New-generation migrant workers in China
(chinanews.cn)
Updated: 2006-02-09 15:40

It was the 9th day of the lunar New Year yesterday and the post-Spring Festival holiday transportation reached a peak ahead of time. 80% of the passengers arriving at the Beijing Railway Station yesterday are migrant workers from rural areas returning to their posts in the city. Many of these young migrant workers can speak standard Putonghua (mandarin).

Workers' Daily described that one cannot find on those young people any characteristics of the rube old-generation migrant workers who kept gazing around when reaching a city. Instead, those young migrant workers pay attention to enjoying both physical and spiritual life. They pursue stylish clothes, easy and decent jobs, and fashionable leisure life, which make them obviously different from the old-generation migrant workers.

Most of those migrant workers at their 20s left their hometowns for work after 1990. They are called new-generation migrant workers.

Wang Ting and her three fellows from Anhui Province's Dangshan County had golden hair and carried varied bags, bringing a wind of fashion and youth. Wang said that fashion is not a patent of urban people. Though she was born in the country, she could dress up like girls in cities with her own money.

New-generation migrant workers age from 18 to 25. They are characterized by "three highs and one low," namely high educational level, high expectation of jobs, high requirements for physical and spiritual life, but low endurance of work.

Their differences from their parents lie in that they are not content to do the dirtiest, the most tiring and the least promising jobs, that they no longer save every penny for their families, let alone return home to build a house and get married after earning enough money. When being discriminated, they will bravely show their anger and leave.

At the same time, their expenditures on consumption are increasing rapidly. They are not willing to make themselves live as an ascetic person any more. This is another remarkable point that shows the difference between them and the old-generation migrant workers.