There are nearly 200 million migrant workers living and working in big cities in China. Shanghai, with a city population size of about 16 million, has 4 million migrant workers. It’s not clear whether migrant workers are actually counted in the city’s population, but regardless, migrant workers constitute nearly 20-25% of the city’s population! They include construction workers, restaurant staffs, manufacturing workers, coalminers, cleaning ladies, ahyis, street sweepers, hairdressers, masseuse, street sellers, etc…
Migrant workers are the hardest working, yet most underpaid workers. They work 10-12 hours a day, 6-7 days a week. Most of them earn less than 1000 RMB ($150 USD) a month. Because of China’s hukou system, migrant workers are not protected by labor laws nor are they able to access government services such as education and basic health care. Their children can’t attend public schools, so many of them take hour-long bus rides to migrant schools outside of the cities.
Migrant workers live as second class citizens in big cities, but they are the backbone of China’s economic boom. They built the country’s skyscrapers, assembled its exports, and sent billions of dollars back home to their families in the poor rural regions. Some of the country’s biggest and wealthiest banks like China Construction Bank and Agricultural Bank got rich from migrant workers sending money home.
Below is a photo/video documentary of migrant workers in Shanghai.
Living in the Shadows: China’s Internal Migrants from David Campbell on Vimeo.
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