Why Chinese Migrant Workers Are Abandoning the Country's Top Cities
Every year, workers living in Beijing or Shanghai visit their homes for Chinese New Year. More and more are deciding not to come back.
Shi Yunhan
The Atlantic April 10 2013
In Beijing, budget rental housing -- especially bunk beds, small apartments and single rooms in the more dilapidated hutong
areas -- are easy to find
after Chinese New Year. This is because many migrant workers who
leave the capital for their home regions for the new year choose not to
return. Although
there are no national statistics on this still under-researched phenomenon known as the "tide
of return" (huixiangchao), the numbers of workers who leave China's overcrowded coastal metropolises to pursue their dreams in humbler settings
has been steadily growing in past years.
Between December 31, 2012 and February 22, 2013, the large coastal city of Xiamen "lost" 36,200 registered migrant workers, and hourly salaries
for cooks and cleaners are on a steady rise. On Sina Weibo, a
popular micro-blogging platform, user @猫爷困了commented: "The pressure is really huge. I
should pack up my mattress and get going too."
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