Migrants don't get big city love

The first survey to assess how China's legions of migrant workers feel about their status in life, has revealed that only 40 percent of them feel accepted by the city they live in.

Despite these feelings of exclusion, 46.20 percent still said they would continue to work in the city they resided in.

The Annual Report on Chinese Migrant Workers' Living Feelings, 2012, released Tuesday, was jointly written by the department of psychology of Renmin University of China and Gongzhong, a website for enterprises and migrant workers, with over 5 million users.

Respondents were telephoned randomly from the website's data of migrant workers in 20 cities, and there were 2,437 replies.

Happiness was one of the 4 indices analyzed, along with other social indicators, including whether respondents had feelings of disillusionment. Quanzhou, Fujian Province came top in happiness, with a score of 65.01 Beijing ranked 14th with 59.06.

Liu Jing, from Gongzhong, said that migrant workers are a silent majority.

"Even though over 90 percent of younger workers [born after 1986] use the Internet, they seldom make any comment and are just observing the world," she said.

Liu said 70 percent of respondents think they occupy the lowest rungs of society. Her comment is typical of a construction worker, surnamed Yang, from Hebei Province.

"Although I've worked in Beijing for 30 years, I always have the feeling of being a migrant from the countryside," Yang said. Yang earns around 6,000 yuan ($952) a month. As a 50-year-old father of two, Yang said life is even harder for middle-aged workers.

"I can't afford an apartment, so for this and other reasons like healthcare and education, it's impossible for my family to stay with me," Yang said.

Yang did feel local citizens are more tolerant of migrant workers now, but said more could be done to help migrants.

Hu Ping, vice director with the department of psychology, Renmin University of China, said migrant workers are not integrated into the city they work in, and their status stops them from being accepted, said Beijing Youth Daily yesterday.

While the survey found that 30 percent of respondents feel excluded, younger workers do feel they are more accepted. A 21-year-old carpenter, surnamed Wang, has worked in Beijing for three years, and earns 4,000 yuan a month.

"I'm not unhappy, but my only purpose is to make money," he said, adding that he has no sense of belonging, either.