New generation of migrant workers face old problems
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The new generation of migrant workers still suffers from a range of problems, including discrimination, infringement of their rights and limited access to essential social services, a six-month survey in North China's coal-rich Shanxi province has found.
Focused on helping the new generation of migrant workers to integrate into city life, the Shanxi committee of the Communist Youth League of China carried out the survey from July 2010 across 11 cities in the province and polled about 5,000 young migrant workers.
Migrant workers suffer discrimination based on identity issues and unfairly limited access to medical services and education for their children, the survey found.
"It troubles me the most that since I and my family members don't have a local hukou (permanent residence permission), I have to pay an expensive extra fee to send my son to a local primary school. I can't afford such a big amount," Hu Zheng, a 30-year-old migrant worker from Sichuan province, told China Daily.
For the past three years Hu has been a skilled worker for the Sijian Construction Group in Taiyuan, the capital of Shanxi province, and now earns 4,000 yuan ($606) a month. Although his income has increased a lot, he still does not dare bring his wife and son to the city.
If, like Hu, a migrant worker is the only breadwinner in his family and does not have a hukou, he will find the cost of living in a city too high.
"I have worked in cities for years and like the city life because young people have more opportunities. But long separation from my family and the discrimination I face often upset me," he said.
Many young migrant workers faced similar problems to Hu's.
