The Road to Urbanization

By XIN XIN

    MIGRANT workers born in the 1980s and 1990s have moved from the countryside to the cities, and many are being confronted with the contrast between their dreams and reality.

Migrant workers in a Beijing street waiting for a shuttle bus. Poor education means it is hard for them to integrate into the city.

Destination: the City

    The post-80s generation has become the majority of China's 130 million migrant workers. Although this generation mostly grew up in the countryside, they are not attached to farms – indeed some have never done farm work. The post-80s generation has generally grown up in a more affluent environment than any previous generation in China, especially the boys, who are often the apple of their parent's eyes. Compared to older generations, they have a higher level of education and most graduated from high school.

    The prevalence of TV has exposed them to the influences of urban lifestyles from a young age, and the Internet has given them access to almost the same level of information as their urban counterparts. The number of netizens in rural China doubled in 2007 to reach 52 million, most of them young. As a result of these changes, they are familiar with urban culture, and perhaps feel closer to it than to rural traditions. Furthermore, the majority of this generation has moved to the city soon after graduating from high school. For many rural youth, a stint working in the city is now their initiation into adulthood. Some very young "migrant" workers even grew up in urban areas, as the children of earlier waves of migrants.

    In contrast to much of the older generation, who merely worked in the city as a means of making money before returning to their hometown, many in the younger generation hope to become permanent city residents. However, according to Liu Chuanjiang, vice-dean of the Strategic Management Academy of Wuhan University, although younger migrant workers aren't really qualified to be farmers, they still face a big social and cultural gap to cross if they wish to live permanently in the city.

Crossing the Social and Cultural Chasm

    Young people with professional skills find it much easier to stay in urban areas. In Luotian County, Hubei Province, about 3,000 students each year graduate from vocational schools, and 95 percent of them are snapped up by big companies and enterprises. Tian Zhonghai was part of the first generation of migrant workers, and thinks his 23-year-old son Tian Bing has been very fortunate. "My son has never done any farm work, and he studied in a polytechnic school in the county after graduating from junior high school. With a diploma and skills he now works in Shenzhen and earns over RMB 4,000 per month, equal to what I make with several months of hard labor." Although exports of electronic products have been affected by the financial crisis, his son is in a large factory and still received his full end-of-year bonus. Presently he is striving with his new girlfriend to buy a small apartment in Shenzhen. Maybe one day they will indeed become permanent city dwellers.