reference message network of China News Network
U. S. media said that the first generation of Chinese migrant workers in the city for China's modernization construction Out of the countryside. Most of them are unable to integrate into the cities they work in, nor can they benefit from the expanding social security network. Now, they are faced with the prospect of continuing work in their declining years.
in May 11th, according to the Wall Street journal, it took Wang Feng for three days to come to the city of aramashi, a trade station on the Kazakhstan border. The place is filled with snow, and his construction team will lay a roof for a copper factory here. Working under zero degrees aggravated his arthritis pain. Wang Fenghe had little pension, and he came to the $33 (about 228 yuan) income every day, and his construction team took over the former construction team.
Wang Fenghe was the first generation of migrant laborers who came out of the countryside for the sake of China's modernization drive. Most of them are unable to integrate into the cities they work in, nor can they benefit from the social security system. Now, they are faced with the prospect of continuing work in their declining years.
Wang Fenghe said, "I can do it until I am 70 years old. I don't work. No one supports me." His plight shows that China has a long way to go to expand the benefits of wealth growth to all the people.
reported that the Chinese government has promised to improve the environment of the construction industry and improve the situation of the rural poor.
about 30% of the migrant workers born before 1980 were in the construction industry. The Chinese government's data showed that the number of migrant workers born after 1980 was less than 1/6 in the construction industry.
Wang Fenghe was the oldest in the construction team of Alashankou in the winter of 2016. He is responsible for lifting the fiberglass panel from the ground to the workers in the more than 20 foot (6 m) high scaffolding. Jia Shuxue, their foreman and 43 year old, said that Lao Wang was very competent. He said he would rather hire someone who is solid and willing to work than hire young people who are physically better but not willing to endure hardships.
reported that for the non skilled workers, the salary level of the construction industry is relatively high. But because of lack of job security, welfare or accidental injury protection, migrant workers such as Wang Fenghe have never been able to enter the middle class.
Yi Jun, Vice Minister of housing and urban rural development of China, said the government is taking measures to adjust the construction industry. In an interview in March, he said that migrant workers must be truly professionalized so that they can get social security benefits and certain retirement benefits.
it is reported that Wang Fenghe is so comfortable with such difficult conditions. He said he grew up in the countryside. Wang Fenghe was born in poverty-stricken areas in Northeast China in 1955. Wang Feng and his wife get very few minimum allowances every month, but they never enjoy rural pension.
data show that the Chinese government launched a rural pension scheme in 2009 to distribute pensions to the elderly over 60 every month. But experts say the monthly payments do not meet the needs of many retirees.
a lot of farmers get financial aid from their children, but Wang Fenghe's 36 year old son has spent a lot of money on his family, and his two marriage gifts and three restaurant failures have spent a lot of money. He is now working at the construction site, too. Wang Fenghe and his 33 year old daughter work in a restaurant. This brother and sister's income is used to raise their own children.
at the night of the ARA mountain pass, Wang Feng and his workers crowded around an electric stove in the middle of the iron bed, drinking beer and hot rice wine and eating their dinner. When Wang Fenghe left home, he seldom talked to his family, and more often used his mobile phone to play folk songs.