China: The Migrant Condition

            From about 1950 to 1980, the urban population in China actually declined as Mao promoted people to go back the countryside and grow grain. It was a time of cultural revival when the agrarian farmer was romanticized. Rural to urban migration was almost unheard of during this time. When Deng Xiaoping took over, he completely reversed this policy. Through the 80s, the world saw its largest migration. Over 300 million farmers moved from the rural countryside to urban centers.

And China’s cities boomed.

            The economic growth of cities came at a price. These farmers became the migrant workhorses of the cities. Not owning a city hukou (residential permit) that would give them the social welfare benefits of healthcare and education, migrants became a largely marginalized population. The rural migrants became the underpaid, overworked, and routinely abused human capital for China’s cities. As wealth poured into cities, low-end menial jobs were created to support this wealth. Migrants took on the roles of cleaning ladies, physical manual laborers, and bar hostesses serving the well off.

Earning nominal wages, migrants live in cramped quarters and suffer more wear and tear to their bodies than other populations. While the migrants in clothing factories suffer from back problems as they sit in one position for multiple hours a day, the sex workers suffer from physical abuse and mental trauma. I remember Professor Litzinger (our professor in China) saying that almost over 90% of these sex workers arrive from the countryside.

Despite the working conditions, migrants manage to save money and send some back home to aid with the education of the younger household members and the health needs of the older family members. Migrant workers go back to their homes maybe only once or twice a year. During the Chinese New Year, hundreds of millions of migrants travel back home and bring back little gifts and extra money. Sometimes children do not feel a sense of kinship to the parents who see them once a year, which creates an unfortunate family dynamic. Parents pressure their children to study harder so that their children have better lives. Children buckle under the pressure of these authority figures they rarely see and may distance themselves from one of the only sources of guidance they have. These kids may go on to become migrants in other large cities. 

This is the migrant condition.