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Sunday 7 February 2010
More young migrants give the reunion dinner a miss
Skyrocketing train fares, the ordeal of long journeys and the stress of meeting a parent’s expectations are keeping young migrants from going home for the Lunar New Year.
More young migrants give the reunion dinner a miss
Workers say going home is too expensive - and stressful
Fiona Tam 06 F 2010
Skyrocketing train fares, the ordeal of long journeys and the stress of meeting a parent’s expectations are keeping young migrants from going home for the Lunar New Year.
So widespread has this become that there is now a term to describe the collective dread of these overworked and underpaid workers: home-going phobia.
Tens of millions of migrants working in mainland cities are expected to begin leaving this weekend for home, where they will spend the Chinese calendar’s most important festival with their family. But state media said more and more young people - graduates on low incomes and assembly-line workers alike - are forgoing the joy of a reunion dinner.
In a poll of 700 office clerks from Shanghai, nearly 60 per cent of them complained that buying train tickets from scalpers and gifts for their family cost them one to two months’ salary. The expenses are discouraging them from returning home, they said in the survey conducted by the recruitment website Chinahr.com.
A young migrant who could not afford to go home posted an open letter to his father on the bulletin board, Tianya.cn, that quickly made the rounds. The story received more than 110,000 clicks online and 1,300 replies within a month.
“Dad, I don’t dare to tell you that there’s less than 500 yuan (HK$570) in my bank account and the rent for my flat is due this week,” he wrote. “Actually I earn just 1,000 yuan a month and can’t afford a new sweater for mom after paying 400 yuan for train tickets. Sorry that I don’t dare to return home, even though I really yearn for a family reunion.”
The youth, who just graduated from university, epitomised the millions of graduates from rural China who dream of a better life in cities but end up in underpaid jobs, mainland media said.
Peking University researcher Lian Si called these youth the “ant tribe”, and estimated that there were more than a million frustrated graduates across the country.
“Together with farmers, migrant workers and laid-off workers, fresh graduates are also among the mainland’s disadvantaged groups,” Lian wrote in his report. “They received tertiary education but take up underpaid jobs, or they are unemployed but enjoy no protection from the social security scheme.”
Surveys conducted by Beijing-based employment consultant Mycos showed that 10 to 16 per cent of last year’s 6 million graduates have been unable to find jobs. For them, going home to face their family could be a real torment. More people are attending university, intensifying the competition for jobs.
At the same time, an increasing number of young migrant workers who were born in the countryside but grew up in the cities are also choosing to stay behind.
The so-called second generation of migrant workers, who moved to the cities with their parents as children, regard the cities as their home, even though they receive low pay, suffer from discrimination and lack social security protection. Guizhou worker Zhao Yangyang, 20, said he enjoyed cities such as Zhengzhou in Henan, where he worked on an assembly line for three years.
“I’m not get used to the impoverished village life now,” he told China News Service. “I can’t endure life without a flush toilet. The varied entertainment in big cities is so attractive that I can’t bear to leave.”
Official data show that 60 per cent of the country’s 150 million migrant workers are second-generation workers who have grown up in cities.
The mainland’s transport system is bracing itself for a crunch, with nearly 2.6 billion journeys on rail, bus and ferry forecast over the 40-day Lunar New Year holiday period which started on January 30.
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More young migrants give the reunion dinner a miss
Workers say going home is too expensive - and stressful
Fiona Tam
06 F 2010
Skyrocketing train fares, the ordeal of long journeys and the stress of meeting a parent’s expectations are keeping young migrants from going home for the Lunar New Year.
So widespread has this become that there is now a term to describe the collective dread of these overworked and underpaid workers: home-going phobia.
Tens of millions of migrants working in mainland cities are expected to begin leaving this weekend for home, where they will spend the Chinese calendar’s most important festival with their family. But state media said more and more young people - graduates on low incomes and assembly-line workers alike - are forgoing the joy of a reunion dinner.
In a poll of 700 office clerks from Shanghai, nearly 60 per cent of them complained that buying train tickets from scalpers and gifts for their family cost them one to two months’ salary. The expenses are discouraging them from returning home, they said in the survey conducted by the recruitment website Chinahr.com.
A young migrant who could not afford to go home posted an open letter to his father on the bulletin board, Tianya.cn, that quickly made the rounds. The story received more than 110,000 clicks online and 1,300 replies within a month.
“Dad, I don’t dare to tell you that there’s less than 500 yuan (HK$570) in my bank account and the rent for my flat is due this week,” he wrote. “Actually I earn just 1,000 yuan a month and can’t afford a new sweater for mom after paying 400 yuan for train tickets. Sorry that I don’t dare to return home, even though I really yearn for a family reunion.”
The youth, who just graduated from university, epitomised the millions of graduates from rural China who dream of a better life in cities but end up in underpaid jobs, mainland media said.
Peking University researcher Lian Si called these youth the “ant tribe”, and estimated that there were more than a million frustrated graduates across the country.
“Together with farmers, migrant workers and laid-off workers, fresh graduates are also among the mainland’s disadvantaged groups,” Lian wrote in his report. “They received tertiary education but take up underpaid jobs, or they are unemployed but enjoy no protection from the social security scheme.”
Surveys conducted by Beijing-based employment consultant Mycos showed that 10 to 16 per cent of last year’s 6 million graduates have been unable to find jobs. For them, going home to face their family could be a real torment. More people are attending university, intensifying the competition for jobs.
At the same time, an increasing number of young migrant workers who were born in the countryside but grew up in the cities are also choosing to stay behind.
The so-called second generation of migrant workers, who moved to the cities with their parents as children, regard the cities as their home, even though they receive low pay, suffer from discrimination and lack social security protection. Guizhou worker Zhao Yangyang, 20, said he enjoyed cities such as Zhengzhou in Henan, where he worked on an assembly line for three years.
“I’m not get used to the impoverished village life now,” he told China News Service. “I can’t endure life without a flush toilet. The varied entertainment in big cities is so attractive that I can’t bear to leave.”
Official data show that 60 per cent of the country’s 150 million migrant workers are second-generation workers who have grown up in cities.
The mainland’s transport system is bracing itself for a crunch, with nearly 2.6 billion journeys on rail, bus and ferry forecast over the 40-day Lunar New Year holiday period which started on January 30.
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