Background
What has been reported about such migrants in Nanjing mirrors the situation
of many other mobile people in China.
It is estimated that there are more than 140 million migrant workers,
scattered across almost every labour-intensive industry in the country.
Statistics provided by sociologists indicate they make up about 68 per cent of
the total workers in manufacturing and construction and almost 32 per cent of
those in the service industry.
While their hard work fuels the country's surging economy, the migrant
workers in return usually work long hours, get little rest time and low pay, and
also have undesirable living conditions.
Forced to leave spouses behind and work away for months at a time to support
their families, migrants often have the family budget to consider first, instead
of their own sexual needs.
However, even though they are mostly too shy to talk about sex publicly, a
lack of sex has reportedly troubled the majority of single or married adult
migrants.
A survey by the Ministry of Health at the end of 2004 said 88 per cent of the
country's male migrants suffered from sexual depression.
And a survey carried out by Beijing Star Daily last year covering 40 adult
male migrants revealed 16 of the married men hadn't had sex in six months. Nine
single migrants had not had sex since arriving in the city several years ago.
The survey correspondents said they thought about visiting prostitutes, but
their earnings could not sustain their desire for a call girl.
Most of them instead watched porn films and some resorted to touching women
in public.
Sexual fantasies are common among these adult male migrants, with the walls
of their rooms posted with almost nude models and "dirty" magazines passed
around. And they often make a fuss when they see intimate lovers in the street,
as they feel jealous.
Furthermore, as said, more extreme behaviour like rape and sexual harassment
have also been seen.
Compared with their male counterparts, female migrant workers seem more
disciplined although things do not always run smoothly with them either.
A 2002 survey by the Guangdong Family Planning Research Institute found that
more than 50 per cent of the province's single female migrant workers were
engaged in pre-marital sex. a practice considered disgraceful in China's
countryside where most of the female migrants come from.
A survey in June by the Guangzhou Family Planning Bureau covered 6,395 female
migrants aged between 16 and 49 years. It reported that more than 30 per cent of
married migrant women in Guangzhou suffer from various diseases associated with
their reproductive systems, and about 32 per cent of single migrant women don't
know what a venereal disease is.
According to Wu Yiming, dean of the Sociology Department of Nanjing Normal
University, with China's experiences of industrialization, the trend of people
moving from agriculture to work in urban areas is irreversible.
But ignoring the sexual needs of migrant workers, most of whom are male, will
lead to physical and psychological problems.
"Migrant workers are first and foremost human beings with normal sexual
needs. Society cannot ask them to adhere to laws and regulations while ignoring
their natural demands," Wu told China Daily.
Wu warned that sexual frustration might lead to not only mental and physical
problems for the migrant themselves, but also social problems such as crimes
like rape, and prostitution.
