農民工的困擾 Problems for migrants

THE greatest wave of voluntary migration in human history transformed China's cities, and the global economy, in a single generation. It has also created a huge task for those cities, by raising the expectations of the next generation of migrants from the countryside, and of second-generation migrant children. They have grown up in cities in which neither the jobs nor the education offered them have improved matters because the next generation of migrants has already arrived in staggering numbers. Shanghai's migrant population almost trebled between 2000 and 2010, to 9m of the municipality's 23m people. Nearly 60% of Shanghai's 7.5m or so 20-to-34-year-olds are migrants.

人類史上最大規模的自願遷徙波在一代人之間，改變了中國城市，改變了世界經濟，同時也爲那些被改變的城帶來巨大的負擔。因爲他們提高了來自農村的下一代農民工的期望，提高了農民工子女們（新生代農民工）的期望。農民工的孩子成長在城市，而城市給他們提供的工作或者教育卻絲毫沒有改進。改進與否關係重大，因爲下一代農民工數量激增。2000年至2012年間，上海農民工數量增長了近兩倍，市區2300萬人中的900萬人是農民工。上海20到34歲之間大約共有750萬人，近60%都是農民工。

Many have ended up in the same jobs and dormitory beds as their parents did. A survey by the National Bureau of Statistics found that 44% of young migrants worked in manufacturing and another 10% in construction. This and another recent survey suggest that young migrants are dissatisfied with their lot and, despite large pay rises for factory work in recent years, with their salaries, too. Those who grew up partly in the cities with their parents have expectations of a comfortable life that are more difficult to satisfy. Their ambitions frustrated, many do something their parents did not: they leave one job, and find another. And then leave again.

很多年輕的農民工幹着父輩們幹過的活兒，睡着父輩們睡過的集體牀鋪。國家統計局一項調查顯示，44%的年輕農民工在製造業工作，另10%則在建築工地。這項調差和另一項近期調查表明，儘管近年來工廠工作大幅加薪，工人工資也大幅增長，年輕的農民工們仍然不滿意自己的處境。在城市裏跟隨父母一起長大的年輕人們嚮往的舒適生活就更難實現了。他們的美好願望受到挫折，其中很多人做出一些父輩人不會做出來的事：他們辭掉一份工作，找到另一份；然後再辭掉。

The Centre for Child-Rights and Corporate Social Responsibility, a partner in Beijing of Save the Children Sweden, conducted a survey of young textile workers in five provinces in 2011. A majority had changed jobs at least twice since starting work in the previous two or three years. Nearly half worried about the monotony of their work and despaired of their career prospects. Only 8.6% reported being “comfortable” at work. One worker told researchers: “We have become robots, and I don't want to be a robot who only works with machines.”

北京的一家瑞典拯救兒童機構的合夥人——兒童權利和企業社會責任中心在2011年對全國五個省的紡織工人做過一項調查。在開始工作的兩年或三年時間裏，大部分人至少換過兩次工作。近一半人厭煩工作的千篇一律，對自己的職業前景感到失望。只有8.6%的人稱工作“舒適”。一位工人告訴調查者：“我們都成機器人了，可我不想當只能跟機器工作的機器人。”

Tied to the land

牢牢地束縛到土地上

One obstacle to a better job is their parents. In China's system of household registration (known as hukou), children born to rurally registered parents count as rural, even if their parents have migrated to the city, and regardless of where they themselves were born. In 2010 Shanghai was home to 390,000 children under the age of six who were officially classified as “migrants”.

找不到好工作的一個原因來源於他們父母。在中國的戶籍登記制度（戶口）裏，父母是農村戶口的，孩子也被看成農村戶口，即便父母早已遷往城裏，孩子出生在城市。2010年，上海有39萬六歲以下的兒童被官方認定爲“移民”。

They are fated to grow up on a separate path from children of Shanghainese parents. Migrant children are eligible to attend local primary and middle schools, but barred from Shanghai's high schools. They receive better schooling and social benefits than their parents did, and some pursue different types of work (see next story), but their status and their education are still more likely to lead to an assembly line than a university classroom.

他們註定要走一條跟土生土長上海人孩子不一樣的路。農民工子女可以進當地小學初中，不過不能進上海的高中。他們比他們的父母接受更好的教育和社會福利，有一些人能追求不同類型的工作，但是他們的身份和所受教育更有利於他們進流水線而不是大學課堂。

For years reformers have called for changes in the hukou system. Children with a rural hukou want to lead a better life than their parents did. Many have never worked on the farm, but the system denies them a fair chance to move up the ladder.

好多年以來，改革者一直呼籲改革戶口制度。有農村戶口的孩子想過上比父母好的生活，他們其中很多人沒有下過地，但是受制度限制，他們沒有公平的機會往上爬。

This is unlikely to change soon. First, China's factories still need large numbers of migrants, and the system now in place ensures that many of them will seek work there. Second, Chinese cities have welcomed migrants without a coherent plan to educate them. Shanghai had 170,000 students enrolled in high school in 2010, but there were 570,000 migrant children aged 15 to 19 living in the city who were unable to attend those schools. “The Shanghai government needs to provide its educational resources to the locals first,” says Xu Benliang, deputy director of the Shanghai Charity Education and Training Centre, which teaches young migrants how to get on in life. Mr Xu says the centre tries to tell migrants: “Don't complain about things that you can't change.”

這種狀況不大可能短期內得到改善。首先，中國的工廠仍大量需要農民工，這套制度目前能夠保證大部分農民工在城裏找工作；第二，中國的城市歡迎農民工，卻沒有配套的教育計劃。2010年，上海高中錄取17萬學生，而57萬15到19歲之間居住在上海的農民工子女不能進上海的高中上學。上海慈善教育培訓中心副主任徐本良說，“上海政府要首先給本地人提供教育資源。”而該中心教育農民工如何出人頭地。徐先生聲稱，該中心試圖告訴農民工兄弟們，“不要抱怨你不能改變的事情”“不能改變事情時，就不能抱怨。”

One educational option that is left to the brightest young migrants is vocational school, where students are taught a trade. At a suburban campus of the Shanghai Vocational School of Technology and Business, half the students are migrants and half are local Shanghainese (five years ago, only one student in seven was a migrant). Because the locals tend to be those who failed to secure the prized slots in formal Shanghai high schools, the migrant students here are the stars.

留給最聰明的年輕農民工們的一條出路，就是進職業學校，在那裏學技術。上海商業職業技術學院的一所郊外校區裏，一半的學生是農民工，一半是上海本地人（五年前，7個人裏纔有1個是農民工）。因爲當地學生一般是那些混不上正式的上海高中的，農民工學生在這裏就是明星。

Zhang Xiaohan is 16. She moved to Shanghai five years ago from Henan province in central China in order to be with her migrant parents. Her father is a furniture salesman and her mother works in a shop. She studies computing. Ms Zhang would prefer a diploma from a Shanghai high school and the better chance at a university education that would bring, but she admits, “I need to accept reality. I need to adapt.”

趙小涵16歲，5年前跟父母從中部的河南省來到上海。她的父親賣傢俱，母親在一家店裏打工。她學的是計算機。趙小涵更想有一張上海高中的文憑，和大學教育帶來的更好的機會，不過她承認，“我得接受現實，我要適應現實。”