Word: migrants
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...gazed out to the other side of the river, looking at the only significant patch of land for miles that was not yet being developed - about five acres (20,000 sq m) of green that local farmers still used to grow watermelons, which they then sold to the migrant workers building this town. On the far bank there was a ramshackle one-room brick house, where three of the farmers lived - a husband, wife and teenage son. They had no running water - they bathed and washed their clothes in the river - and the place was lit by a single bulb...
...there is nothing more important to the central government than making sure economic growth continues, and that the benefits of that growth are spread widely. More than anything, this is what gives the communist leadership legitimacy. All across China, towns like New Songjiang are built on the backs of migrant workers - people who have moved from other provinces to earn better money as construction workers. An estimated 114 million workers in China now are migrants, and roughly 15% work on construction sites throughout the country, usually far from their home towns or villages. Unlike manufacturing work, where millions of unskilled...
...Jintao, China's President, has said repeatedly that the gap between rich and poor is one of the government's central concerns. In New Songjiang, the reasons for his insistence become obvious. Theoretically, migrant workers are supposed to receive some health-insurance benefits from the companies that hire them. But many, particularly day laborers who hook up with small contractors, do not. I spent one evening a few months ago in the emergency room of the huge, modern hospital in New Songjiang. In the space of about three hours, five construction workers were admitted, including one who had tumbled three...
...migrants, of course, hope to move on. Before my wife and I bought a car here, we used to call a guy named Shi Guozheng, 27, from Anhui, who was a taxi driver of sorts. Shi had a battered old van, and made a living transporting migrant workers back and forth to their home towns. He was married, and often his wife, Lin, was in the car on our journeys into town. Over time my wife and she became friendly. One day last summer, they had tea together and Lin told Joyce she was pregnant, and that...
...ease pressure on the stricken transport system, Guangdong authorities encouraged migrant workers to spend their holiday in the province. Still, millions still tried to make the journey. For many, like Zang, that proved impossible. His employer, the Hengda Real Estate Group, says about 3,000 of the 10,000 migrants it employs in Guangdong stayed behind over the holiday. Li Xiao, the company's Guangdong general manager, says Hengda will spend $300,000 over the next week to offer banquets, parties and outings for its workers. "They have helped make us rich," Li says. "We have to look...