For migrant labourers working in Shenzhen, living in an “urban village” is the only affordable option. But now even that is under threat.

By Deng Shijie (鄧世杰)

Translation by Diane Hsieh

This piece originally appeared in the Reporter and is reprinted with permission of the author and publisher.

Last year, I took a 6-hour bus trip back to Shenzhen, among its many stops in the city was the urban village of Baishizhou. The bus stopped in the middle of a main street and more than half of the passengers got off, most of whom spoke Hakka Chinese and were in their 20s.

Although I know drifting to Shenzhen is most likely their only way out, and that it has been 25 years since my own family migrated to Shenzhen, a sense of uncertainty kicked in as I watched these young adults with heavy luggage disappear into the tight alleys of Baishizhou.

Living in a “Handshake Building”

Chinese society calls these drifters second-generation migrant workers (while people in my father’s generation are first generation). They are caught in the middle, between a farmer and a worker, and between cities and rural areas, living in limbo amid the accelerating Chinese economy.

Historically, migrant workers were farmers who worked as manual labourers during the non-farming seasons. For example, they would go into cities as construction workers after sowing season and go back for harvesting in the fall. Nowadays, however, farmers do not own as much land, and agriculture work no longer generates enough money for their families. The rural-urban divide means that the Chinese government disproportionally allocates fewer resources (e.g., welfare, health care, education) to rural areas compared with cities. Even after they move into the cities, migrant workers do not receive equal access to those resources due to their temporary residency status, and become second-class citizens.