New groups of Urban Immigrants
- the new generation of migrant workers 王雪舟 10300680200

【Abstract】 In the context of social development, the new generation of migrant workers show new features including their mindset, career choices, values, and many other great changes have taken place. However, these people are also facing with some new contradictions and problems for they want to fully integrate into the city. Studies on characteristics of China’s new migrant workers, as well as comparisons with the previous generation have great significance in adjusting and improving migrant workers ' policies in China.

【Key Word】 migrant workers; new generation; system; policy

I. Brief introduction

What is the “new generation of migrant workers”?
In 2010, State Council issued the No.1 document “Opinions on balancing urban and rural development to further solidify agriculture with rural economy” and for the first time put forward the term “New generation of migrant workers.”. Yet there is still no clear definition. In my perspective, “New generation of migrant workers” are migrant workers who are born from the 80’s to the 90’s, who are currently at the age between 16 to 26. Some of them leave the countryside to go into cities for working while others grow up in the city with their parents——the old generation of migrant workers, lacking permanent City Hukou.
In order to distinguish from the old group ,we call the young group the “New generation of migrant workers”.

II. Their Characteristics
There are 150 million migrant workers in China, with 60% being the new generation of migrant workers. Compared to the previous generations of migrant workers, this young organization of workers, possess unique characteristics.

A. Motivation to go out
Basically, the new generation of migrant workers no longer posses the same ideals as their parents as they are not merely content with earning a living as their major goal. What they care more about is the way to seek for better opportunities , to improve their lifestyles and to realize the aspiration to their City-Dream through their own effort. It can be said that their motivation has gradually transformed from "survival pattern" to "life pattern "
According to “Guangdong Youth Development Report”, up to 62.16% of the new generation of migrant workers dream of becoming a boss, in stark contrast , while stark contrast, less than 20% of the workers are content with finding an ordinary job.

B. Recognition of the identity
Although a large number of people in the first generation of migrant workers, engage in industrial production, yet they define themselves as farmers because of the alienated feeling given by cities .Contrary to the situation of old migrant workers, new generation of migrant workers have no sense of their farmer identity. In fact, the majority of new migrant workers have never been engaged in agriculture , either do they want to go back to the countryside again. It can be said that these new migrant workers have no affection on the land, they are not familiar with the agriculture and are alienated by the rural life. C. Values of life
City life influences a migrant worker’s value to such a great extent, that they gradually develop their own consumption attitudes and lifestyles. The first generation of migrant workers is subject to family expectations and his own responsibility to the family. Thus, in addition to the necessary living spending, save all the money to support their family and the recreation expense close to zero. By contrast, The new generation of migrant worker’s value are gradually converging with urban residents. Recreational activities, such as chatting on the Internet, ballroom dancing, shopping, KTV, have become the main way for the new generation of migrant workers to spend spare time.
Shortly, the new generation of migrant workers lay emphasis on private material and spiritual enjoyment , leading to the rapidly increment in consumption expenditures.

D. Development orientation
Compared with the first generation of migrant workers, the overwhelming majority of new generation of migrant workers have been trained in elementary and secondary education. It is apparent that they are relatively knowledgeable, and therefore have cultural intension, and therefore they shift more attention to their development.
This change is firstly reflected on job selection — rather than concentrating on physical labor industries, new generation of migrant workers prefer to choose other more decent and more promising employment. It is undeniable that they are comparatively critical of their work and are they fearful of hardship. In conclusion, these people often have a poor professionalism yet high occupational career mobility rate.

III. Problems
As the first generation of migrant workers returned home gradually, the new generation of those who were born after the 1980s quietly are debut .They have just started and will, for a long time, play the main force of China’s modernization. The new generation of migrant workers eagerly aspires to join the city with tremendous desire to live a dignified life that resembles those of urban citizens.
Nevertheless, no matter from the system to the psychological or to the specific initiatives, the city is not ready to accept their preparation .Plenty of problems is faced by migrant workers during the process of integrating into cities, not only from their own but also from the cities and institutional and cultural dimensions. A. Barriers
Many cities intentionally set the barriers for the sake of imposing restriction on the migrant workers. For instance , after the release of “ Opinions on solving the problems of migrant workers” by State council on March 27, 2006 , many provincial capital cities publish a rule stating that possessing a house with an area more than 60 square meters in the city is the prerequisite for owning a City Hukou. According to the present houses prices, it is unimaginable that migrant workers are able to purchase such a house that costs at least hundreds of thousands Yuan. This is an insurmountable barrier for the “Setting in” process which is ,in fact ,intended to exclude migrant workers outside the city. B. Right
Compared with urban industrial workers, the new generation of migrant workers cannot enjoy their social benefits. According to a survey conducted by the China Youth Research Center , only 75.3% youngsters of migrant workers can get their wage in time. Meanwhile, nearly 24.7% of them are at the risk of defaulted wage. In terms of other interests such as the health insurance, most migrant workers can not be safeguarded by social security, old-age pension nor medical welfare. This is obviously a hidden danger for their development. C. Position
On the other hand, the new generation of migrant workers are eager to become true “Urbanites”. However, they are unable to enjoy the same treatment in settlement, insurance, healthcare , many other aspects like educational opportunities for their children. Therefore, they cannot be defined as Urbanites. On the other hand, unlike their fathers who may go back to farmland to raise his family, this group of people has never done farm work before. Even if they met financial crisis and temporarily returned home, they would not choose to stay long ina farming village for framing. Social position in both urban and rural areas are not suitable for them, which means the new generation of migrant workers are in a dilemma of double marginalization. D. The cost of living
A data in 2010 has revealed that the average wages of ordinary migrant workers is appropriately ￥1874 a month while that of the new generation of migrant workers is￥1756, which is about ￥100 lower. The disposable income is still low. Thus, after the removal of necessary life expense, hardly any extra money can be saved. We have discussed before that in general , not only do the new generation of migrant workers lack pretty superior job skills , but also the dedication and hard-working spirit. Once these defects encounter with the high cost of city life, its negative effects will be magnified infinitely for the high cost further squeezes their material and cultural needs. Even if the bizarre motley city temporarily place them, it does not give them spiritual destiny. Some of them are inevitably restless, for they can not survive and obtain a better future in the city, s which may directly induce various kinds of social problems. E. Exclusion and discrimination
Although our country has made considerable development in many ways, compared to the city, the gap between these two is still no negligible. In fact, urban-rural differences in "city folk" and "rural people" and does not address the social divide between “Countryman ” and “City folk”. Some city people have a superiority complex, looking down the migrant workers from the their heart which forms a kind of deep resistance and rejection. Discrimination suffered by migrant workers in urban social life can be divided into two categories: One is the public discrimination that occurs in public places. For instance, new generation of migrant workers earn much lower remuneration than the Urbanian even if doing the same work. The other is the individual discrimination, such discrimination refers to the deducting of their wages during work time by their employers

IV. Solution to the current situation
Above all the problems, the new generation of migrant workers are called “Rootless Generation” since they are not accepted by the city nor the country. They own a lower endurance but higher expectation than their fathers. It will inevitably have adverse influence on harmony of our society if these people are not arranged reasonably. Thus, solving problems concerning about the new generation of migrant workers’ is one of the main tasks in current Economy. In my perspective, the following measures can be taken to deal with the problem: A. Deepen the reform of household registration system & accelerating the urbanization process
The analysis result shows that when the level of urbanization in China raises by 1%, there will be more than 10 million migrant workers that turn in to residents. In the process of promoting urbanization, we should learn lessons from the first generation of migrant workers’ lost lessons and take initiative measure to implement new policy appropriate for the new generation of migrant workers. Therefore, it is indispensable to deepen the reform of household registration system as well as draft the policy for the settlement of these new worker’s children. We can transform the children of workers who have a stable job and income into urban residents, so as to gradually form a unity system for both new generation of migrant workers and urban residents. B. Build the equal employment system& speed up the establishment of the integrated labor markets
It is necessary to carry out more reasonable labor contract system, make the system of income-payment protection more perfect and improve the coordination of Labor-Dispute mechanism. Implementation of payment equality for the same work between Urban and rural migrant workers is also required. Public finances, to a certain degree, should extend coverage to sustain the education for the new generation of migrant workers. In addition, some pertinent practice-oriented trainings sessions can be put into force, in accordance with different industries and the need of markets and enterprises. C. Perfecting social security system for migrant workers.
The new generation of migrant workers do not have access to the city’s housing subsidy policy, the health insurance ,the unemployment insurance. etc, nor can they afford to buy residence houses for low-and-medium wage earners .Therefore, in such housing, education and social securities , a lot of measures need to be done. We should encourage qualified cities to bring the new generation of migrant workers’ with a stable jobs to stay in the cities for a certain time long into the urban housing system. Subsequently they can be brought into other social security systems. D. Upgrade their ability
In addition to the measures taken by the governments, the new generation of migrant workers should also seek to change so as to adapt to the pace of city. Not only do they need to improve their skills and quality, but also pinpoint their appropriate position to avoid overestimating themselves. In some aspect, they should really learn from their parents, they need to inherit perseverance and endurance to overcome adversities in life.

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