China's migrant workers need greater public empathy

Wang Yu Ying, 32, came to Beijing about five years ago from the eastern coastal province of Zhejiang. But before she migrated to the capital city to earn a better living, Wang left her daughter of 10 months in her mother's care in Anhui province. also in the east where her mother lives.

Wang, a Chinese acquaintance and a waitress at a foreign-themed restaurant in eastern Beijing, has missed being with her daughter like thousands of other migrant workers who move to the country's big cities from small ones or the countryside for money.

She and her husband, who works as a chef somewhere in the city, live in a dormitory for migrant workers, and get to see their daughter once a year or so, during national holidays. The couple can't afford independent housing or other costs associated with raising a child in Beijing, Wang says.