Geng’s story is not unique. Hundreds of millions flocked to coastal factories after former leader Deng Xiaoping opened the country to foreign investors in 1979 and established four special economic zones – Shenzhen, Zhuhai and Shantou in Guangdong province and Xiamen in neighboring Fujian province.
Cheap Chinese products were shipped around the world while masses of workers worked hard to transform the country from an underdeveloped agricultural state into a manufacturing center dubbed the “factory of the world.”
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Fewer jobs and less pay: Chinese migrant workers continue to face uncertainty as the country reopens
Fewer jobs and less pay: Chinese migrant workers continue to face uncertainty as the country reopens
As a result, the Chinese economy grew at breakneck speed and lifted record numbers of people out of poverty. In 2009, in the wake of the global financial crisis, “The Chinese Worker” was named a runner-up for Person of the Year by Time magazine for helping protect his country from the worst effects of the meltdown and boosting the world’s economic economy Recreation.
There were many success stories. Some migrant workers became entrepreneurs or legislators. Many were able to gain a foothold either in their adopted homes or after returning to their villages because the policy gave them access to some public services and social assistance.
But others like Geng were left behind. These migrants have found themselves in a near-permanent state of precarity, particularly during the three-year coronavirus pandemic. Improving their fortunes has become a test for Beijing Striving for greater social equalitypopularly called “common prosperity”.
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According to the National Bureau of Statistics, there are 290 million migrant workers in China, including 86.33 million over 50.
Many older migrant workers scattered across construction, industry and services sectors still struggle to make a living have exceeded retirement age.
A study published in June by Qiu Fengxian, an associate professor at Anhui Normal University, tracked the condition of first-generation migrant workers by sending out 2,500 questionnaires and interviewing 200 people.
About 60.7 percent of older workers said they will “work until their physical health fails them” due to a lack of stable pensions, and 76.1 percent said they have worked past 60 or so currently doing.
Because most of these workers perform heavy physical labor or work in highly polluted areas, their health is generally poor and chronic injuries are common.
Geng himself suffered such an injury after an accident in 2002 damaged his leg, leaving him partially disabled. This, coupled with a lack of education, limited his opportunities and kept him in lower-paying jobs.
Despite these hardships, he has become accustomed to life in Shenzhen and is hesitant to return to his rural homeland, where he would be entitled to social assistance, however meager it would be. But the employment prospects are bleak.
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“This year, since the pandemic eased, all young rural residents are looking for work in Shenzhen,” he said. “None of the factories want old workers like us.”
Wage differences have also become more asymmetrical. According to Qiu’s survey, urban workers’ monthly wages nationwide increased by 1,260 yuan from 1993 to 2005, while the increase for migrant workers was only 68 yuan.
The study showed that many first-generation migrant workers had less than 50,000 yuan in savings after 30 years of work. Due to societal expectations, parents are forced to care for their children well into adulthood, even going so far as to purchase a home. With these traditions and a system that distributes the lion’s share of social benefits to those living in cities, this generation has been left out in the cold.
In China, social benefits are based on hukou, an identity registration system that delegates access to education, healthcare and pension benefits.
For minor illnesses we take medicine, for serious illnesses we can only wait for deathYan, Zhengzhou
The benefits for rural and urban registrants are very different. Urban workers often receive a monthly pension of several thousand yuan, depending on their region of residence and past contributions, while rural older people only receive about 100 yuan per month.
Seventy-year-old Yan, who was reluctant to give his full name, still works as a security guard in Zhengzhou, Henan province. He took the position to help his son, who lost his job during the pandemic but still has a 1 million yuan ($136,775) mortgage to pay off.
The job pays him 2,000 yuan a month, much more than he could earn renting his farmland, and Yan plans to continue working until his physical condition no longer allows it. Without city health insurance, he can only hope not to get sick.
“We don’t receive a pension of several thousand yuan a month like city residents do,” he said. “For minor illnesses we take medication, for serious illnesses we can only wait for death.”
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According to the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, the number of people insured under the basic pension insurance system – in which the rural population makes up most of the wage bill – was 549 million in 2022, and the fund’s expenditure was 404 .4 billion yuan (US$56.15 billion). .
Over 503 million people were covered by the basic urban workers’ pension insurance, with spending reaching 5.9 trillion yuan ($819.25 billion) – nearly 15 times more than rural pensions.
First-generation migrant workers are mostly urban migrants who do not have permanent jobs or employment contracts. As a result, they rarely have fixed retirement accounts and thereby lose out on a range of benefits, said Zhao Xijun, a finance professor at Renmin University in Beijing.
Although Beijing did Hukou requirements have been largely relaxedIn large cities like Shenzhen, property, education or age are often used as criteria for registration.
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Record unemployment is driving many young Chinese people to turn to street trading to make extra money
Record unemployment is driving many young Chinese people to turn to street trading to make extra money
Susanne Choi, a professor of sociology at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, said rural migrant workers were still treated differently in some cities despite promises to expand access to local welfare through a points-based system.
“[It is unclear] whether these proposals would be adopted and how they would be implemented,” Choi added. “And even if they are implemented, their impact on the lives of migrant workers is uncertain.”
Although the need for equal public services and better pensions for rural migrant workers is well known, it is particularly difficult for local governments to solve this problem laden with debt.
Even for those who manage to find a job, times are tough. Qiu’s survey shows that a fifth of employed older migrant workers did not actually receive their promised salary.
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With few options, they often turn to friends or relatives for help. Around 13.5 percent simply give up.
“We migrant workers can only accept our fate if we are owed wages,” said Duan, a widower who sells food on the streets of Shenzhen.
Originally from northeast China’s Heilongjiang Province, Duan has held various part-time jobs across the country for the past three decades, but none of them provided benefits that could help him contribute to social security and settle down.
“My last factory job was before the pandemic,” he said. “Many factories were closed during Covid. In 2022 I had no income.”
06:13
China’s strict Covid restrictions are leaving thousands of migrant workers in limbo
China’s strict Covid restrictions are leaving thousands of migrant workers in limbo
Duan had difficulty paying social security contributions as a flexible worker and would have to pay in for an additional 100 months to be eligible for a state pension.
“I don’t think I’ll live to see it,” he said.
Beijing has repeatedly vowed to achieve shared prosperity and said so finished lifting all 98.99 million rural poor from extreme poverty in 2021.
But the pandemic and the strict zero-Covid policy that followed have hampered these efforts. After numerous businesses closed, many of these first-generation migrant workers are back where they started.
Edwin Lai, a professor of economics at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, said China had made historic achievements in poverty reduction, but the plight of migrant workers had exposed a flaw in Beijing’s ambitious plans.
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However, progress in promoting greater equality must be made cautiously, as strict policy enforcement “not only deters but also undermines the private sector.” [their] Trust,” he said.
Chen Zhiwu, chair of finance at the University of Hong Kong, said China currently lacks an information channel through which the central government can directly understand the living conditions of poor people, making it difficult for Beijing to assess the progress of poverty alleviation efforts.
In addition, China still has enough fiscal space to improve basic protections for migrant workers and increase financial support, while a more transparent mechanism is needed for citizens to monitor the use of poverty alleviation funds, Chen added.
“[Without] “If we improve the institutional infrastructure to ensure that every dollar spent by the government is actually in line with the principle of shared prosperity, the results we see are not surprising,” Chen said. “You have to give these migrant workers the opportunity to make their voices heard.”
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