Migrant workers: suckers or heroes of the economy? - the WTO-column
While most people were last week watching the Shanghai stock exchange, a remarkable report appeared in London, made by Amnesty about the migrant workers in China. The report got quite some attention in the media too. China's economic growth is built on the suffering of its migrant workers, is the message. It documents how migrant workers lack access to education and health care in the big cities, suffer from abuses. A new underclass is emerging, the report says.
As a former journalist, I still have the tendency to question anything that passes my hands, even though - again - there cannot be enough attention for those migrant workers. First: why took it Amnesty more than a decade to discover this problem? What is the logic behind all this? Second: why tell the government to pay attention to the problems of migrant workers a few years after the government has put the issue on the top of its political agenda? Now, putting issues on the political agenda does not mean necessarily that much and an extra push is always welcome. But still pondering about the strategic decisions behind all this.
What I'm missing in the reports, is the nuance. Of course, Amnesty is not there for the nuance, but let me add a bit. First, their is a simple economic reason why migrant workers put up with low wages, longer working hours and other abuse. They are still better off than back home. Their living quarters are often better and their nett earnings are higher. That does not justify employers ignoring the existing labor regulations, but does explain why year after year more migrant workers look for a job in the richer parts of China. They make an economic assessment and make a decision based on what is economically best for them. It is a way to become a bit less underclass than they were.
The current government has been remarkable successful in shifting the attention from the big cities to the country side. By a combination of smart policies, like the abolishment of the agricultural tax, and sheer luck, a few bumper harvests in the past couple of years, the worser companies in Southern China have a harder time to attract migrant workers. While under the previous government anything that supported economic growth was ok, the current call for a harmonious society seems much more than political window dressing.
As important is the psychological aspect of being a migrant worker. The report calls them an emerging underclass. But we have seen them, by the thousands, leaving a few weeks ago for celebrate Spring Festival back in their home towns. Dressed in their best suits, shining shoes and packed with presents and money for them who were not able to get a job in the big cities. Back home they - and their money - are welcomed as the heroes of their times, the people who made it.
Those few weeks back home make up for much of the suffering they go through during the rest of the year. Calling them an "underclass" might work well with Western media, but would not be appreciated by the people who feel their are the heroes of the economy.
4 comments:
I absolutely agreed with the term 'underclass'. I think if they are in India, they would belong to the lowest cast - stuck there and never have the chance to get out. I am talking nonsense? How can they ever get the chance to better themselves when their own people are cheating them, squeezing the last drop out of them?
I also think it is disgusting to have such situation in China. What we are looking at is, Chinese abusing Chinese in CHINA! By the millions. How much lower can human moral goes? What can be worser than this? BUT then this is no news to Chinese history. I once made a remark that what we are looking at now in China is a repeat of what WAS China before communist took over China. In those days the foreigners and the rich Chinese squeezing every last drop of blood and sweat from the poor. In those days too, the poor were happy to have a job and go home to their villages with new clothes to show to their 'even poorer families and friends' ... Really, if one wants to know about present day China and Chinese, you have to read books written by author such as Lau Ser. These writings tell about the 'underclass' in those era. And then perhaps one would understand what we are seeing in China these days.
Again how can foreigners, or the better and wealthier UPPER CLASS Chinese feel for these POOR 'underclass' countrymen in China? After all, they themselves are on the UPPER and enjoying the life-style that precisely these 'underclass' folks are providng for them?
Perhaps we might want to ask ourselves: how many of these folks would be able to read what I write here on their behave? We are privileged. They are 'underclass'. If the roles are reversed, perhaps we would not think the term 'underclass' is incorrect. And perhaps we would not think they are so lucky to be able to go home for 2 weeks to show off that they MADE IT.
Perhaps we also should if these 'underclass' are as equal as you and I in economic term, would there be so many millions of them travelling home these past 2, 3 weeks for the new year? Perhaps we also should give a little thought about this 'going home trips'. They did not go home in style driving a car. They have to queue up for train tickets, squeeze and push around in packed carriages ...
If they are upper class, and if things are so equal in CHina, we would not have a story to write, a comment to make ...
Fons,
Your reply to Ton L. is making this discussion even more interesting.
China dumped cheap products all over the over and the reason they can do that is because their RMB is undervalue, therefore the earning their income is much lower and therefore they have to pay their workers even lower wages ...
So who makes the profit?
The problem is, in dumping their cheap products all over the place, China is eroding the once well-balanced market place. Presently it looks like only countries outside of China would be suffering from these reckless business strategies from China. But in the long run, it would back fire when the market is overflooded with cheap goods. How low can price go low? Price war never last.
Very hard to make all to general statements, Cindy. Some of the migrant workers still think it is worth while. And some of the companies must be making a profit, outwise they would be out. Western consumers are winning by getting cheaper products.
The problem is, this process has become 200 percent market-driven that any change is going to hurt, probably not the European and US consumers though.
I reckon if you asked these migrant workers whether they felt like heroes, most of them would probably answer that they hadn't given it any thought. They're just doing what they do to get by.
I think it's unfair to be critical of Amnesty over this. The report has brought this issue to the attention to many outside China, who are only ever fed the economic development story. While the Chinese government might have acknowledged the underclass issue years ago, from my personal experience on the streets of Beijing, it seems little is being done to rectify it. For example, across the road from my brand new apartment is the most squalid two storey corrugated tin build housing local construction workers. But within my compound, hundreds of unsold, unfurnished flats lie unoccupied. Surely, in a country where the state is as all powerful as China, someone in government could make a requisition order and give these people a better home. In my opinion, that these men and women spend most of the year thousands of miles from home working in difficult, dirty conditions qualifies them for some perks, such as a decent home.
Additionally, I can't see how the conditions they live in near my house would be better than what they have at home. Again, going on personal experience, my girlfriend's parents, who are peasant farmers from Shandong, live in better conditions than these poor buggers, and the air they breathe is cleaner.
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