. You need money to pass the Spring Festival and pay for children’s tuition next year.” So

he felt it was too early for him to go back home. Moreover, he got no pays at all during his leave.

Education of his two daughters in his hometown was a big expenditure to him. After careful

consideration, he decided to stay to find another job. As for the income, “so long as it is enough

for me to live here and send some back to my children, it’ll be fine to me.”

After one week of job hunting efforts, Xiaoxu got a security guard job in a light factory near his

former employer, with a monthly salary of RMB 900, without free accommodation and meals. If

expenses for rent, water and electricity were excluded, his net income was only about RMB 600.

Xiaoxu planned to do this job for a while. If his former employer asks him to come back as a

doctor when his leave ends, he will take it. If not…he’ll just wait and see.

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n In the Yangtze River Delta

You Have to Go Out

Due to the financial meltdown, many migrants working in the Yangtze River Delta returned home

earlier than they had expected. Their return made one village after another anxious. Many people

started to think what they should do after the Spring Festival. If they went out, it’s difficult to find

a job. If they stayed home, life would be more difficult. Finding a job was difficult, and starting a

business was even more difficult. They weighed it over and over again, trying to find their own

solutions.

No Money to Earn at Home

Place: Suzhou New District, Jiangsu

Xiaoliu worked in a silica gel factory in the New District of Suzhou, 80% of whose products were

exported to foreign countries. In October 2008, the factory started to reduce its output, and the

workers didn’t have to work extra hours since, hence frequent leaves and lower salary than before.

It was rumored that the factory would downsize itself, some migrant workers resigned voluntarily

and went back home. In December, the factory gave long-term leaves to the migrant workers, and

retained only local workers. The factory said that it would inform them and call them to come

back if it got new orders after the Spring Festival, but Xiaoliu said that all of them knew they

would never be informed after the Spring Festival, and that it was nothing but a pretext to dismiss

them.

Xiaoliu thinks that although there’re fewer job opportunities, working in cities can earn him some

money and broaden his vision. Anyway, it would be better than staying at home with nothing to do

and living a dull life. Of course there are some people who want to stay in their hometown for

development. One of Xiaoliu’s friends has worked away from home for about four years, doing

various kinds of jobs. This time when he came back home, he felt his hometown was also a nice

place for development, and a banner making store run by his relative was short of hand, so he

decided to work in this store and not to go out in the near future. He said he wanted to settle down

in his hometown instead of being away from home.

The village once organized some training programs. “All the villagers who participated in the

training were given a subsidy of RMB 20. Such trainings have been held only once, and most of

the participants were women and children, with few migrant workers.”

“Usually what migrant workers learn during their internship in factories are practical skills that

can be used. There’s almost no training in social adaptability, emotional well-being, and social

skills.” said Xiaoliu. In this age when communicative skills are becoming increasingly important,

good social skills are very helpful in job-hunting, which has also been realized by migrant workers.

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Because of big rural-urban cultural differences, many migrant workers find it difficult to adjust

themselves to urban life even after they have lived in city for two or three years. “Although we

live in cities, the people we talk to are mostly migrant workers. We cannot assimilate into the city.

Emotional exchange is also the basic human need. I want to learn how to communicate with

people, so I think we need training in social skills.

A Second Hometown

Place: a garment factory in Jinshan District, Shanghai

Laowang comes from Anhui, 45 this year, with a diploma of senior high school education. He has

been working away from home for nearly 10 years. Until recently were he and his wife reunited

together, both working in the garment factory in Jinshan District of Shanghai. Most of their

earnings were used to finance schooling of their children. Now his son has started his career, and it

is time for him to get married, so they still feel a heavy burden on themselves.

Before 2008, Laowang had to work nearly 10 hours a day, and often stayed up working overtime

at night. At that time, he could only have half of national legal holidays off. The factory was then

making quite much money, so he could earn RMB 1,500 to 2,000 a month, and got bonus and

basic necessities at the end of the year. In the past one or two years, the profitability of the factory

started to decline day after day, and workers were not paid their salaries for several months. Some

workers started to protest, and some abandoned their jobs. Laowang and his wife also decided to

go back home to find employment opportunities in a garment factory in the county, and not to go

out anymore. “My hometown has also witnessed rapid development these years, and set up

industrial parks where there are many garment factories.”

So this year during the Spring Festival, Laowang visited the nearby industrial parks in his

hometown. However, after the visit, he still decided to go back to Shanghai. “The local salary is

too low, and the environment is not as good as Shanghai. I have lived here for many years.

Everything is familiar to me.”

It’s true that when you have lived in a place for many years, you will be familiar with everything.

Compared with the empty house in his hometown, the simple room in Shanghai is more like a

home to Laowang. His son failed the college entrance examination in 2008, and came back to

Shanghai directly, working in a relative’s printing store. His daughter will graduate this year, and

she has applied for the postgraduate program of East China Normal University, which is also in

Shanghai, and she is quite likely to pass the examination. If she can get a full scholarship, they

will not have to worry about the tuition. Although they are not well off now, Laowang still feel

pleased at the thought of reunion of the family.

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Waiting for an Opportunity

Place: Nanjing, Jiangsu

Laoli is working in Nanjing doing auto quality monitoring. At 8 o’clock in the morning five day

before the Spring Festival, he got on the train heading home. After 4 hours of ride, he arrived in

Xuzhou, and got on a bus and got home one hour later.

The village in which Laoli’s family lives is in the northernmost part of Jiangsu. Five kilometers

away to the north is Shandong province. The village has more than 2,000 people. When they are

not busy on farming work, most of the young people will leave home to make money, some doing

upholstery, some working in factories. Only those too old to leave stay behind to till the land,

while women shoulder the responsibility of taking care of children and old people. His village has

no other enterprises but a vegetable processing plant, where the women left behind can work to

earn a monthly income of several hundreds to supply the daily household expenditure.

When in hometown, his old friends will reunite with each other to talk about their work. “We

make money just to improve our life.” This is what they said. The financial crisis has affected

everyone, especially his friends who worked in Suzhou. They came back home before the New

Year after they lost their jobs.

One of Laoli’s friends is also doing quality monitoring. Before the crisis, he could get a monthly

salary of more than RMB 3,000. Now due to the crisis, the company was closed temporarily, and

all the goods were piled in the warehouse. Now he only gets a monthly allowance of RMB 800, as

he still remains in the contractual term, and he is waiting for the company to call him back.

Another friend of him is working in a shipbuilding factory as a welding worker in Taixing.

Although he had a lot of work to do, which was also easy, it was just difficult to get the money

back, and the factory offered no compensation for extra work. So far, one monthly wage still has

not been paid to him, and he doesn’t know what to do about it.

Laoli pays close attention to the training policy of migrant workers that have come back home. He

went out of his way to ask about it, and many people know about the training. It is said that before

the Spring Festival, the neighboring village organized a training program, and most people were

asked to participate in it when they were completely in the dark about it. They were photographed

and registered, and then each participant received a subsidy of RMB 10 or 20. The training agency

looked like a private one, mainly talking about cloth making. Laoli considers such a training

program is too simple and dull. He is a mechanical worker and regarded only mechanical skills as

skills. In his opinion, only the training about operation of machines and lathes can really teach

people skills. Besides, he also believes that protection of labor rights should also be covered in the

training. Many migrant workers are helpless when they encounter such problems. Most of them

resign themselves to their losses in this case.

After the Spring Festival, Laoli came back to Nanjing. The performance of his company was not

as good as before. Not only his salary was reduced, but also the transportation subsidy was

canceled. The situation could be worse in the future. Laoli is considering starting his own business,

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and is waiting for an opportunity. Most of his career is related to mechanics, and this is his interest.

However, it is not easy to start a business. It is hoped that the government can provide stronger

policy support. “Actually, there are preferential policies made by the higher authorities, but they

didn’t work when these policies reach the village level.”

n In Central Plain

Unchanged Peaceful Hometown

In North China and Central Plain, life has not been changed a lot compared with that before the

financial crisis. Although the prices are higher, agricultural productions cheaper, and young men

came back home earlier than before because of having no work to do, it is not a big deal in their

eyes.

But there seems to be some changes, which the villagers can not say clearly. Some changes are

taking place in this slow-paced and peaceful village day after day.

“Sister, What is the Financial Crisis?”

Dahu Village, Nanxin Township, Qufu City, Shandong

Xiaoyan’s hometown is in Qufu of Shandong. Her village is not very big, but with a comparatively

large population of more than 5,000 from 8 hamlets. Most of the families rely on farming for a

living, but they increasingly feel they can only make their stomach full with farming. When they

need cash for paying children’s tuition and buying gifts for others, selling grains can not get them

enough money, at this time, they will find themselves short of money.

The farmers of Xiaoyan’s village also joined the rush of migration to seek job opportunities.

Almost all the males left their hometown, leaving behind women, children and old people.

Xiaoyan recalls that in her childhood, her father would stay at home for several days only during

the busy season, and she couldn’t see much of her father. As there were many children in the

family, her father had to work harder to sustain the whole family. Her mother also leased a large

area of land and worked terribly hard. Xiaoyan often took along his brothers to the street and cried

for her mother at night, totally forgetting what the fear was. Later, all the young men left for cities

to find jobs, and only children and old people were left behind. Xiaoyan said that her mother, now

in her fifties, still wanted to make money in city. Such stories are very common in her village,

because merely farming can hardly earn enough money they need, sometimes even causes losses

to them. Irrigation is really expensive during the drought, one mu (667 sq m) will cost RMB 200 a

time, not to mention labor and fertilizers.

Now all the people who can work have chosen to go into cities. Some even leave their hometown

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when they haven’t finished their junior high school education. You can hardly find peer fellows if

you come back home not during holidays or festivals. The profitability of factories in the county is

getting worse and worse, and many have gone bankrupt.

Although Qufu is the birthplace to Confucius, the local tourism is not well developed. There are

not many tourists coming here except during the peak of tourist seasons. They have not heard of

any preferential support by competent authorities to migrant workers. They often see on TV that

there are some training programs for farmers before they leave for cities, but in reality, no one

from the village has ever participated in such programs. Qingdao, a coastal city of Shandong, has

provided many job opportunities to the county where Xiaoyan lives, and most of the young people

work in the electronics companies in Qingdao. They are all satisfied with their jobs, and some of

them have even been promoted to management positions. This time when Xiaoyan came back

home, others told her that nearly all the companies faced hard times, their salary had been reduced,

and their salary had not been fully paid before coming back.

“Sister, what is the financial crisis?” When filling in the questionnaire, a 22-year-old man asked

Xiaoyan. She was surprised by this question: he had never heard of the financial crisis. In the first

half of 2008, this man worked in Shanxi, and learnt to drive in his hometown in the second half.

After the Spring Festival, he planned to find a job in an auto repair factory. The impact of the

financial crisis may be bigger for migrants working in south China, while many migrants working

in north China remain ignorant of it, especially for those people living in small cities who don’t

care about anything so long as they have food to eat and clothes to wear.

In Xiaoyan’s survey, there were also some people who didn’t know where to go after the Spring

Festival. Economic recession and bankrupt companies have also caused difficulty to them. Many

of them had not got their salary before they went back home, not knowing whether they would go

back to their company. If they went back to work, they would not get any pay, but if they didn’t go,

they would face more difficulty getting back their pay. They were drowned in confusion.

Not only ordinary workers have felt pressure, but also contractors. One contractor said that he was

also under great pressure. In 2008, he contracted with a real estate developer to do decoration, and

put money into decoration and labor, but finally the developer faced difficulty selling the houses

out. He felt it better to work in his hometown. For example, he could work in a furniture factory of

his hometown, and could earn a monthly wage of nearly RMB 2,000. If he didn’t want to

commute between home and workplace, he could rent a room with only RMB 60, and could also

rent the room with his friend and share the cost. He could save more money if he brought some

grains from home. In this case, he could not only save money, but also have time to take care of

his farmland.

All of them hope that the local government can make more preferential policies for migrant

workers and give stronger support for their employment and development so that they can have

more opportunity to contribute to the development of their hometown.

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Young Men Leaving Their Land

Gongzhuang Village, Guyun Township, Shenxian County, Liaocheng, Shandong

Xiao’e is from a village in southwest of Shandong, where you can reach within 10 hours by train

from Beijing. The village has more than 2,000 people. With economic development over past

several years, many small factories have been erected around the village. Apart from doing their

farming work, most of the villagers work in these nearby factories or in oilfields. There is a fair

every day in a place called Sanchang, about 7 kilometers away from her village. At the other end

of Sanchang, there is a small fair called Xiaosanbu, which is very close to Xiao’e’s home. Some

people sell vegetables, fruit and food on this fair, mainly for workers from nearby. As there is a

factory and internet bars near Xiaosanbu, which attract many young people and contributes to its

prosperity.

Xiao’e said that some others also went to other places to work. Take her family for example. Her

family had three children in total, and all of them were working in Beijing. Among the relatives of

Xiao’e, all those who could work had gone to cities to hunt jobs, some in Beijing, some in Jiangsu,

and some in Guangdong. Even during the Spring Festival, the whole family can hardly be reunited.

Leaving home to work has become a trend in the village. Helped by relatives or friends, nearly all

the young people are going out.

This time after coming back, nobody talked about the financial crisis. Those working in Liaoning,

Qingdao and Guizhou even didn’t know what the financial crisis was. Some working in Beijing

knew a little about it, as they often heard from TV and newspapers, but their own work was not

much affected. Xiao’e’s brother, who was also working in Beijing, said, “The financial crisis is

people losing money in the stock market, so money is getting cheaper and cheaper, while prices

getting higher and higher. It is a blow to foreign companies, but not to us.”

Far-Away Crisis and Nearby Shoe-Prices

Yanhu District, Yuncheng City, Shanxi

For those who work in the Huanghe Market in Yanhu District, Yuncheng of Shanxi, their business

this year is not as satisfactory as last previous years.

You need to pay between RMB 300 and 1,000 for administration and other fees such as rent if you

run a business in the Huanghe Market. The salary of these workers is not high, and the average

monthly salary is less than RMB 1,000, mostly around 800, which is not a small sum in that place.

The salary of local teachers is around RMB 1,300, which is a handsome income. Although the

Spring Festival was around the corner, their businesses were still not prosperous.

Xiaocheng, 25, is a man from Dongxinzhuang Village, Longju Township, Yuncheng City of

Shanxi Province. He only had a diploma of a junior high school, now working as an apprentice in

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a shoe store. The store, whose rent was RMB 2,550 a year, was rented by his mentor, who had run

this business for 5 years. A pair of leather shoes sold RMB 50. When we met him, his mentor had

gone home, with only Xiaocheng and his counsin left in the store.

Xiaocheng was to go home one day before the Spring Festival and come back to work half a

month later. He ate in his cousin’s home, as it was nearby. He and cousin rented a basement, but

only for sleeping at night. The rent was RMB 50 a month.

When it came to the financial crisis, Xiaocheng did feel much about it, but he was sure there must

be certain impact, such as rising prices and daily expenses. Before, a bowl of congee was only

RMB 0.5, but now it cost RMB 1.0; before a bowl of noodles was RMB 2.5, but now RMB 5.0.

Another example was edible oil. Before, one bottle of oil of Jinlongyu Brand was only RMB 30,

but now 80. As a result, they had to pay more for basic necessities.

The prices of other products were also rising, but the shoe store dared not to raise its price, first

because the leather price did not go up, second and most importantly because the price of the

shoes sold next door was always RMB 5 cheaper than theirs. So for this shoe store, the impact of

the financial crisis could never be bigger than the pricing of the shoe store next door.

Agricultural Products Getting Cheaper

Ansan Village, Antoutun Township, Xianghe County, Langfang City, Hebei

Shuangshuang is from Xianghe, where you can reach within less than 2 hours taking No. 938

public bus from Beijing Railway Station. Xianghe County is famous as the capital of furniture in

China for having more than 20 furniture malls. Most of the young men engage in making and

selling furniture. Most middle-aged and old people do odd jobs in their own villages or nearby

villages. Few of them are willing to go to other places to work.

Shuangshuang was originally working as a clerk in a port engineering company in Tangshan City

of Hebei, doing filing and paper work. When the state invested money in construction of a new

factory for Shougang Iron & Steel, the company Shuangshuang was working for was responsible

for building roads. Due to the financial crisis, the project was suspended, and she started to take

leave from mid August 2008, and then did some odd jobs like short-term sales promotion in

Tangshan to make some money to cover her expenses on basic necessities.

The accountant of the village said that the village altogether had around 256 households, with a

total population of around 1,000. The main sources of income were farming and working away

from home. Between 400 and 500 were migrant workers.

Shuangshuang talked with other 10 villagers who worked out of their hometown. Two of

them were granted leaves earlier because of the financial crisis, one was 7 days earlier, the

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other 4 months earlier, and was jobless for the moment. Other people were also affected, but

they didn’t lose their jobs. Some were working in Xianghe city, others were working as clerks,

carpenters, salesmen, construction workers, auto repairers, and etc. Their average salary was

between RMB 1,000 and 1,500.

Due to the financial crisis, factories and construction sites did not have much work for them to do,

so they worked fewer hours, hence less pay or delayed pay. However, they still felt that the impact

of the financial crisis on urban people was greater than on rural people, although they were

helpless when the price of agricultural goods was going down, like the price of corn was down

from around RMB 0.8 to 0.58, which led to their shrinking income.

After the Spring Festival, most of them will still leave and seek opportunities in city. Those who

have lost their jobs will first take some odd jobs and wait for information from their companies, or

look for other jobs. Still, they believe the financial crisis doesn’t have great impact on them as

migrant workers, believing the places where they worked before the Spring Festival still have

work for them to do. Some other people think it is difficult to find jobs in their hometown, and are

confused about how to find jobs the next year. The person who is now jobless will also come back

to the city to do odd jobs or look for other jobs while waiting for information from the original

company.

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Zhongyao Village before the Spring Festival

Zhongyao Village, Luzhou Township, Shanggao County, Jiangxi Province

Zhongyao Village is not large. It takes you less than an hour to finish walking around it.

Xiaoyuan, who came back for the Spring Festival, talked with his villagers, feeling that the

financial crisis almost had no impact on the village.

It’s only one hour’s ride from Zhongyao Village to the county town. Villagers usually take buses

in the morning to buy goods for the Spring Festival and came back at noon. The conductor of the

buses said, “The bus was so crowded that passengers even didn’t have space to put their feet. We

don’t have rest time throughout the year. The financial crisis doesn’t have any impact on us at all.”

With the Spring Festival around the corner, all the people were busy shopping, and you saw

people hustling and bustling both in city and countryside.

Most of the young men of Zhongyao Village are working in the county town, coming back from

time to time to help their family and just take a look. Thanks to the investment attraction by

Shanggao County, the industrial zone has also witnessed rapid development. There are two shoe

factories very close to Zhongyao Village, and they offer good pay and compensation to workers

compared with other local factories and industries. Most of the younger people from the village

work in these two shoe factories. The financial crisis has also reduced the orders of the factory,

and sometimes the workers can take a long rest after finishing an order. However, so far they have

never heard of anyone dismissed. Those who are left behind are mostly middle-aged and old

people, farming the land and raising pigs. Occasionally, they will also do some lighter manual

work on construction sites to make some money.

The villagers say that there are about 20 people working in other provinces, some are couples,

most people will leave their home if their relatives or friends tell them there’re job opportunities.

Most of them work in Guangdong, Shenzhen, Wenzhou, and Fujian, usually working on

production lines or guarding warehouses and earning a salary between RMB 1,000 and 2,000. .

When it comes to the financial crisis, the migrant workers have more or less knowledge of it. The

biggest change they feel is the decrease of orders of the factories they are working for. Some small

factories have become bankrupt, and some have started to downsize themselves. Some people

believe the crisis will have greater impact on export-oriented industries, but less impact on those

strong companies whose products are sold in the domestic market. Most of them think the crisis

has little effect on them.

Most people say they will go back to their factories after the Spring Festival, because it’s hard to

find a job now, and they can make more money away from their hometown. Some people with

children at home don’t want to go back to work, but to stay at home to help.

Xiaoyuan has learnt that the villagers have not heard of any preferential policies to help migrant

workers start their business in the hometown.

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“Don’t Allow Companies Give Leaves Arbitrarily and Make Prices Lower”

Taolizhuang Township, Shangyi County, Zhangjiakou City, Hebei Province

Xiaoyi is 21 this year, working as a welder in the Xuanhua Iron & Steel Factory of Xuanhua

County, Zhangjiakou. He earns a monthly wage around RMB 2,000, which is a good pay in the

local place, but now he wants to change his job.

“I don’t know why. I just feel dull always working in the same place.” Although in face of the

financial crisis, Xiaoyi is still optimistic about finding a new job. “I’ve asked my friends to keep a

close eye on the job opportunities for me. I’ll change if there’s a suitable job.”

Early December 2008, Xiaoyi came back home. “Our company gave us holidays 2 months earlier

than before this year. We didn’t have work to do, but the companies have to pay the salary if you

stay there, so naturally the company asks you to leave.” Why no work to do? “We ordinary

workers don’t know much about it; it may be because of the financial crisis.” After coming back,

he found he was the first to come back. Most of other people came back early January 2009. Some

people who did cleaning jobs in Beijing didn’t come back until one or two days before the Spring

Festival.

Although he has heard of the financial crisis, Xiaoyi doesn’t know the real reasons for it. After the

Spring Festival, he will go back to Xuanhua to continue doing his present job and at the same time

looking for other job opportunities.

When asked whether he had ever heard of training programs for employment or starting a business,

Xiaoyi shook his head. Although everybody said the financial crisis had a big impact, Xiaoyi

remained optimistic, believing it would pass soon. However, Xiaoyi also gave two suggestions to

the government: “Make prices lower, and don’t allow companies to give leaves arbitrarily.”

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n In future

There will be A Way Out

Crisis is always coupled with new challenges and opportunities. If you cannot work in a city, you

can go back home; if you cannot work in a factory, you can start your own business; you cannot

work in the Pear River Delta, you can go northward. In face of the pressure, the self-development

force of this group has gradually turn up, and a way out is increasingly within reach. Persistence

will bring hope.

I Want to be Boss of My Own

Xiangyazhai Village, Xindian Township, Renxian County, Xingtai City, Hebei

“If without the financial crisis, I wouldn’t have been able to come back until one day before the

Spring Festival. When the factory had a lot of orders, you could hardly have any days off, and you

had to work extra hours every day. Now because of the crisis, the factory doesn’t make us work

overtime. Besides, we each can only work 10 days a month, with a monthly income of only about

400, not enough to cover our own daily expenses. So I came back.”

In mid August 2008, Xiaona and her husband went together to Dongguan of Guangdong Province

to seek job opportunities, but on November 25, they resigned and came back to their home in

Hebei. “We were away for just two or three months. The money we had earned was not even

enough to cover our traveling expenses.”

Xiaona and her husband used to work on production lines, making mobile phone screens and

receivers, earning an monthly wage of about RMB 2,000, which included RMB 700 base salary

and compensation for extra work, RMB 8.8 an hour. “Our company is very big, with branches in

Tianjin, Beijing and Guangdong.” Although she had given up her job, Xiaona was still proud of

the company when talking about it.

As the start of the financial crisis, there was no extra work to do. When their income went down,

many people wanted to leave, but their group leaders wouldn’t let them go. They originally

thought the crisis would pass soon. Later, more and more people talked about giving up their jobs,

and their group leaders then let them leave after getting the approval from the superior leaders.

They couldn’t find new jobs immediately after leaving their former employer. So they decided to

come back home, as the Spring Festival was impending. Some people went back home to get

married. Others planned to seek employment in other factories or cities after the Spring Festival.

Many other factories near Xiaona’s factory faced the similar situation. “The factory really suffered

a big loss.” said Xiaona. “All of our products are for export, but now they cannot be sold out, so

naturally we get no pay. The workers don’t have work to do. One of the old workers told me that

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they are really bored, without any work to do, as in the case of SARS.”

Back in the Xiangyazhai Village, Xiaona didn’t hear of any preferential policy for migrant

workers. “We do need technical training. You have a lot of difficulty finding a job if you are

without any skill.” said by Xiaona. “I cannot be idle like this. I must find something to do, or

others will laugh at me, and we will also have big pressures.”

With regard to future, Xiaona is still confident. “After the Spring Festival, I want to open a

clothing store in the town. I’ve been thinking about it for long. Before I was hesitant because I

didn’t have enough money, and other people warn me of high risk to open the store. I’m going to

find some information about it: where I can buy clothes, what style is fashionable, so I can be

prepared. I want to work for myself and to be the boss of my own.”

Go Northward to Inner Mongolia

Xiangyazhai Village, Xindian Township, Renxian County, Xingtai City, Hebei

Laowang is 43 this year, doing house decoration in a decoration company in Hohhot of Inner

Mongolia. Most of his work is about carpentry. His wife is doing farming work and his children

going to school in hometown.

Laowang’s daily wage is RMB 100, and he can earn about RMB 2,000 a month. Sometimes when

he has to work for consecutive days, he can earn more; if not, his income will fall.

Laowang learnt about the financial crisis on TV when it started. Later the number of people

buying homes decreased, hence less decoration and work.

Laowang came back home during this Spring Festival. He saw many people had lost much money

doing steel business. The small steel factories and several steel trading centers along the way to

Xindian Township had all run at a loss. “Their business was quite good before the Olympics. But

now nobody needs steel after the Olympics.”

After the Spring Festival, Laowang will still go back to Inner Mongolia, and several villagers have

discussed with him and planned to go together. “The prices there are low, and renting a room is

cheap. If you have a room for your own, about RMB 50 to 60 is enough for rent, including fees for

water and electricity.” They are satisfied with all this.

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Stay in Hometown for Development

Danjia Village, Weibing District, Baoji City, Shaanxi Province

When it comes to the financial crisis, Xiaoyang, Xiaonie and Xiaotian, who are working as

welders or lathe operators in Wuxi, Shanghai and Shenzhen, don’t take it seriously. Now they just

don’t work overtime as often, and earn as much as before. And sometimes their companies don’t

pay their salary on time. They don’t feel any big change in their life, although the prices have risen

a little. “No big changes, it’s just the same as before.”

“I came back 15 days earlier than before, much earlier than in previous years.” Said Xiaoxiao,

who was working in an electronics company in Jiujiang of Jiangxi Province. As the company’s

products are for export, it has suffered a big blow from the financial crisis. “The workers like me

without any skill had no work to do, so we had to come back home, otherwise you would have to

pay for staying there.” Sighed Xiaoxiao. “Now I’ve lost my job. I don’t know whether I can find a

job in future. I’m a kind man, but why I lost my job. It’s all because of the financial crisis.”

Unexpectedly, Xiaowang, a model for migrant workers for his good education, high position and

juicy pay, was the first to come back home before the Spring Festival. “I came back at the end of

November.” Before, he worked in an auto company as a human resources manager. “Later the

company constantly laid off workers, and the business was getting worse and worse. Finally it

went bankrupt. I’ve been working outside for quite a few years. I don’t want to stay away from

home anymore. So I came back early. Actually it’s because of the financial crisis and I’ve lost my

job, so I had to come back early.”

All the people think it is a normal practice and unavoidable for companies to downsize and cut

salary in the context of the financial crisis which broke out in 2008, so we should accept it. That

there are not enough jobs for people is a narrow bottleneck for development. A large number of

migrant workers have to come back home for various reasons.

“I just plan to stay in Baoji. I don’t want to go out for the moment.” Speaking of his future,

Xiaowang said, “I’m 25 now. I should think about marriage. I want to be close to home. Besides,

I’m the only son, so I want to be close to my parents so I can take care of them. Our house is good

enough. I don’t want to buy another one, as it will cause too much pressure on me. After working

for several years outside, I still feel comfortable at home. My parents also firmly demand of me to

get married within this year. So I just plan to work in Baoji.”

Now Xiaowang is engaging in insurance business in Baoji.

…………………………………………………………………………………………………

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Data

Life Goes on (Part 2)

A Report of Financial Crisis from the Perspective of Migrant Workers (Data)

Project Team of Beijing CCCF

Summary

Since 1980s, migrant workers have become an integral part of China’s industrial labor force. On

the other hand, as residents, they have also driven sustained development of China’s urbanization.

Since late 2008, the global financial crisis has continued to aggravate, which has influenced many

Chinese companies, and affected employment of migrant workers. In December 2008, the State

Council convened a meeting of the Standing Committee and made more detailed policies on work

of migrant workers. On February 3, 2009, the State Council issued the Notice on Employment in

the Current Economic Situation. These are the strongest measures in recent years taken by the

CPC Central Committee and State Council for migrant workers, and from this we can see the

significance of the work related to migrant workers.

In face of the global financial crisis, what challenges do migrant workers have during the

processes of working? How will they deal with them? What do they think of the financial crisis?

What impact do the existing social services have on them? How do they evaluate these services?

With these questions in mind, from January 2008, CCCF entrusted its staff members and migrant

worker volunteers who returned home to investigate into the situation of migrant workers at home

in the context of the financial crisis. Meanwhile, we also polled and interviewed the migrant

workers in the Bohai-Rim Region, Pearl River Delta and Yangtze River Delta, three biggest pools

of migrant workers. The survey is conducted by means of questionnaires and interviews, which

lasted one month, involving 33 participants. Among them, 16 are migrant workers, who also wrote

reports from their perspectives based on their life, work and place.

The questionnaire has 38 questions, covering employment of migrant workers, understanding of

the financial crisis, preferential support policies and services, and future planning.

The survey distributed 756 questionnaires and recovered 465, 422 of which are valid. The

questionnaires were mainly distributed to 10 labor-rich places: Anhui, Jiangxi, Shaanxi, Hebei,

Henan, Shandong (southwest), Shanxi, Hubei, Hunan and Guangxi, and main 16 provinces and

cities that absorb the labor inflow: Shenzhen and Guangzhou in the Pearl River Delta, Nanjing,

Suzhou and Wuxi in the Yangtze River Delta, and Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei in the Bohai-Rim

Region, as well as Fujian. As an NGO committed to serving rural and urban communities, CCCF

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aims to provide actual basis for the whole society to deal with the challenges of the global

financial crisis and achieve stable development of migrant workers so that we can also make our

due share of contributions to reforms of public policies and service innovation.

Features of the survey subjects

Of the subjects investigated by the survey, 268 are male, accounting for 63.4%, and 150 female,

35.5% (Figure 1). Most of them are young men, 73% between 16 and 30. People with junior high

school education make up the biggest proportion, 45.9%; people with senior high school,

secondary technical school or vocational education account for 32.4%; those with primary

education 7.1%; people with junior college or college education 12.3%; and illiterate people 1.7%

(Figure 2). Compared with the statistics of the report on status of migrant workers in Beijing,

Guangdong and Qindao, the migrant workers with above junior high school education has grown

by 10 percentage points, rising to 32.4% from 21.3% within 5 years. More migrant workers have

received senior high school, secondary technical school and vocational school education. Rural

young men’s priority after graduation from (or quitting) school is to seek employment in city.

Figure 1: sex ratio of the survey subjects

Figure 2: education of the survey subjects

63.40%

35.50%

1.10%

male female unfilled

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According to the results of the questionnaires, 52% of the families have only one person working

away from home; 23.9% have both husband and wife working in city and leave behind children

and old people; 14.4% migrate with their relatives together to work in cities; 8.5% have all the

family members migrating to city.

Of 422 valid questionnaires, 70.5% are answered by rural people, and 11.4% by urban people,

which is consistent with the data of the report on the status of migrant workers in Beijing,

Guangdong and Qingdao. This shows that most of migrant workers come from rural communities

of less developed provinces. We can also see that young people from towns and cities of west and

central China, which are populous but short of job opportunities, also take it as an important

option to work in coastal big cities.

According to the statistical analysis of the questionnaires, migrant workers working outside within

3 years account for 45.7%; between 3 and 5 years 23.2%; more than 5 years 29.7% (Figure 3). The

statistics of the report on the status of migrant workers in Beijing, Guangdong and Qingdao

showed 22.5% of migrant workers had worked away from hometown for more than 5 years. This

comparison tells us that an increasing number of migrant workers are now working for a long term

outside.

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Figure 3: time of migrant workers working away from hometown

Employment channels

The statistical analysis shows that the migrant workers surveyed this time mainly concentrate in

the labor-intensive industries and some are employed in informal sectors. Among them, 21.6%

work on production lines; 21% work as technicians; 14% work on construction sites (including

those doing decoration and odd jobs); 7.1% work in service industries (cooking, housekeeping,

hairdressing etc.); 6.6% do small businesses; 8.5% work as managers; 8.3% as salesmen; 4% as

clerks.

The in-depth interview reveals that the global financial has the biggest impact on the secondary

industry (industry and construction industry), especially the export-oriented labor-intensive

companies. A great number of companies have significantly shortened work time, given long-term

leaves or cut jobs. By contrast, the financial crisis has less obvious impact on the primary industry

agriculture and rural areas. The countryside is relatively isolated and self-sufficient, which

explains why some rural people have no knowledge of the financial crisis. Even after they have

learnt some of their villagers have been dismissed and came back home earlier than before, they

don’t feel any difference about it. At the same time, township and village enterprises have also

played an important role in local places, creating job opportunities for some local people. The

impact of the financial crisis on the tertiary industry has not been felt, and the financial crisis has

also not affected people’s daily life.

The investigation also reveals that the average income of migrant workers is between RMB 1,000

and 1,500. Of the 422 subjects, 158 fit in this category, accounting for 37.4%; below 1,000 15.6%;

between 1,500 and 2,000 22%; between 2,000 and 2,500 9.7%; between 2,500 and 3,000 6.2%;

above 3,000 6.4% (Figure 4). The migrant workers whose monthly income is below 3,000 mainly

13.50%

32.20%

23.30%

14.20%

5.20%

10.50%

within 1 year 1-3 years 3-5 years 5-8 years 8-10 years above 10 years

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work in construction and service industries, or on production lines, while those whose monthly

income is above 3,000 are mainly managers and senior technical workers of companies.

Figure 4: average income of migrant workers

When it comes to the overall income level, the report on the status of migrant workers in Beijing,

Guangdong and Qingdao in 2004 indicates that the average monthly income of migrant workers at

that time was between RMB 500 and 800, accounting for 58.1%, and the proportion of migrant

workers with a monthly income below RMB 1,000 was 84.4%. The investigation this time shows

that the proportion of the monthly income below RMB 1,000 was 15.6%, 68.8% lower than in

2004, which proves that the overall income of migrant workers has gone up. However, the income

gap between different migrant workers has been widened.

When asked “When your average monthly income reaches what level, you will be willing to work

away?” 44.7% choose between RMB 1,500 and 2,500; 5.7% below 1,000; 12.3% between 1,000

and 1,500; 12.3% between 2,500 and 3,000; 10.4% between 3,000 and 3,500; and 11.4% above

5,000 (Figure 5). This means that because of economic development and rising consumption level

in urban and rural areas, migrant workers also have higher expectations of their income level.

When conducting interviews, the investigators also feel that migrant workers have growing

expectations of their salary, because their daily expenditure has risen due to increasing prices on

one hand, and their needs, material and spiritual, have also changed significantly on the other hand.

They have temporary and development needs that remain to be satisfied. With support of mobile

phone and internet, migrant workers now have formed a larger network and have more options in

choosing jobs. As a result, they are equipped with favorable conditions to realize their goal of

higher pay. Xiaowei, a chef of a restaurant in Dongcheng District of Beijing, will go to another

restaurant in Haidian District, and this job-hopping will increase at least RMB 500 to his monthly

15.60%

37.40%

22%

9.70%

6.20% 6.40%

below RMB 1000 RMB 1000-1500 RMB 1500-2000 RMB 2000-2500 RMB 2500-3000 above RMB 3000

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income. “My friend introduced this job to me. We cooks have created a QQ group, in which we

can talk with each other in leisure time, so we know everything about the restaurants in Beijing.”

Figure 5: expected monthly income by migrant workers

The Financial Crisis in the Eyes of Migrant Workers

1. Perception of the Global Financial Crisis

In this investigation, 233 people believe they understand the financial crisis, and that the crisis has

generated negative impact on their work and life, accounting for 55.1%; 153 people believe that

they understand the crisis but are not affected by it, accounting for 36.2%; 33 people say they

don’t understand it and they are not affected by it either, accounting for 7.8% (Figure 6).

Comparatively, those working in coastal regions suffer bigger impact, while those working inland

are not, which is also reflected by feelings of most subjects. The financial crisis has generated big

impact on coastal industrial zones, particularly on the Yangtze River Delta and Pearl River Delta.

It has also affected the life of migrant workers in these regions, but not for migrant workers in

inland cities, particularly for central and west part of China.

5.70%

12.30%

24.40%

20.30%

12.30%10.40%

11.40%

below RMB 1000 RMB 1000-1500 RMB 1500-2000 RMB 2000-2500 RMB 2500-3000 RMB 3000-5000 above RMB 5000

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30

Figure 6: migrant workers’ knowledge of the financial crisis

Further investigation reveals that the migrant workers’ immediate responses to the financial crisis

are lower pay and more difficulty in finding jobs, accounting for 53% and 50.4% respectively;

35.9% will associate it with losing jobs; 29.8% with rising prices; 28.4% with falling living

standards; 5.2% have no ideas, believing there is no big change (Figure 7).

Figure 7: migrant workers’ first response to the financial crisis

When it comes to the real impact of the financial crisis on migrant workers, 24.8% think that

50.40%53%

35.90%

29.80% 28.40%

5.20%

more difficulty

in finding jobs

lower pay losing jobs rising prices falling living

standands

have no ideas

understand but not

affected, 36.20%

uncertain, 0.90%

understand and

affected, 55.10%

don't understand,

7.80%

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31

because of the crisis, there is no extra work to do, so their income has been significantly reduced;

45.8% say it’s more difficult to find jobs; 20.3% say it’s difficult for their business to make money;

8.5% have lost jobs due to the crisis; 3% feel they are not affected (Figure 8). These figures have

told us that the financial crisis had created tangible impact on migrant workers. The most direct

consequence of the crisis is that their income has declined, and then they have more difficulty in

seeking employment. The research also shows that income from working extra hours is an

important part of their salary.

Figure 8: actual impact of the financial crisis on migrant workers

However, when it comes to the impact on their daily life, 45.4% choose they have been affected a

little, but there’re no big changes; 12.5% think the financial crisis has no impact on them; 37.6%

say their monthly expenses have grown and suffer big impact. Although migrant workers are

under direct impact of the financial crisis, like falling pay, they don’t take it as a very grave crisis.

They are trying to adjust themselves to deal with the negative impact. This also proves that the

financial crisis has not seriously affected people’s daily life, but with continued aggravation of the

crisis, their life will also be affected and many problems will rise, which is also felt by the

investigators. As the market is like a chain made up of links, any problem in one link will also lead

to problems in other links of the chain. For example, major companies in the industrial zones of

coastal cities have suffered from plummeting orders, which has led to their worsening

performance. To cut cost, they start to lay off workers and cut salaries, forcing workers to leave.

Decrease of workers has affected business of restaurants, stores and entertainment businesses in

the industrial zones. Such ripple effect has also in turn affected community life of migrant

workers.

2. Features of migrant workers returning home prematurely (for abnormal

reasons)

24.80%

20.30%

45.80%

8.50%

3%

no extra work,

lower pay

harder to do

business

harder to find

jobs

lose job no impact

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The survey subjects of the 422 valid questionnaires include both migrant workers who came back

home or remained in cities for normal reasons and those who came back home prematurely (for

abnormal reasons). 161 of them came back prematurely for abnormal reasons, accounting for 38%

of the total, with 112 males, 69.6%, and 46 females, 30%. 239 did not come back prematurely,

accounting for 57%, with 144 males, 60.3%, and 95 females, 39.8%. 5% of them are difficult to

determine whether they came back for normal or abnormal reasons (Figure 9).

Figure 9: prematurely or not

The investigation also reveals that of the migrant workers who returned home prematurely, 22.4%

were working on production lines; 24.8% were technical workers; 19.9% were construction

workers; 8% were employed in the service sector; 7.5% were doing small businesses and

managers; 8.7% were salesmen; 1.9% were clerks (Figure 10). It is easy to find that migrant

workers who came back prematurely mainly come from various sectors, but we can also find that

the financial crisis has penetrated into all sectors. In the context of economic integration, no

industry can be isolated from the economic chain, and be immune from the impact of the crisis

prematurely, 38%

not prematurely,

57%

difficult to

determine, 5%

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33

Figure 10: distribution of migrant workers coming back prematurely

0.00%

5.00%

10.00%

15.00%

20.00%

25.00%

30.00%

production

line

technical const ruction service small business magagement sales clerical work

According to the research, compared with previous return time, 29.8% came back within 7 days

earlier; 24.8% 8 days to 15 days earlier; 9.3% 16 to 30 days earlier; 13.7% 30 to 60 days earlier;

10.6% over 60 days earlier (Figure 11). The collective feedback from the subjects is that coming

back at the end of 2008 was a significant phenomenon. Before that, they would usually come back

within one week before the Spring Festival, but before the 2008 Spring Festival, nearly 60% of

migrant workers came back home nearly 2 weeks earlier. They attributed their early return directly

or indirectly to the financial crisis. For example, a migrant worker from Anhui was doing a

business of collecting waste cloth. Due to the financial crisis, the garment factories’ orders had

fallen, so their business was also indirectly affected. Without waste cloth to collect, he had to go

back home early.

Figure 11: days earlier than before

When it comes to the reasons for coming back earlier, 29.2% returned because of shutdown;

within 7 days,

29.80%

8-15 days,

24.80%

16-30 days,

9.30%

30-60 days,

13.70%

over 60 days,

10.60%

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34

24.8% because of lower pay, so they abandoned jobs to go back home. From this we can see that

migrant workers are quite flexible. When their jobs can not meet their needs, they will choose

other options, and flow to places with more opportunities. Of the subjects we investigated, 4.4%

had been dismissed. Our in-depth interviews show that some companies didn’t fully shoulder their

social responsibility and the labor rights of some laid off workers were not fully protected. It is

noteworthy that 6.8% of migrant workers were attracted back by preferential policies to start their

own business. They learnt information of preferential policies from the media. If the media hype

these preferential policies so that a large number of migrant workers are blindly optimistic about

going back, they will face higher business risk in this context of economic recession. Once they

fail, their life will be more difficult, causing greater pressure on cities and countryside. 8.7% chose

to go back because of the cold weather. These people were mostly working on construction sites in

north China (Figure 12). Now we can come to the conclusion that the financial crisis has affected

the performance of factories, which explains why they didn’t have work to do and most of them

went back home earlier. The rising prices forced them to leave cities, as what they can earn is not

enough to make ends meet when their pay has been cut. This is the main reason for migrant

workers going back prematurely.

Figure 12: reasons for coming back earlier

When asked about how they perceive the premature return of migrant workers, 65.8% of the

premature-return workers believe they are forced to go back ahead of time because of the financial

crisis, while 53.6% of those who didn’t go back earlier; 15.5% consider it normal in the context of

a financial crisis, while 22.6% of those who didn’t go back earlier. The migrant workers have

associated financial crisis with their early return, but they don’t think premature return is the

natural consequence of the financial crisis. 13% think it’s attributed to low performance and

bankruptcy of their employers, while 12.1% of those who didn’t go back ahead of time; 11.8%

believe it’s because of personal affairs instead of the financial crisis, while 7.5% of those who

didn’t go back earlier. 6.8% say it’s because of the chilly weather that they went back earlier,

while 6.3% of those who went back ahead of time (Figure 13). The above data and views show

shutdown and

premature leave,

29.20%

lower pay,

24.80%

losing jobs, 4.40%

preferential

politicies, 6.80%

cold weather,

8.70%

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35

that the migrant workers going back earlier are more or less affected by the financial crisis. Of

course, we cannot rule out some extraordinary reasons like icy weather in north China, as one

migrant worker said, “We were working in Yantai, Shangdong, the weather this year is much

colder than previous years. We were not allowed to work, so we came back.” For those working

on construction sites in north, such early return is just a seasonal thing.

Figure 13: perception of early return of migrant workers

0.00%

10.00%

20.00%

30.00%

40.00%

50.00%

60.00%

70.00%

forced to be

back by

financial

crisis

normal thing

in financial

crisis

low-

performance

of factories

and shutdown

personal

affairs

cold weather

coming back earlier

not coming back earlier

Challenges and confusion after coming back

1. Migrant workers who came back for abnormal reasons

The investigation reveals that of the migrant workers who came back earlier, 57.1% say they face

the same employment challenges in hometown as outside; 33.5% say they have not tried to learn

about employment after coming back; 5.6% say it’s easier to find a job in hometown. The in-depth

interviews show that the places from which migrant workers are coming are lacking in job

opportunities, so there is a limited supply of jobs to those who come back, even when there is no

financial crisis. The 5.6% data shows that job opportunities in inland areas have risen these years,

and migrant workers have shown geographical diversity in terms of employment.

When asked about their knowledge of preferential policies and service support, the investigation

reveals that 34.8% of the survey subjects say they have no ideas; 22.4% know about the micro

credit provided by their hometown to support starting a business; 15% know regular employment

information is provided; 12.4% know starting one’s own business is encouraged and technical

support is offered; 13.7% say they know free employment training is available; 8.1% understand

they have simplified procedures to go through if they want to start a business; 25.5% say their

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36

hometowns don’t have any form of support.

When asked about the effect of these preferential polices and services, 36% worry that they are

nothing but a show without any effect; 34.2% consider such information important and helpful;

21.1% think they have no effect and help on them (Figure 14). A volunteer from Anhui has learnt

from his interview with 8 migrant workers that they have little knowledge of preferential policies

of competent authorities of their hometown. They just learnt on TV that the local government had

sent a letter to migrant workers who had come back, but this letter had no actual help. “It’s all

slogans, without any use. If they really want to do something effective, they should come down to

the towns and villages to provide training. What’s the point of reading a letter on TV?” Most of

migrant workers return to rural communities rather than to cities, so implementation of

employment policies should find ways and approaches suitable to migrant workers. What they are

mostly concerned about is that such policies are only a slogan and a show.

Figure 14: evaluation of preferential policies of hometowns by migrant workers coming back

The migrant workers whose work has been affected after coming back are more in desperate need

of external help. The investigation shows that 74.5% of them have never been trained; 17.4% have

(Figure 15). Of those who have been trained, 14.9% have received technical training; 11.8% have

received employment information service; 10.6% have been trained in starting their own business;

3.7% in laws; 6.8% in inter-personal relationships and skills in living and farming; 1.2% in health

(including occupational health); 3.1% in adaptability to urban life; 2.5% in life and career

planning (Figure 16). The overall statistics show that most of the migrant workers retuning home

have not enjoyed services from competent departments. The services they have received are

mainly provided in the form of training, which is mainly related to career and skills. Training in

law, health, and adaptability to urban life and the like is lacking.

just a show, 36%

important and

helpful, 34.20%

no effect on me,

21.10%

little knowledge,

8.70%

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Figure 15: whether participated in training provided by government after coming back

Figure 16: content of training provided to migrant workers coming back earlier

0.00%

2.00%

4.00%

6.00%

8.00%

10.00%

12.00%

14.00%

16.00%

vocational

skills

employment

information

business

start-up

skills

legal

information

career

palnning

healthcare

skills

living skills farming

skills

inter-person

relations

adaptability

to urban life

The questionnaires show that after coming back, the migrant workers are vague about what to do

in 2009, and such people account for 53.4%; 42.2% consider it difficult to seek employment; 23%

find themselves more used to urban life rather than rural life; 6.2% have no farmland at home;

3.1% have no houses after coming back; 6.8% have to find new schools for their children after

return (Figure 17).

yes, 17.40%

no, 74.50%

not clear, 8.10%

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Figure 17: major challenges to migrant workers coming back earlier

0.00%

10.00%

20.00%

30.00%

40.00%

50.00%

60.00%

difficult to

find jobs

confused

about future

no land no shelter schooling of

children

inability to

adapt to

former life

others or no

challenges

When it comes to challenges to the development of migrant workers back in their hometown,

44.1% say they cannot make money; 37.3% have no start-up fund; 33.5% find it hard to find jobs;

29.2% don’t know what to do; 18% are unable to adapt themselves to interpersonal relationship;

25.5% feel more opportunities in city than in isolated rural communities; 4.4% feel bored staying

at home; 1.2% find their children unable to adjust to rural life.

When it comes to the most needy training for migrant workers, 51.6% choose practical skills;

32.3% business start-up guidance; 22.4% legal education; 16.8% inter-personal relations; 12.4%

living skills; 13% healthcare skills; 14.3% how to adapt to city life; 15.5% farming skills; 5.6%

career planning (Figure 18). Their needs of vocational skills training come from their expectation

of a better life with support of skills. Mastery of a good skill is a guarantee for their employment

and pay rise.

Figure 18: The most needed training for migrant workers coming back

0.00%

10.00%

20.00%

30.00%

40.00%

50.00%

60.00%

pract ical

skills

business

start-up

legal

educat ion

inter-

personal

relat ions

living skills healthcare adaptability

to urban

life

farming

skills

career

planning

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39

The investigation reveals that in migrant workers’ view the most effective way to alleviate or

eradicate impact of the financial crisis is to create more jobs, and 34.2% of them think this way;

24.8% think local governments should provide preferential support; 16.2% believe better

agricultural production conditions should be created; 26% argue that the central government

should take more measures beneficial to farmers; 17.4% maintain that the rural-urban social

security system should be improved; 23.6% hold that more business start-up opportunities should

be generated; 13% think that macro economic policies should be strengthened to stimulate

domestic market demand; 9.3% believe that public services should be strengthened (Figure 19).

Figure 19: ways to alleviate or eradicate the impact of the crisis in the eyes of migrant

workers

0.00%

5.00%

10.00%

15.00%

20.00%

25.00%

30.00%

35.00%

40.00%

creation of

jobs

local

government

support

improvement

of agricultural

production

conditions

more benefits

to farmers

improvement

of urban-rural

social security

more business

start-up

opportunities

preferential

policies and

stimulation of

domestic

demand

improvement

of public

services

The figures above show migrant workers’ expectation of policies formulated by the government.

Their priority is to find a job. The in-depth interviews reveal that the basic need of migrant

workers who have come back is that “these preferential policies can be truly implemented, and the

benefits can be brought to them. Only the policies that can be put into practice are favorable to

us.” In our investigation, we can feel that they are reliant on these policies, but meanwhile suspect

whether these policies can be executed effectively in the basic level.

2. Migrant workers who didn’t come back earlier (came back for normal reasons

or remained in cities)

Of the migrant workers who came back for normal reasons or remained in cities, 45.6% feel that

the employment situation back in their hometown is as terrible as outside and it is difficult to find

jobs; 39.8% don’t know much about the employment situation; 6.7% believe it is easier to get a

job in hometown than in city.

In terms of preferential policies and services directed at migrant workers, 39.8% say they know

nothing about it; 17.2% say their hometowns don’t have any form of policy support; 18.4% know

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40

micro credit is available in hometown; 12.1% know their hometowns encourage starting one’s

own business and provide technical support; 6.3% say their hometowns provide regular

employment information; 9.2% know their hometowns offer free employment training; 5% say

their hometowns have simplified procedures for starting their own business.

With regard to the effect of these policies, 31% say they don’t have any effect or help to them;

27.6% consider them very important; 24.7% worry they are just a show (Figure 20).

Figure 20: evaluation of preferential policies of hometowns by migrant workers who didn’t

come back earlier

The biggest challenges to them can be shown by the following figures: 36% feel unclear about

what to do next year; 30.5% find it difficult to get jobs; 24.3% are unable to adjust to rural life

(Figure 21). Migrant workers remain vague about the economic landscape in a new year, and they

need more support to recover their confidence. These figures also explain why some of them give

up the idea of celebrating the Spring Festival at home because they worry it will be more difficult

to find jobs the next year, so they must retain their current jobs. At the same time, over one third of

migrant workers who didn’t come back earlier or came back for private affairs have common

confusion: what to do and where to go in the coming year. Therefore, it is vital for society and

companies to train and care for these people. The efforts should be scaled up to care for mental

well-being, plan career and the sense of belonging of migrant workers.

just a show,

24.70%

important and

helpful, 27.60%

no effect, 31%

uncertain,

16.70%

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Figure 21: challenges conceived of by migrant workers who didn’t come back earlier

0.00%

5.00%

10.00%

15.00%

20.00%

25.00%

30.00%

35.00%

40.00%

difficult to

find jobs

confused about

future life

no land at

home

no shelter at

home

schooling of

children

inability to

adjust to rural

life

others or no

challenges

When it comes to the development of migrant workers in hometown, of them who didn’t come

back earlier, 35.6% think their hometowns are isolated without as many opportunities as in cities;

27.2% think they cannot earn money; 25.1% are in lack of start-up fund; 23.4% don’t know what

to do; 17.2% feel it more difficult to seek employment back in hometown. One of these reasons or

a combination of these reasons contributes to the outflow of migrant workers, particularly

second-generation migrant workers, to seek development opportunities outside rather than in their

own hometowns, which is a realistic idea and a rational practice. The rural-urban imbalance has

impeded urbanization and modernization of China.

When it comes to their training needs, 37.7% are in much need of practical skills for seeking job

opportunities; 28% choose business start-up guidance; 24.3% legal education; 19.7%

inter-personal relations. Their needs are consistent with those who came back earlier, which are

their common needs. Their top-priority option is to get income and better development. Many of

them said in our interviews that “those working away from home are usually bread winners.

Without them, life will be much difficult, so they must learn some skills. Physical strengthen

cannot earn you much.” In the meantime, we have seen migrant workers confused about their

future and development, which proves that vocational skills training alone can not completely

meet the development needs of migrant workers.

When it comes to the most effective way of eradicating the financial crisis, of the migrant workers

who didn’t come back earlier, 19.7% choose stimulating initiatives of local governments; 30.1%

generation of more jobs; 26.4% creation of more business start-up opportunities; 22.2% more

central preferential policies; 20.5% improved conditions for agricultural production; 14.2%

improvement of urban-rural social security system; 18.8% stimulation of domestic demand

through macro policy adjustment; 10.5% betterment of social services (Figure 22). Their views are

compatible with those of migrant workers who came back earlier, which indicates that their urgent

need is to acquire equal employment opportunities, as this is the basic guarantee for their living.

For the second-generation migrant workers, land is no longer a part of their living experience.

Their needs and pursuits are moving to a higher level, which also explains why many migrant

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42

workers prefer to remain in cities looking for jobs than go back to their hometown.

Figure 22: the effective way of eradicating the crisis in the eyes of migrant workers who

didn’t come back earlier

0.00%

5.00%

10.00%

15.00%

20.00%

25.00%

30.00%

35.00%

generation of

jobs

local

government

support

better

conditions for

agricultural

production

more

preferential

policies to

farmers

better urban-

rural social

security

more business

start-up

opportunities

policy

adjustment to

stimulate

internal

demand

better social

services

Future planning

After the Spring Festival, 59.3% choose going back to cities to seek employment; 13.2% staying

at home for a while to wait and see; 7% finding a job in local places; 12.3% starting their own

business; 3.3% learning a skill before going out; 2.1% farming at home (Figure 23). We can see

that seeking jobs in cities remains the first choice for them.

Figure 23: migrant workers’ planning for post-Spring Festival

0.00%

10.00%

20.00%

30.00%

40.00%

50.00%

60.00%

70.00%

go back to city find a job locally farm the land start a business wait and see learn a skill

before going out

others

Of those who don’t plan to go out again, 20.3% want to start their business; 18.4% think there is

too much competition in job-hunting in cities; 18% argue that high income is offset by high prices;

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17.2% choose to stay in countryside because they enjoy preferential policies and attention from

the central government; 15.6% maintain that they cannot find a job in cities in the context of this

financial crisis; 15.4% want to make their mind after the economy has become stable; 13.5%

maintain that working locally can enable them to take care of their family while making money;

8.8% choose to work in cities in future, rain or shine.

Of those who still want to go back to cities, 28.4% think that despite the crisis, there are more

opportunities for development in cities than in their hometown; 23.9% think their hometown is

futureless, so it is better to stay in cities; 18% believe that the financial crisis will not affect their

seeking jobs in cities; 13.2% still have jobs with their former employers, so they will go back;

11.4% hold that “Although there are preferential policies in countryside, but they have nothing to

do with me. You have to rely on yourself to improve your life”; 10.2% choose going back to get

back their defaulted payment. These figures tell us that the migrant workers are still keen to go

back to cities, and that many migrant workers still suffer from defaulted payment of salary, which

means there is much room for improvement in the protection of labor rights of migrant workers.

When it comes to their willingness to seek development in cities if conditions warrant, 40.4%

choose to stay in cities because of more opportunities and rapid development; 22% want to create

better growth conditions for their children; 17.7% for fulfilled and enriched life in cities; 13.7%

because of attraction of urban complete infrastructure.

24.4% are not willing to seek development in cities, believing they are rooted in the countryside,

where they have better sense of belonging, while in cities they face higher pressure from living,

high prices, expensive houses and inter-personal indifference. Whatever decisions they make, we

should respect them, and create a unified and fair playing ground for development so that these

people can have diversified channels of development.

As for work and life planning for the 2 years ahead, 32.4% have adjusted their plans because of

the financial crisis; 22.9% think their plans have been affected by the crisis, but the effect is not

significant; 15.4% think their plans have not been affected; 26.5% don’t have clear plans.

As for their planning for the coming year, 27.4% think they will be significantly impacted by the

financial crisis, suffering falling income and living standards; 18% believe they are immune from

external factors; 40.9% think everything is unpredictable, it could be worse or better, or no change

at all. These figures tell us that quite a few farmers have not thought about the financial crisis

thoroughly, as evidenced by the words said by one of them, “I have to live, no matter with or

without the financial crisis. I have to go back to cities. If not, who’s going to raise my family and

fund my children’s schooling?” The investigation shows that the migrant workers are passive in

seeking development, and they have trouble in predicting and planning their future.

When asked about their confidence in response to the impact of the financial crisis on their life

and work, 39.2% say they have full confidence in future and that the financial crisis will go soon;

14.7% think it will last two or three years, and has bigger impact on cities than on countryside;

22.7% think it has equal impact on cities and countryside; 7.3% think the impact of the crisis is

too big for the economy to recover; 15.6% think they are just the same as before (Figure 24).

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Interviews with individuals show that most of the migrant workers are still full of expectations

about their future. They may not understand what the financial crisis will bring to them, but they

believe they can improve their life with their hands.

Figure 24: the impact of financial crisis in the eyes of migrant workers

Recommendations

Life Goes On (Part 3)

A Report of Financial Crisis from the Perspective of Migrant Workers

(Recommendations)

Project Team of Beijing CCCF

Based on the questionnaires and interviews as well as our many years of experience of serving

migrant workers, we offer our following findings and recommendations:

Findings and recommendations

1. Finding: Compared with the statistics of the report on the status of migrant workers in Beijing,

Guangdong and Qingdao, the proportion of migrant workers that have received the education of

Evaluation of the impact of the financial crisis by migrant workers

39%

15%

23%

7%

16%

Confident, believing the crisis

will go soon

The crisis will persist, having bigger impact on city and no impact on countryside

The crisis generates equal impact on city and countryside

The impact is too big for the economy to recover within a couple of years

Nothing special, same as before

Page 45: Life Goes On

45

senior high school, secondary technical school or vocational school has grown by 10 percentage

points within 5 years. The first choice for rural young people after graduating from or quitting

school is to seek employment in city. The young people from densely populated central and west

China also take it as their first option to find jobs in coastal big cities.

Recommendation: The whole society should take actions to change people’s perception of

migrant workers that they are just cheap labor, and misperception that they are uncultured and

poorly educated, so that migrant workers can increase their awareness of their own value, hence

increasing their drive to participate in social development.

2. Finding: Thanks to long-term preference of industry over agriculture, there is now a clear trend

that migrant workers move their whole family to cities to work. The proportion of migrant

workers that have worked away from home for more than 5 years is also rising. Their needs are

not merely limited to employment, but cover all aspects of urban life.

Recommendation: The change in composition of migrant workers requires the city to change the

mindset that they are just temporary urban residents, and to create an equal community

environment so that migrant workers can also be covered by urban community service. Reforms

of traditional static community service methodology will not only meet the development needs of

migrant workers, but also contribute to sustainable development of urbanization. At the same time,

the township and village authorities should scale up efforts to provide public service to old people

and children left behind to ease pressure on migrant workers.

3. Finding: The migrant workers employed in the secondary industry suffer the biggest impact

from the global financial crisis, particularly those employed in the export-oriented labor-intensive

companies, which have cut work time significantly, given long leaves or laid off workers.

However, the financial crisis has not shown obvious impact on agriculture and countryside. The

migrant workers in coastal areas are also highly affected, whereas those in inland are not

significantly affected.

Recommendation: While supporting development of rural communities and migrant workers

coming back, we should also diversify employment channels in coastal regions, and provide

psychological interventions to migrant workers. Besides, the legal labor rights of migrant workers

must be protected to avoid strained relations and conflicts between employers and employees

arising from downsizing or falling income.

4. Finding: The direct impact of the financial crisis is migrant workers’ lower income and

unemployment. In the mean time, the investigation shows that compensation for extra work is also

a major source of income for migrant workers.

Recommendation: The financial crisis has led to falling job opportunities, but the main reason for

migrant workers’ giving up their jobs is reduced income and earnings not enough to cover

expenses. Therefore, to raise the minimum salary standards of migrant workers and set up a

minimum living standards scheme will not clash with employment promotion, but contribute to

stable employment of migrant workers, build their capacity in handling fluctuations arising from

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abnormal factors, stimulate rural and urban consumption, and reduce additional human resources

cost arising from abnormal turnover of workers for companies.

5. Finding: Within the past 5 years, the average salary of migrant workers has grown moderately,

but with rising prices both in city and countryside, the second generation migrant workers have to

invest more in acquiring new skills for employment. As a result, they have higher expectations for

their income level. On the other hand, the intra-group income gap is also widening.

Recommendation: We should also allocate more resources to sectors such as health, education,

transport, postal service, and business in the industrial zones where migrant workers concentrate

to cut living cost for them. Meanwhile, we should further segment low-income migrant workers

and give them tailored preferential policies and social services.

6. Finding: The places from which migrant workers come usually lack job opportunities, so there

are very limited jobs for migrant workers coming back in this context of financial crisis. As a

result, going back to city remains the first choice for migrant workers. However, with rapid

development of information service, migrant workers now can use mobile phone, internet and

other means for communication, which has extended their social network, hence more job options.

When a place can not meet their needs, they will flow to other places with more options, so the

places and sectors in which they work will be further diversified.

Recommendation: Apart from policy and service for migrant workers coming back, we should

also strengthen service support to migrant workers that choose to stay in cities so that they can

better adapt themselves to the urban life and find opportunities for self-development. Besides, we

should also provide help and support to those needy migrant workers. Protection and support of

migrant workers in non-formal sectors should also be enhanced. While safeguarding safety and

health of migrant workers, city management should also be committed to creating a relaxing

service environment and avoid interference in self-employment in community economy.

7. Finding: Although migrant workers suffer falling salary and unemployment due to the financial

crisis, they don’t regard it as a grave crisis. They are adjusting themselves to minimize the impact

from the crisis.

Recommendation: Instead of providing service to migrant workers with a mindset of sympathy,

we should value the initiative of migrant workers and create channels for migrant workers to

participate in social service and economic development. The views of migrant workers should also

be enlisted, their wisdom and experience valued, so that migrant workers can be part of social

service, self-management and innovation.

8. Finding: Due to the financial crisis, the government has introduced many preferential policies.

The advertisement of the media has also aroused the enthusiasm of migrant workers to start their

own business. A small portion of them are optimistic about quitting their jobs and starting their

own business in hometown.

Recommendation: While the economy has not walked out of the recession, migrant workers will

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face higher risk of failure when conditions of starting a business are not mature. Once they fail,

their life will be in deeper difficulty, which will cause bigger pressure for both rural and urban

communities. Therefore, information guidance should be enhanced to help migrant workers who

are ready to start a business so that they can be aware of risks involved. The financial system

should also be reformed, encouraging commercial banks to provide micro credit, with or without

guarantee, to migrant workers with the support of communities, social organizations, and trade

unions.

9. Finding: The attention of the central government and a series of supportive policies have

encouraged migrant workers and warmed their hearts, and some achievements have been made as

a result. In the mean time, implementation of certain policies is not compatible with needs of

migrant workers. While showing faith in and reliance on government policies, migrant workers

also doubt whether the grassroots governments can really put these policies into practice.

Recommendation:

We should encourage the private sector to participate in public service in the form of government

purchase and public bidding to maximize effectiveness of resources. Various social forces should

also be encouraged to participate in supervision and management. An open evaluation system

should be set up, particularly for services to migrant workers. Establishment of NGOs and

non-profit organizations should be encouraged to beef up professional social workers. In this case,

a bottom-up participatory service model based on migrant workers’ needs and policy

implementation can be established.

10. Finding: Migrant workers are passive in seeking self-development, and they can hardly

predict and grasp their future. They are all confused about their future and development. Most of

them just wait and see.

Recommendation:

When paying attention to the promotion of migrant works’ employment and skills, social sector

and companies should focus on the mental health of migrant workers and strengthen their ability

of career planning. Though the urban-rural integration institutional reform, try to intensify migrant

workers’ sense of safety, development participation and belonging.

(Special thanks to strong support from Nanjing Community Development Center for

Facilitators and Zhuhai Social Work and Education Promotion Center for Facilitators, and

to migrant workers for their voluntary service: Han Jin, Zhang Yanyan, Li Deshu, Qian

Chuanbiao, Yan Xiang, Wang Yinglin, Zhang Weiwei, Wang Haiying, Sun Zhenliang, Wang

Ruihai, Wang Shuangkui, Zhang Linghang, Gong Li’e, Gong Jiaru, Li Xia, Li Mingyu and

other volunteers. )

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…………………………………………………………………………………………………

Migrant workers are “cheap labor”, but more community residents;

Migrant workers are “disadvantaged groups”, but more constructive groups with huge

potential.

What Should We Think about in Face of the Financial Crisis?

By Li Tao

There is a game that help us find what is most worth doing but which is easily ignored by us: ask

yourself what is it that you value most when a catastrophe comes. The answer will be your most

critical and most vulnerable thing in your life.

Society is like life. The past decade has witnessed two nationwide catastrophes in China: one is

SARS that happened 6 years ago, and the other is today’s global financial crisis that has impacted

our economy. We all can not help thinking of the migrant workers in these two disasters.

From SARS to financial crisis, we see various social communities lending their hands, different

media agencies showing their concerns. Those words like care, better treatment and strengthen are

all colored with worries: “Will migrant workers lead to social instability?”

This is not the first time to treat migrant workers as one of the social instability factors, a group

that is likely spiral out of control.

But in reality, migrant workers are the ones who can not find jobs or get cash income in their

hometowns. They are the jobless, but they choose to leave their home to earn a decent life with

their hands. If they want to steal or rob, why not stomach such dishonors?

Not a single farmer spends the money from selling their pigs going to cities just for robbery.

Mobile population is a broad category. We must separate migrant workers from mobile criminals.

Common sense tells us that most of migrant workers are moral people. They don’t make any

trouble even if their salary has been defaulted for a whole year. However, people will make a fuss

over it if they crowd to the street for getting back their money. The investigation reveals a

common feature of migrant workers: if they cannot find a job within 3 weeks or one month, they

will go to other cities or back home. They don’t want to idle around in the street for a simple

reason: if the people from their hometown know it, they will feel humiliated after coming back

home. In a village where everybody knows each other, traditional ethics or customs are still

effective. This group of people really value their dignity and reputation.

Likewise, no farmer will commit crimes back in their hometown just because they cannot find a

job outside, which is also a common sense. In the past few years, there have been formed

traditional moral standards, which govern their words and deeds. They are not mobile population

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in the countryside, but have strong sense of belonging after coming back. It is their norm that they

never harm their neighbors. By contrast, it is reported recently that a farmer chose to commit

suicide after failing to find a job and having his money stolen, rather than, as some people think,

rob or take revenge. Giving up life is the last fight. I will have nothing to say if blood still cannot

change our stereotype.

Common sense also tells us that migrant workers are the real victims of the global financial crisis,

which is really a mockery for us.

An official from a township government told us that what farmers fear is not poverty, but inequity.

In other words, what they fear is not hardship or suffering, but injustice. Influenced by the urban

culture, migrant workers put justice and morality first in dealing with and judging things and

people, so injustice is the key factor that may turn migrant worker into a cause of instability.

We must warn ourselves against some people making up a myth of an economic miracle created

by migrant workers coming back. These people also take migrant workers as economically

irrational and non-pioneering ones. More than 10 years ago, some people introduced the concept

of building a nest to attract a phoenix, or the concept of encouraging starting businesses to attract

migrant workers to come back to promote development. However, what is really in their mind is

how to prevent migrant workers from competing for jobs with urban residents and how to ensure

employment of urban laid-off workers.

Now let’s be rational. Those who are able to start their own businesses have done it, and those

who are not will not be able to make it just because there is the financial crisis.

Market economy creates desires. It is the dream of migrant workers to become a boss. After living

in the low class for so many years, no other groups can have the strong desire comparable to that

of migrant workers to improve their social status through rise in their vocational status. After

flowing to the city, all of them have a dream of starting their own business, and will decisively do

so when conditions are mature. In fact, from countryside to city, more than 60% of the small

businesses, like grocery stores and stuffed buns shops, are run by migrant workers. Early return of

migrant workers is an abnormal phenomenon, as migrant workers who are able to start a business

have done it long before, while those not equipped with conditions are still not able to do it. By

contrast, public opinions, coupled with unemployment pressure, will make some originally

indecisive people start a business too early. For those migrant workers who don’t have adequate

conditions to do so, if they start a business because it is harder to find a job, they will face higher

risks while our economy remains in recession. Once they fail, their life will plunge into bigger

trouble.

We should also be cautious of the belief that starting a business is a panacea. When the financial

crisis is shown by deteriorating unemployment and we call on people to help migrant workers find

jobs, we should be more aware whether we are merely addressing the symptoms rather than root

causes or we treat migrant workers as vulnerable ones and ourselves as saviors. It is not the first

time to treat migrant workers as ones who lack initiatives. We have called for establishment of a

rule-based labor market for more than 20 years, but we can never stop the orderless flow of

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migrant workers.

For more than 2 decades, most of migrant workers find jobs on their own, or through the help of

their friends or relatives. They rely on themselves to find jobs, while migrant workers who rely on

competent departments are no more than 10%. For a very long term, we think we have helped

migrant workers find jobs, but the reality is that it is migrant workers who have innovated in our

employment model.

This is all common sense. In an era stuffed with theories and information, we need to use our

common sense to find out what is wrong with our life. A man just packs his luggage, says

goodbye to his hometown, and then go to a strange place to seek employment for earning money

to raise himself and his family members. He or she has to rent a room, see a doctor, identify

various traps, and tolerate offense. Such a person is really a wise, courageous and respectable one.

The issue is that such people is not alone, but exist in hundreds of millions. They are not only

changing their own destiny, but also facilitating reforms of a nation. Their contribution is not only

shown in socio-economic development, but also in innovation of social institutions such as

changes in employment model, education of mobile children, social culture, and rural-urban

imbalance. There exists huge potential behind this so-called vulnerable group. They don’t need

sympathy or compassion, but a level playing ground. Only when we grasp this point can we

understand the dominant role played by migrant workers in China’s urbanization process.

We need to search our heart: for whom do we seek development? When we pursue rising wealth

indicators, do we also attach equal weight to establishment of a social security network that also

covers the people living on the lowest social ladder? We are not opposing individuals getting

unlimited wealth, but we must ensure that each disadvantaged person can be guaranteed a

minimum standard of living. We have had expectations of cross-regional shifting of social security

for so long that we are still expecting inter-provincial shifting of social security after the

commercial insurance companies have gone global.

We need to search our heart: what is wrong with our financial system? When we invest money to

help those global top 500, why do we pay no attention to impoverished people in need of money?

We are not opposing giving financial assistance to the already strong, but at least we should meet

the most basic capital needs of poor people for development. If we think poor people are not

creditworthy, then where is the credit of those who have caused huge wealth to evaporate and

finally this unprecedented financial crisis?

We need to search our heart: what is wrong with our industrial system? When we are introducing

various preferential policies to attract elite, why do we take no notice of migrant population that

have lived in cities for 10-plus years? We complained “there’s no one selling vegetables after

migrant workers go back home.” Today we finally find that “nobody come to rent our house or

buy our goods after migrant workers are all gone.” Sell and buy are only two words, but what lies

behind these two words are widely different roles of cheap labor and consumers. If we are

cautious and repulsive of our neighbors in our community, then these neighbors will not love this

community. When this community suffers from a disaster, they will flee faster than anyone else

does. Only when a city takes migrant workers as its family members, they will in turn take the city

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as their home, and share the difficulty with the city. It is also the case for both countryside and the

whole country.

We need to search our heart: what is wrong with our governance? While we are trying to change

the government functions to enhance the role of market, do we need to attach equal importance to

development needs of a third sector? We need a strong government and free economical market,

but we also need to fill the void between government and business. In other words, a stable nation

is just like a stool supported by three legs: first is government; second business; third social

organizations. When the stool collapses, the victims are not only the people around it, but also the

people sitting on it. In this sense, development of the third sector and social organizations is not

only the aspiration of marginal and needy people, but also the common need of social

development.

We need to search our heart: what is wrong with our social services? While we are allocating

more resources into public services, do we value the effectiveness of services? The focus of

China’s reforms has shift from economic issues to people’s livelihood. The traditional static social

service mode can not meet the requirements of a highly mobile and stratified society. Innovation

of social services requires support from technologies, expertise, community and private sector.

The key issue is to develop social organizations to promote social work and open social services

so that government-dominated social services can be translated into specialized social services.

Besides, the services totally provided by the government should also be replaced by social

services with participation of all social communities. The top-down social service model should

also be translated into bottom-up participatory model.

We also need to search our heart: what is wrong with our policy implementation? Often, we need

the whole people to reach consensus on an issue. This is not a problem, but the problem is that we

put too much stress on all social sectors taking unified action to handle a problem in order to show

our high attention on it. Is it the fact that we still want to settle social problems through campaigns

or slogans rather than technology, methodology and concept? Faced with the financial crisis,

solving employment problem and promoting employment seem to have become the priority of all

the agencies. As a matter of fact, if all the departments and organizations want to fulfill its roles

allocated by the society, this will be the best solution to the problem. “The national policies are

quite helpful, but they are distorted at the grassroots level.” This reflects that migrant workers

have faith in policies, but they doubt whether the grassroots-level authorities can really translate

these policies into actions. Migrant workers are a rational group. They try to seek truth from facts

and practices, and use practical, measurable and achievable indicators to measure the effectiveness

of policies. This common sense-like wisdom can never be reached by the elite working in

specialized rating agencies.

We are all equal before a disaster. The measure of a social stability and harmony is not what kind

of treatment that the elite has received, but whether the basic rights of people living on the lowest

ladder are protected. Only when a disaster comes can we feel we are all equal. SARS and this

global financial crisis have turned all of us into victims, from elite in the Wall Street to workers on

the production lines. In this sense, we should not treat ourselves as saviors in face of vulnerable

groups and migrant workers. We all need to be saved. This is also a common-sense judgment.

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Our task is to build a social security system that can benefit all the people, set up a fair and open

employment system, establish a more helpful financial credit system, and develop social

organizations and promote social work. The rest can be handled by migrant workers themselves. If

we don’t have a better way, then it would be better for us to adopt a laissez-faire way. We trust

that they will develop better.

To learn lessons from each crisis is the best positive attitude for us. However, forgetting the pain

after the wound has healed seems to be our attitude towards each crisis and lessons.

Policy reforms can be achieved overnight, and innovation in social service model will also take a

certain time, but the cultural and psychological difference due to rural-urban separation and

income-gap, coupled with hierarchical awareness, can never be solved without many years of

efforts.

Better late than never. Now we are in an age when our society is unprecedentedly open. We all

advocate a scientific outlook on development that puts people first. We continue to take care of

the rights and interest of those people living at the lowest stratum of this society. It is our belief

that the financial crisis will go, as did SARS. The CPPCC and NPC are being held, and we will

have unprecedented development opportunities in future.

Various forms of crisis will always exist. Human progress is not achieved by how long we have

existed or how many events we have experienced, but how much we remember and how much we

have learnt.