210 million migrants on the move for the New Year of the Tiger

For the vast majority of immigrants, the New Lunar Year is the only opportunity to return home, where many have left parents and children. The railways are besieged by endless queues of people laden with bags and it is estimated there will be no less than 210 million passengers in 40 days, the equivalent to the population of Russia, even for trips lasting more than 20 hours on uncomfortable wooden seats, carrying their homemade meals. This year, many migrants hope to find work close to home and not come back to the big cities, where for decades they live as second-class citizens without health care or free schooling for their children, with little protection at work and forced to pay rents high to live in several in-room dormitories.  

On February 3 in Zhengzhou (Henan) the farmer Wu Xianmin stabbed to death two migrant workers who were protesting against the wage cuts to 3 Yuan (less than 30 euro cents) per day.

In the crowded station in Guangzhou, Li Beiyong tells the South China Morning Post that during the holidays she will seek "a decent job near home." Li, 24, works as a waitress in a hotel in Ningbo, south of Shanghai, and earns 1500 Yuan per month. "The pay might be lower- she says-but the cost of living is also less. There I might get on better".   Just a year ago, many migrants returned from their holidays to find their factories closed, with no warning­.  Now, by contrast, there is a shortage of manpower. Many migrants find work nearer home, now that the poor interior provinces are becoming more prosperous in addition to the declining age of the working population as a result of single-child policy and young people seeking better jobs that than manual labour.  Finally, government funding, to stimulate the economy, has created jobs across the country and thus removed the workforce from the factories in the east. Beijing wants to stimulate the creation of jobs throughout the country, to make the economy less dependent on exports abroad. To the point that many factories have even increased wages, in need of manpower.