Business / Companies

Foxconn soldiers on in Shenzhen

Updated: 2014-04-23 13:48 By Cai Muyuan (chinadaily.com.cn)

Workers go to work at 8 am at Foxconn's Longhua factory in Shenzhen on March 6, 2014. [Zou Zhongpin/ chinadaily.com.cn]

Liu continued: "It's the boom time of the Chinese economy for the new generation. The country has seen a giant change from an agricultural society to the global village. They are under great influence of the Internet and aware of their rights."

"Workers in the old days work to support the family, so they were hard-working and diligent. Most young laborers [today] only make money for themselves, so their sense of responsibility is low."

According to 2013 figures released by Anhui province, 50 percent of the wages of workers who were born after the 90s was spending money. This sum exceeds the consumption power of those workers who were born after the 1970s and 80s.

"Most of my friends spend money like crazy the day they get their paychecks," said Lu. "I always save money, but now I only have one yuan left on me."

He continued: "Necessities like food, rent and Internet for both computer and mobile phone take the majority of my spending."

Calling Internet a necessity is a concept as new as the label they have on them – "the new generation of migrant workers".

Foxconn was admittedly surprised by the demands and reactions of its new generation of labors. As a company that relies on that workforce, it has taken pains to make changes.

Big migration wave coming

Under China's first official urbanization plan unveiled in March, the world's most populous country is most likely to face the largest migration in human history, compared to the current 53.7 percent.

Under the new plan, Chinese officials aim to relax hukou policies in small - and medium-sized cities to encourage further urbanization, though they have said that larger cities - Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou - with more 5 million in population will maintain strict hukou measures, according to previous media report.

Huang Ming, vice-minister of public security, said that urbanization across Chinese cities has been "unbalanced" and that big cities with more resources have naturally attracted bigger populations of migrant workers.

According to statistics, the total number of migrant workers in 2013 was 268.94 million, up by 2.4 percent over that of 2012. The number of migrant workers who left hometowns and worked in other places was 166.10 million, increased by 1.7 percent.

According to Yang Zhiming, vice minister of Ministry of Human Resources and Social Securities of China, the new generation of migrant workers now accounts for 70 percent of the total number.

According to a report released by Chinese Academy of Engineering, more than 70 percent of migrant workers have no intention to go back to the farm work, only 7.3 percent of the post-80s generation and 3.8 percent of the post-80s generation want to go back to their hometown.

The report forcasts that by 2030, China's urban population will rise to 970 million to 1 billion from 670 million this year.

According to Yang, the young workers are aiming for development in the city rather than just earning money.

"They have a strong desire for city life," said Yang. "Problems regarding their work skills and accommodation improvement as well as hukou and rights protection will arise and need to be addressed on the level of policy making."

This is the third part in a series of stories we will run that will focus on everyday life of Foxconn workers, so please watch this space for more in-depth reports, amazing photographs and wealth of data that capture and reveal the struggles and achievements of men and women who toil day and night so that we can have latest iPads and iPhones.