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Life overseas: Hard work and easy money

By Wang Linyan (China Daily)
Updated: 2009-04-22 07:48

Workers from China and Mozambique separate steel to be used in the construction of a new stadium in Mozambique on Feb 6. Work on the venue, which will be used as part of the 2010 World Cup hosted by South Africa, started in April last year. The Chinese government has injected $57 million into the project and also supplied as workforce of 120 citizens. [CFP]

Wang Xiaojie has been suffering sleepless nights of late. Like most migrant workers, he is worrying about a job - in his case, one 9,000 km away.

The construction worker is among the 700,000 Chinese who have capitalized on the legal channels to work abroad and expand their opportunities. And despite already having had a fruitful experience working in Japan for three years, under the current financial climate, he knows there is a lot riding on his new job in Algeria. Not least, the future of his family.

"I was born and bred in the countryside, I'm working class," said the 38-year-old from Henan province. "I want to make more money for my family. It's rare for people of my generation to get a senior high education. I want to make life better for my daughter, make things possible for her that weren't possible for me."

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Wang will leave for North Africa to start work with a Chinese contractor on a two-year contract later this year. But with the ongoing global meltdown causing a drop in demand for transnational migrant workers and several nations putting a cap on imported labor, the wait is only compounding his fears. "Hopefully the job won't be hit by the global economic crisis and disappear," he told China Daily.

According to the Ministry of Commerce, 714,800 Chinese had been hired to work overseas by the end of March, 27,800 fewer than at the same time last year. "We have interviewed about 60 people between January and now, last year the number was about 300," said a manager surnamed Xu at Henan Jincheng International Economic and Technical Cooperation Company in Zhenzhou, Henan province, who explained the firm mainly dealt with businesses in Japan and Singapore.

However, experts believe the current downsizing in the labor market is only temporary and the demand will bounce back. "China's labor export scale has shrunk in recent months because of the financial crisis, but it is short-lived. The number of Chinese overseas migrant workers could increase to more than 1 million in a few years," said Lu Jinyong, a professor at the University of International Business and Economics (UIBE) with 20 years' experience in labor export.

Fujian and Zhejiang provinces are the traditional exporters of laborers, usually to the United States and Europe, closely followed by the central provinces of Hunan, Shandong and Jilin, explained Roger Plant, head of the International Labor Organization's (ILO) special action program, whose latest figures, released in 2006, show 70 percent of this transnational migrant workforce is concentrated in Asia.

"We estimate that, in Asia, Japan accounts for 30 percent of those Chinese workers, South Korea 18 percent and Singapore about 14 percent," Plant said. "Chinese people work everywhere - the US, Canada, Israel - but large numbers also go to Japan, South Korea and Singapore."

Cui Guolian is among the many who flocked to Japan. In 2003, he joined Henan Jincheng's trainee program and worked for three years as a scaffold builder in Kobe alongside six other people from Huojia county, three of whom from his native Nantun village.

"Many of my fellow villagers go abroad as our local area doesn't have rich natural resources or many big employers," said Cui, 36, whose uncle went to Libya in the 1990s and made 40,000 yuan ($5,880) in two years. "I knew I could earn more money abroad for doing the same job as here, and learn more from Japan's advanced management experience."

Cui paid around 5,000 yuan to the agency who helped him find a job, along with a 10,000-yuan guarantee. He received three months' skills training before setting off, as well as help with learning about the Japanese language, laws and culture once he arrived. A typical workday started at 8 am, when he would be picked up from the furnished apartment he shared with colleagues, and finished at 6 pm, with an hour for lunch and regular breaks for cigarettes and water.

Cui made 60,000 yen a month for the first year and 750 yen a hour for the next two years, while additional work was paid at a rate of 1,000 yen an hour. He told China Daily: "I made 10,000 yen a day, that's about a month's salary at home. I was homesick for the first year but after that it was OK, all that was in my mind was making money.

"We didn't live at the construction site, we lived in a furnished apartment. It had wooden floors, blankets, an air conditioner, fridge, kitchen and shower room. The electricity and water bills were covered by the employer."

In June 2006, a happy Cui returned home with more than 300,000 yuan in his pocket. He spent 200,000 yuan on land to build the three-storey, 300-sq-m house in Huojia county he shares with his family. His old home was a one-storey house covering just 90 sq m in the countryside.

"My dream was to build a house in the city, now it has come true," said father-of-two Cui. "I wouldn't have been able to afford my house even if I worked hard for 10 years in China. Now everyone has their own room and the second story is still empty!"

Chinese workers from Anhui Foreign Economic Construction make preparation ahead of the construction of the new national stadium in San Jose, Costa Rica, on March 9. [Xinhua]

Cui returned home a hero and has inspired many of his relatives to follow in his footsteps. "My cousins went to Singapore and Japan afterwards," he added. "They used to be afraid of going abroad and they didn't know how. In April this year, eight more villagers, all in their early 20s, will also go to Japan as they've struggled to find jobs after graduating from senior high school."

But not every story ends up a happy one. Roger Plant of the ILO explained that outstanding problems that some Chinese transnational migrants had encountered include harsh working conditions, long hours and late or irregular payment, while many also incurred "severe debts, even when they go through official recruitment they just don't know how bad the situation can be. They are not well-informed".

"It's too early to assess the impact of the economic crisis on Chinese workers, but as conditions decline workers can be exposed to particular risks involving bad conditions and late payment," he continued. "We are aware of the statement by the government which warns Chinese workers not go to certain countries because conditions are getting worse, particularly in the construction industry. It's widespread, but particular concerns are expressed about eastern Europe."

The media has reported about Chinese migrants stranded abroad in Romania, while hundreds of construction workers, who arrived in Kiev, the capital of the Ukraine, in March last year, found their projects suspended by employers hit hard by the global economic slowdown. They were not paid for several months, the Beijing-based Reference News reported at the time.

One of the workers, Han Yong, told the newspaper the group had paid a 99,000-yuan agency fee before departure. "It's a life's earning for people from rural areas," he was quoted. "And many of us borrowed money from loan sharks. If we cannot make money (in Ukraine) or get back the agency fee, our families could break up."

Han said the workers were told they would make $5 a hour for 10 hours' work every day - $1,500 a month and potentially 400,000 yuan during a five-year contract. But their dreams all turned to dust, while conditions were also far from expectations. "Some construction sites are far way, there's no water, electricity or heating," he told Reference News.

To prevent similar problems in the future, experts have suggested dispatch agencies communicate more with Chinese embassies in receiver countries to learn about the changing situations in the economy and job markets. However, more importantly, Chinese migrant workers must avoid illegal agencies and use only official channels to find jobs overseas.

"For qualified agencies, check the websites of the Ministry of Commerce and Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security," said Lu at the UIBE, while Plant at the ILO suggested China appoint liaison officers in embassies and consulates abroad to deal with migrant employment issues, as well as provide advice and assistance.

Labor export agencies say migrant workers are becoming more conscious of the economic crisis, as well as their rights and interests. Wang Yuefei, the manager of a Beijing-based labor export agency, said his nationwide network received on average 200 applications a month. "They are all from rural areas. Many inquire about the crisis and whether the contracts include articles on refunding agency fees," he said, adding that the fees can be as much as 80,000 yuan.

The financial meltdown has had different effects on different countries and industries, but there are still many overseas opportunities for Chinese workers, said Wang Yuefei, explaining: "Japan's trainee program has been impacted, but there is labor demand within its farming and husbandry sectors, while the UK's construction industry is good and Canada has demand for truck drivers, cooks and nurses."

Local governments have also offered a helping hand. Since 2007, qualified migrant workers in Shandong have been able to apply for a two-year loan of 50,000 yuan from credit unions to pay up-front costs. And in Chongqing, the municipal government now provides one-year loans of 40,000 yuan to residents looking to work abroad. "The government encourages Chinese to work abroad," added Lu at the UIBE.

Wang Xiaojie said Henan has yet to implement similar policies, but luckily he can afford the 10,000-yuan agency fee for his job in Algeria.

"I'm told that I can earn 100,000 yuan in two years," said Wang, who made more than 200,000 yuan as a trainee in Japan and was able to move his family into a 140-sq-m apartment in Huojia county. "I've checked with friends so I know the bottom line. I hope after I return from Algeria I can put several hundred thousand in the bank to fall back on when something comes up in the future."