Official?statistics show there are now 130 million
(equivalent to one-half the population of the United States)
migrant workers in Chinese cities who constitute China's main
industrial workforce.
The term "farmer" carries different connotations in China to the
West, where farming is a profession taken up by well-educated
people and involves large-scale mechanical production.
However, being a farmer in China is synonymous with low social
status. Chinese farmers have a comparatively poor education and
they live on small patches of farmland (per capita farmland is less
than?one mu, or 1/15 hectare). Therefore, some
farmers have to work in non-agricultural industries, or go to
cities as migrant workers, where they do not enjoy the same
political rights and social guarantees as their urban
counterparts.
Migrant workers thus have a raw deal, despite providing cheap
labor for China's ongoing economic development. Their huge numbers
also challenge the system of domicile registration and legal and
social guarantee systems that have been in force since 1949.
(Shenzhen Daily August 25, 2004)