Migrant Farmer Workers in China

Since the implementation of China's ploicy of reform and opening to the outside world, more and more farmers in the countryside have been swarming to cities and towns to engage in tertiary industries such as architecture, catering, housekeeping and property management. Why, you may wonder, are they called migrant farmer workers? Here is the answer. They work as farmers in the countryside in the busy farming season. When the busy farming season is over, they migrate from the countryside to cities and towns to work as workers. So far there are approximately 100 million migrant farmer workers in China. They play a very important role not only in the countryside but also in cities and towns.

Many migrant farmer workers do heavy and dirty work due to lack of working skills. They are not well-paid and live in crowded houses they have rented. Worse still, some employers of private businesses delay paying them for their work or even give them no pay at all. As they do not enjoy a very high social status, they are sometimes discriminated against by some townspeople.

But governments at all levels in China think highly of the role migrant farmer workers play in our socialist construction and award prizes to those who have contributed considerably to the construction of our socialist modernization. Many government officials help migrant farmer workers solve their problems. Besides, they enjoy performances with migrant farmer workers in theaters in their spare time. When they are seriously ill, some government officials go to see them in hospitals. All this demonstrates our government's concern for migrant farmer workers.