Wai Di Ren (外地人 wàidìrén) literally means “people from other places or outlands” whereas foreigners are called Wai Guo Ren (外国人 wàiguórén) “people from other countries”. China's migrant workers make up half of China's urban workforce and account for half of the country's GDP. Be it from a financial contribution, percentage of population or power in terms of collective physical labor, migrants are indeed mighty. Without these mighty migrants, the face of modern China would be dramatically different. They prove the point that there is strength in numbers. After realizing how mighty the migrant workforce is, they certainly shouldn’t be overlooked. Yet, in many ways they often are. This may come in the form of having less access to local services, or even an overall lack of stability as it relates to their ability to stay in one place.

Migrant workers waited outside a job center for employment.

The term "migrant worker" has different official meanings and connotations in different parts of the world. The United Nations’ definition is broad, including any person working outside of their home country. Some of these are called expatriates, so in a sense, expats can also be considered “migrant workers”. According to the International Labor Organization, as of 2014 there were an estimated 232 million international migrants in the world (defined as persons outside their country of origin for 12 months or more) and approximately half of them were estimated to be economically active (i.e. being employed or seeking employment). This falls in line with the reason why many expats start learning Chinese or come to China. They see market opportunity and want to get their piece of the pie. These monetary dreams lead to leaving home and setting sail for China. Often though, like we will see in our discussion of Chinese migrants, international migrants often face a number of challenges. Similar to intra-China migrants those arriving from abroad usually have difficulty with housing and healthcare.

While some may link the term migrants to mischief, according to the Panos Network, it is never appropriate to refer to asylum-seekers or refugees as “illegal migrants”. On the one hand, their reasons for moving are different from those of migrants, and on the other, international law recognizes that those fleeing conflict or persecution may need to cross international borders without authorization and should not be penalized for doing so. For the context of our discussion though, for the most part we will examine the “migrant workers” relative to intra-China, and those that move based on free will not flight. To local Chinese, a migrant worker is typically understood to be anyone coming from the countryside to work in the city. The city can range from large to small, the key being that the person wasn’t born in the city. Therefore they are seen as being non-local, a.k.a. “waidiren”.

China is now experiencing the largest mass migration of people from the countryside to the city in history. An estimated 250 million Chinese, a number equivalent to two thirds the population of the United States or three times the number of people who emigrated to American from Europe over a century, have left the countryside and migrated to the cities in recent years. These numbers are staggering to think about. The intra-Chinese migrant population is large enough to be a country in itself! Plus the members of this “migrant nation” are on the rise! About 13 million new people join these legions every year. The number is expected to surpass 300 million and maybe reach 400 million by 2025. There are over 700 million Chinese presently in the rural areas. It is reasonable to conclude based on existing trends that a large number of these country folk have aspirations of migrating to the city one day, particularly those young in years.

At the heart of these migrating migrants is the hope of making more money. Rather than choosing a place based on weather, quality of life, or other amenities, they often move solely based on a financial opportunity. Migrants appear to be willing to work where ever, whenever and in about any conditions, simply for the chance to earn a bigger paycheck. Based on the estimate of over 700 million Chinese still living outside the city, it creates what seems to be a never ending supply of labor. This is in part why the China job market is so competitive. Bosses often feel as though there will always be someone willing to do the job, no matter how tough it is.

Mighty Migrants in Other Countries

United States

Probably the most common image of the migrant worker in the USA is the movie, “Grapes of Wrath” starring Henry Fonda in 1940 based on the Pulitzer Prize winning novel by John Steinbeck in the previous year. The story is about the hardships of rural workers in Midwest USA during the depression of the 1930’s travelling to the new developing state of California. The film shows the tragedies of these migrant workers but also glorifies their movement to social justice and starting a new world.

At present, many migrant workers in USA are from neighboring Mexico. Many workers are seasonal workers, due to the various agricultural requirements. The problems related to migrant workers are compounded by the fact that many stay after the term of employment has ended and thus they become illegal immigrants. This is where the relationship between host country and visiting migrant gets complicated. On the one hand, the country benefits greatly in financial terms from the labor provided by the migrant. Not to mention, many migrants make less money than locals. This means they are a relatively “cheap” labor pool. They often accept jobs that others don’t want, such as gardening, waiting tables, cooking, cleaning, etc.

While the US is like many countries, in that its service industries highly depend on migrants, it does create challenges in terms of immigration management. Border patrols are designed to keep unauthorized migrant workers from entering the US, yet it appears far tougher to ensure workers promptly return home after having entered legally. There are mini migrant communities where they can try to survive off the radar. Their life may include dodging immigration until they can somehow manage to get a legal identity allowing them to stay long-term.

Canada

With only 36 million people living in a land mass larger than China, Canada doesn’t have the sufficient number of workers to sustain its developmental growth and has always relied on new immigrants to increase its work force. When menial jobs become undesirable to the existing workers, one solution is to allow foreign temporary workers to enter into the workforce for a specific term such as 2-3 years in order to meet the economic demands.

Examples of these undesirable jobs are mostly low paying service positions such as: waiters and waitresses, housekeepers or nannies, agricultural laborers. These are jobs that normally pay the minimal wages required by law, which is about $10 per hour. However, for the foreign worker, this is substantially more than they would earn in their home country. Yet again it is the case of migrants representing “cheap” labor. Incredibly, they not only work for less, but typically do more. This is true in terms of the job itself being labor intensive and the amount of time they spend on duty. Migrant workers are known for working long hours.

Presently, the majority of foreign workers in Canada are from the Philippines. They can be found in many of the fast food restaurants and as caregivers in private homes to help raise children and domestic housekeeper, usually on a live-in basis. This arrangement is highly desirable to them, as it “kills two birds with one stone”. Not only does the job provide a paycheck, but it always provides a place to stay. In many cases trying to find a place to stay is a major issue for migrants. This is because the job may only pay a meager amount, leaving them insufficient funds to rent a decent place of their own. Therefore, ideally the job will provide “room and board”.

Ironically, while they live abroad looking after others, migrants must leave their own family at home in the care of relatives and send most of their earned income back to provide them with a better life. Returning home for a family visit is a luxury. Some may go back once a year, while others can only return after their term of employment is completed. The Filipinos are sought after foreign workers in Canada because most speak English and with strong family ties, will return home and not overstay their legal status and remain as refugees after the job is completed.

Immigration and Border Services departments strictly control the use of foreign workers. There are regulations such as labor market requirements. An employer must demonstrate that the type of work that the foreign worker is hired to perform cannot be completed by a local native worker. In other words, the foreign worker is not taking jobs away from locals.

These regulations are also in place to protect the foreign worker. The employer must not exploit the foreign worker, they must be paid the same market rate that local native workers are paid, no matter that this rate may be higher than what the foreign worker will normally earn in their homeland. The same applies to other local regulations, if a normal workweek is 40 hours, then they cannot exceed this even if they are used to working 60 hours per week in their homeland. Of course that is the letter of the law. However many migrants may face challenging work environments overseas, especially if they don’t speak English and become completely reliant on their boss for dealing with any legal matters.

The demand for foreign workers grows when times are good. This is because low unemployment rates usually mean local workers become more selective of which jobs they take. After all, why work in low paying labor-intensive jobs when there are other higher paying jobs available. As locals get picky, the demand for labor rises. The only option to fill this void is to allow migrants to move into the country.

Migrants in China

The domestic migrant workers within China demonstrate a similar sacrifice in terms of time with their families. They often are forced to leave their children and loved ones in the rural hometown to be able to go to the larger cities and earn more money to send home. A typical rural worker may only earn less than 400 RMB each month (less than $70 USD) in the countryside. By moving to the city, the minimal wage will ensure them at least 2,000 RMB per month ($350 USD) or 5 times their expected income if they stayed at home. Still, while income may be higher, there is a definite trade off in terms of losing time with family and friends.

The cost of childcare is significant in China. Migrants often choose to leave their children in the countryside with the grandparents. Grandparents really become the child’s parents, raising them and caring for their day to day life. In this respect, migrants miss out on being a part of the precious adolescent years. As the children grow up, they tend to be far closer to the grandparents than their parents. Another option migrants may consider is bring the child with them to the city, but then shipping them off to pre-school. This again isn’t an ideal situation. For one, pre-schools are quite costly. Tuition can easily take a massive chunk out of the migrant’s monthly paycheck, as after all they probably don’t have the highest paying job. Second, the parents once again miss out on a lot of opportunity to spend time with their children. In this case, the pre-school takes on the “parental” role.

An example is Feng Lei, who is from a small village in Shandong province. He has two children, a daughter who is 5 years old and a recent addition of a son. This is a result of the relaxation of the one child policy. He now works in Beijing on a construction site and his wife works in a local restaurant. Their children are left with his retired father and mother in their village. They return home once a year during Spring Festival for 2 weeks, just like the other 200 million migrant workers. This is actually how the infamous “Spring Migration” （ chūn yùn）gets goings. While some of the “spring” travel traffic is related to students, such as those at college, returning home to visit family, the vast majority are migrant workers. After working tirelessly in the city throughout the year, Chinese culture requires them to return home to celebrate the Spring Festival （春节 chūnjié）with their family. Since these migrants are usually of humble means, the cheaper the transportation the better. This is why the train becomes the preferred means of travel. Train stations throughout China are shear bedlam around Spring Festival time.

When Feng was asked about his situation, he said it was impossible to get ahead economically at home. Their family only had 2 mu of land (about an eighth of an acre) that would yield a few hundred RMB of income depending upon the crop he grew. The other alternative, was working in a local plastics factory making plastic bags that he and his wife did for about 3 years. They worked 10 hours a day and the fumes from the work made it hard to breath and harmed their skin. Limited profit associated with farming is a big reason migrants are willing to leave the countryside. Likewise, local industry in small towns may be quite limited. The jobs are pretty cut and dry in terms of pay, hours, and working conditions. These factories have quite the monopoly on local labor, knowing they are essentially the “only choice” in town. A greater variety in terms of job type, location, and pay may only come to those willing to migrate to the city.

A former nanny （ 阿姨 ā yí） was from neighboring Hebei province. She looked after an expats household 3 times a week while working the other days for another family. Her services allowed both the husband and wife of the house to work full time. Many nannies are live-in housekeepers, taking care of the children and cooking meals. This arrangement is especially common with higher level expats, such as those dispatched to China for business purposes. In such cases, the expat may not speak Chinese, or at least have very limited language skills. Plus, they usually have very busy work schedules, making “running errands” next to impossible. Yet another obstacle for expats often is transportation. For these reasons and more, a Chinese nanny becomes a desirable solution. The local can ride a bike to and from the local market, getting the vegetables needed for the day in a matter of minutes. There is no language barrier when buying goods and they may even get better prices than an expat would. As with the case cited here, the nanny will take care of all the running around, leaving the hiring family free to focus on their career.

This situation has a bit of irony to it. In this scenario, the migrant moves from the countryside to the city for work, perhaps as a nanny. They take care of the expats children on a daily basis, cooking, cleaning, feeding, even picking up and dropping off, etc. All this makes them much like a “parent” to the children, maybe even more so than the real parents who simply “make the money”. Yet, while the migrant is busy being a parent to the employer’s children, they completely miss out on being a parent to their own children. Their children are left with the grandparents in the “laojia” （老家 lǎojiā）, a.k.a. the countryside. As with Shandong Feng mentioned above, migrants may see their children literally only a few weeks a year!

Use of migrant nannies or “Ayi’s” isn’t limited to expats. Some Chinese even hire an Ayi to care for their elderly parents, which gives the children peace of mind that their parents are well cared for and have the companionship that they are unable to provide due to their busy schedule. Some of these arrangements can span over many years and Ayis become what seems to be a part of the family. While the employer may vary from expat to local, the employee is often the same, a migrant. As with the Filipinos in Canada and the Mexicans in America, the Chinese not born in the city often become top picks for hired help. The reasons for this are quite similar to those abroad. Namely, city locals want to find higher paying jobs. They also tend to look down on what they consider menial tasks, such as cooking, cleaning and other trades. The Chinese care a lot about “face”, therefore, no matter how much a family might pay their nanny, they are still a “nanny”. This doesn’t make for good chatter among the neighbors, as being a nanny is still considered a low ranking position.

Time to go home before the Spring Festival.

Outside of Ayi’s, expats who have ever tried to get something installed or fixed often find the service person is a migrant. This creates a bit of trouble in terms of communication. Since a lot of these service personnel are from the countryside, they may not speak good Mandarin Chinese. Instead they have a heavy accent based on their local dialect. This can make for very challenging phone calls when discussing delivery or directions. It also complicates matters during installation when and if discussion is needed. For example an expat bought curtain rods at IKEA in Tianjin, yet the installation guy was from Dongbei. Another migrant delivered the fridge, still another was the repair guy when the kitchen had a leak. When the Midea air conditioner needed cleaned and Freon added, who did the work? That’s right, a migrant worker. The list goes on and on. Buy something from Taobao.com, JD.com or order food with Baidu Waimai and there is a good chance the delivery person will be a migrant. Go to a restaurant and the cook, waitresses, and other service staff will probably be migrants. With several hundred million migrants integrated throughout every big Chinese city, they are quite prolific.

Another surefire way to meet some migrants is to go to a real estate agency. A trip down the street may end up being like a trip around China. In just one real estate office there could be countless different migrant workers there. Tianjin gets a lot of migrants from Anhui, Dongbei, Hebei, Hubei, Henan, Inner Mongolia and Shandong. Each of these brings with them a unique culture and distinct accent. It is funny that so many schools require Chinese teachers to speak perfect Mandarin, when in real life in China means dealing with migrants from all over the country. In this respect, expats new to China have a pretty steep learning curve when it comes to being able to communicate. The real test of one’s Chinese proficiency isn’t the HSK but rather being able to live daily life!

Conclusion

So next time that you see the street cleaner with the orange uniform sweeping the streets in the early morning or when you pass by the building units that are white with a blue roof outside a construction project, think of the migrant worker and sacrifices they are making. These temporary units are for the countless migrant workers that are building that new high rise or mega mall. Those cramped quarters will hold 4-6 workers in each room, providing simple meals and perhaps not even be air conditioned. Meals are often very modest. Daily life is little more than working morning until night.

These workers make tremendous sacrifices and are the backbone of China’s capability to maintain the economic pace that everyone believes will push the economy to be the largest in the world by 2030. Each year over 200 million migrant workers work in the cities throughout China. Remember, China’s population is still comprised of half residing in the rural areas with many moving to the cities to improve their standard of living. If not for this continued increase in consumption and added economic growth, China would not be able to maintain a 7% annual GNP growth. So while the white collar workers love to tout the economic success, it is the blue collar migrants that are getting their hands dirty and doing the heavy lifting. Not to mention, in many cases migrants sacrifice precious time with friends and family, thus creating significant social stress. Something one might want to consider before making the decision to migrate. Expats can actually relate to the migrant life in many ways, as we too are living away from home, adapting to a new city and new culture. The language spoken isn’t that of our hearts, and we often struggle to resolve issues with housing and healthcare. For these reasons and more we shouldn’t look down upon the mighty migrant.