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Nation
Print Edition> Nation
UPDATED: June 18, 2010 NO. 25 JUNE 24, 2010
A Beautiful Dream
The new generation of migrant workers are seeking a better lifestyle in the cities
By YIN PUMIN
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FREE TIME: A worker plays billiards at the leisure center of a local factory after work in Jinjiang City, Fujian Province, on March 3 (JIANG KEHONG)

Xu's hukou is still in the countryside in Henan. Although today he earns more than 2,000 yuan ($292.8) a month, he still cannot enjoy the same rights and benefits as urban residents, in terms of medical and working insurance.

Decent life

Feeling the same as Xu, 23-year-old Xiang Jing, a shop assistant in Guangdong, said she wants to live in the city, too, and will not go back to the countryside.

"I have become used to city life and I hope to be a real urban resident," she said.

Xiang was born and raised in a remote village called Xiangjiatai in Shimen County in central China's Hunan Province. After graduating from middle school, she went to Guangdong's Foshan City, and found a job in a clothing factory. That year she was barely 16 years old.

"The job was very dull and I was just sewing buttons onto clothes," Xiang recalled. "I was very tired during that time because I had to work more than 12 hours a day."

Only eight months later, Xiang left the job and came to Shenzhen, a prosperous big city also in Guangdong. In the following seven years, she worked as a waitress, barbershop apprentice and cashier. Now she is selling clothes in a department store.

"I don't mind working hard, but I hate it when people call me a migrant worker," she said. "I am not different from city people. I wear the latest fashions and I speak standard Mandarin."

"They are used to life in the city but they don't have much education or skills. They are inferior to their city peers and have to work hard for meager pay," said Xie Jianshe, Vice Director of the Guangzhou Development Academy under Guangzhou University.

"I have little choice but to do basic menial jobs. I'm limited by my lack of qualifications," Xiang said. It is difficult for her to find a more decent job without professional training.

Unlike their predecessors, their mothers and fathers, the new generation of migrant workers hold high expectations for their career prospects in cities.

According to a survey of 2,500 young migrant workers conducted by Nanjing Normal University based in Jiangsu Province, of those in the manufacturing, mining and service industries, 58 percent attached more importance to learning skills and 64 percent have asked to receive technical training.

The survey also found that 54.2 percent of these young migrant workers moved to the city to broaden their horizons and for personal development.

"I believe I can find a satisfactory job with a higher salary in Shenzhen after learning some skills," Xiang said.

At present, she earns 1,500 yuan ($219.62) a month and spends most of it.

The new-generation migrant workers look like city slickers with their fashionable clothes and hairstyles. They use cell phones and chat with their peers on the Internet.

"I don't want to save money by leading a hard and boring life," she said. "I always go to Internet cafes and go out for dinner with my friends in the evening. I enjoy it."

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