CHINA: EXODUS OF MIGRANTS FROM RURAL AREAS TO CITIES INCREASES AS THEY SEEK FORTUNE.

Record ID: 348890

  • Title: CHINA: EXODUS OF MIGRANTS FROM RURAL AREAS TO CITIES INCREASES AS THEY SEEK FORTUNE.
  • Date: 21st March 1994
  • Summary: CHONGQING, HECHUAN AND JIANGJIN, SICHUAN PROVINCE AND BEIJING, CHINA (RECENT) (RTV - ACCESS ALL) CHONGQING, SICHUAN PROVINCE 1. GV CHONGQING RAILWAY STATION 0.04 2. LV PEOPLE AT STATION 0.07 3. SV QUEUES OF PEOPLE 0.09 4. GV MIGRANT WORKERS QUEUEING FOR TRAIN TICKETS 0.12 5. SV POLICEMAN PULLS MAN OUT OF QUEUE 0
  • Embargoed: 5th April 1994 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: CHONGQING, HECHUAN AND JIANGJIN, SICHUAN PROVINCE AND BEIJING, CHINA
  • City:
  • Country: China
  • Reuters ID: LVA6JCV3FK8O8R0GB12J2TJB3N9Z
  • Story Text: Millions of Chinese are migrating from rural areas to cities in search of better paid jobs and a new life.

    Last year 35 million Chinese moved from poor rural areas to new jobs with higher wages in cities.

    About six million people left Sichuan Province last year to work in factories, construction sites, restaurants and rubbish-collection gangs in cities all over China.

    Queues of workers hoping for more highly paid jobs in the cities form on a regular basis at ticket counters in the railway station in Chongqing in Sichuan.

    Cities like Hechuan, a city of 1.5 million and centre of a rural area 60km (38 miles) north of Chongqing, receive huge remittances from their absent workers.

    Hechuan officials say migrant workers sent back 500 million yuan (59 million U.S. dollars) in remittances, more than three times the 1994 budget of the city.

    Many nearby towns are mainly populated by old people. Most of the men who remain are involved in constructing new houses for those sending back remittances.

    Yang Yuqiao, manager of a labour contacting company in the town of Jiangjin, near Hechuan, said "Our company sends out more than 2,000 people every year to cities all over China. That includes construction workers, mechanics, and some scientists and technicians." Yang's company provides menial workers with skills to enable them to find jobs in China's large cities.

    Some people have contracts stipulating hours of work, health insurance and apartments but many do not, living in squalid huts and shacks, with no guarantee of pay or insurance.


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