An Empirical Study On The Survival Status Of The New Generation Migrant Workers In Yangzhou City

Along with the PRC’s accelerated implementation of Reform and Opening policies, the rapid development of urban industrial economies, and the gradual retrogression of agricultural economic development, a striking discrepancy has emerged between urban areas and the countryside. Under such polarized circumstances, more and more industrial labor forces chose temporary jobs in urban areas, becoming the driving force among industrial production workers. Since the21st century, this group has experienced significant structural changes. Chinese migrant workers born in the80s and90s have become the backbone of the urban migrant worker force.Although the new generation of migrant workers boasted a considerably higher level of education than the previous generation, owing to China’s long-standing structural division between rural and their urban economies, these migrant workers were still hard-pressed to cast off their rural identities, nor did living conditions improve perceptively. Migrant workers are still unable to enjoy the same public services and social security as urban dwellers, and can only choose jobs rejected by their urban compatriots, namely difficult, low-paying, and often dangerous occupations not covered by social security. These are demanding labor jobs offering scarce opportunities for rest. Though the new generation of migrant workers harbors different demands than those of the previous generation, modern-day migrant workers are still forced to endure all kinds of systemic, cultural and policy-related prejudice. Today, migrant workers are considered the lowest-status disadvantaged social group among urban dwellers, one of the groups most in need of assistance. This tragic outcome betrays the doctrine of evenly dividing the pie of societal wealth, which the nation so zealously advocates. If things continue along this path, migrant workers’enthusiastic contribution to urban construction will surely wane; raising detrimental consequences for China’s modernization, as well as urban and industrial progress, which is certainly not conducive to the harmony and stability of both urban and rural society.This essay will provide substantial evidence and analysis, summarizing results of investigations among migrant workers in Guangling, Hanjiang, Jiangdu, and four economic development administrative zones. This essay’s content covers eight main areas, spanning employment, wages, consumer habits, residential issues, social security, life attitudes, leisure activities, personal experiences, and settling down as they pertain to migrant workers. Through analysis and investigations, objectively illuminating the current status of living of Yangzhou city’s new generation of migrant workers, analyzing the various factors influencing the new generation of migrant workers in Yangzhou city, including structural, societal, and individual factors, finally raising policy suggestions for improving the quality of life for Yangzhou’s latest generation of migrant workers.The investigation results expose the distinguishing characteristics of Yangzhou’s new generation of migrant workers:they are increasingly young, overwhelmingly female, boasting increasingly higher levels of education, with a noticeably climbing proportion unmarried. The distribution of workers may be further divided into regional characteristics; migrants tend to select occupations in the manufacturing industries, and we also note that the age of first leaving home to seek urban employment is decreasing. Personal cultivation and business demands pose a structural contradiction. A lack of social security renders urban assimilation extremely difficult; moreover, deficiencies in cultural life necessitate human compassion and solicitude. Such factors as the difficulty of finding employment, occupational instability, low wages, coupled with high labor intensity, prove that the new generation of migrant workers constitute a unique group which has become dissociated from the urban social security system. Though this group of migrant workers sacrifice their youth and vitality for urban construction and economic development, they are still unable to harvest the fruits of urban economic development. As a result, they have been relegated indefinitely to the margins of society.