China’s migrant population has reached 150
million, 11.5 percent of the total, according to the State Population
and Family Planning Commission. And only 7.6 percent of migrant workers eking out a living in the country’s
cities are satisfied with their lives, a recent survey by Shanghai’s
Fudan University showed.

The survey, which polled 30,000 migrant workers
in major Chinese cities, found that 68 percent believed the urbanites
did not fully accept the workers – if at all.

There are about 200 million migrant workers
across the country, filling up positions in urban areas that urbanites
reportedly shun and amid a growing income gap between rich and poor.

The survey also showed that working overtime was
common for migrant workers – more than 80 percent worked over eight
hours a day and 18 percent labored more than 10 hours. Only 16.4
percent of those polled had more than five days a month off, while 55
percent had less than two days off.

Working overtime with few holidays made migrant workers tire easily and could cause accidents, researchers said.

Exhaustion also meant migrant workers had little
time to study and in turn led to fewer job opportunities, the study
showed. All these factors made migrant workers dissatisfied with their
lives in cities, it concluded.

At the same time, the study showed that migrant
workers’ incomes rose. Their average monthly wage reached 1,200 yuan
($165) last year, a year-on-year increase of 200 yuan.

Still, 22.2 percent of migrant workers were
unable to save money because their incomes were just enough to cover
living expenses. About 44.6 percent said they hoped to continue to work
in cities, while 17 percent hoped to find jobs in Beijing or its
surrounding areas.

Joint circular

In a related development, five ministries led by
the Ministry of Construction issued a joint circular last week urging
for better housing conditions for migrant workers.

Employment units can choose to provide free
shelters or low-rent ones for workers, or they should pay a certain
amount of subsidy if workers arrange their own housing, the circular
stated.

If conditions permit, local governments or
employment units can also build houses specially tailored to migrant
workers’ living requirements.

Such building projects can be under preferential
policies designed for affordable housing and should be channeled to
migrant population at an acceptable rate, it was stated.

In development zones and industrial parks where
the migrant worker population is dense, local government should build
collective dorms.

The employment units are allowed to rent the
houses for their employees, or the workers can do so themselves, but
such houses should not be leased out or sold commercially.

A number of provinces and municipalities have
reportedly integrated housing considerations for local migrant
population into its overall city planning, such as Beijing, Chongqing
and Hunan.

A professor with Peking University, Liu Minquan, lauded the policies and called for more funding.

"Migrant workers have made great contributions to
the country’s social development, but at the same time have not enjoyed
the same rights as urbanites in many areas including medical services
and education," Liu told China Daily.

If authorities can direct more funds under strict
supervision to improvements in areas like housing, efforts to raise
migrant workers’ living conditions will achieve better efficiency, Liu
added.

Via China Daily