You see them climbing up and down scaffoldings, coaxing office towers and shopping malls up from the earth. You see them eating simple meals outside makeshift dormitories near the construction sites. You see them cleaning the streets, repairing the pavement, watering flowers and lawns in parks, carrying furniture, collecting garbage and helping the middle class tend to their household chores.

They are China's migrant workers, people who have left their rural hometowns for jobs in the cities. More often than not, they are engaged in manual labor.

But beyond the fact that there are millions of them out there, few people know much about this key stratum of society the things they want, the services they need and the values they hold.

China Central Television (CCTV) and a polling service conducted the country's very first survey of migrant workers at the end of last year.

The survey's findings belie the humble appearance of many migrant workers: Money is not their only concern, though they would like to make more of it. And although most migrant workers are engaged in unskilled labor, many of them consider knowledge to be the most important factor in making a living.

Taken as a whole, migrant workers are generally highly motivated and actively trying to move up the social ladder.

It is estimated that there were 140 million migrant workers throughout the country at the end of 2005 and that that number is expected to grow by 3 million every year.

More than half of the workers surveyed said they considered money to be a basic part of existence, but they also said that although money can make their lives better, there are other things that are more important and valuable.

Asked what the most valuable thing in life is, more than 90 percent of the respondents said health, followed by kinship or emotional attachments to family members.

More than 60 percent of those surveyed said wealth should be the result of hard work. They also said having a skill or expertise in a particular field would help them improve their careers.

Without good health, migrant workers cannot make money. Most of the workers said that if they lost their health, they would have lost everything.

A sick urban resident may still earn income from a social security fund or receive money from his or her employer. Few migrant workers have ever had access to such social security. Most of them have no protection from illness at all.

That may explain why 80 percent of the migrant workers surveyed said they set aside most of their income for future use. Apart from an enduring sense of crisis, most said they saved money to invest in possible future careers and in the educations of their children.

Self-employed rural migrant workers tend to value the idea of saving money to invest in their careers, while people who are employed by others tend to save money to build houses in their rural hometowns. This strong focus on career development and their characteristically broad views make them the elite among their fellow migrant workers, and so they generally adapt much more easily to urban life.

It is widely accepted that most rural migrant workers send most of what they earn back home to support their families, and also in the hope that the accumulated money will enable them to build new houses. Most hope that their hard work in the city will improve the living standards of all members of their families.

That so many rural migrant workers consider skill or expertise in a particular field as an important source of wealth suggests they have a strong desire to gain knowledge that may help them increase their income.

As with any worker, vocational training leads to an improvement in the services they provide and the quality of the manufacturing work they do.

A survey by the National Statistics Bureau notes that the more education a rural migrant worker receives, the easier it will be for him or her to adapt to an urban environment.

The central government has earmarked funds to provide rural migrant workers with such training.

To increase the access of rural migrant workers to vocational training, the Poverty Alleviation Office of the State Council launched the Rain and Dew Program this year to provide professional training to poverty-stricken rural youths and demobilized soldiers in rural areas.

This program led to the establishment of the National Poverty-Stricken Rural Youth Training School in Beijing, the first of its kind. More of these schools will be set up all over the country. The program is expected to train 5 million rural youngsters in the four years to come.

The message of this survey is that much more needs to be done to help rural migrant workers get integrated into urban life. The easier and faster the process, the earlier the government will realize its goal of common prosperity.

(China Daily 01/10/2007 page4)