We have them to thank for our running water and electricity, the food we eat
and the houses we live in.
Every time you go to a supermarket, restaurant or department store you're
relying on the hard work of the hundreds of thousands of men and women who
migrate from farms and villages across China to the nation's great cities.
They come to work long hours for wages which would make the average China
Daily reader balk, in the hope of sending money home to their impoverished
families.
In many ways this vast migration of labor is what drives the nation's
rocketing economy it is certainly what has built the tall buildings shooting up
in cities like Beijing, Shanghai and Guangdong.
And yet the migrants remain exploited and underappreciated.
Last year 41,904 migrant workers in Beijing alone weren't paid on time
according to the city's Labor and Security Bureau and that was a reduction of 63
percent on the number of late payments the previous year.
The late payment of wages which has sparked violent protests and seen workers
threaten to throw themselves off the buildings they are working on illustrates
the lack of respect employers often afford migrants.
Meanwhile warnings are increasing that their children, left home alone or
with elderly relatives, perform poorly at school and are prone to juvenile
delinquency.
The situation is gradually changing. There are more and more schools for
migrants' children in the cities they settle in. And Premier Wen Jiabao spent
the New Year calling on migrant workers, among others, in Shenyang.
But segregated schools and token visits are far from enough. If China wants
to grow into a stable and prosperous society, more has to be done to prevent
poor migrant workers being left behind.
Meeting this week for the National People's Congress, legislators need to
take urgent action to help migrants keep up with the society they are driving
forward.
Guaranteeing minimum wages and passing tough new legislation to make sure
they get paid on time would be a step in the right direction.
(China Daily 03/10/2007 page2)
