農民工返鄉過年 城市陷“用工荒”

BEIJing- The annual exodus of migrant workers returning home for the Spring Festival is causing a major strain on urban services and disrupting many urban residents' lives.

每年春節的農民工返鄉潮使得城市勞動力緊張，影響了許多城市人的生活。

"The Spring Festival is creating a severe shortage of sanitation workers in Beijing," said Guang Hong, the owner of an outsourcing company that works with government agencies to clean residential streets in the capital.

“春節使得北京市清潔工嚴重緊缺，”一家爲政府機構提供清掃馬路服務的外包公司老闆說道。

Migrant workers in cities often end up with undesirable and low-paid jobs, such as housekeeping and street cleaning.

農民工在城市往往只能幹一些不盡人意的低收入工作，比如保姆或是道路清潔工。

Urban residents, who have long enjoyed the convenience and largely taken it for granted, are now beginning to see the value of migrant workers in a new light.

城市居民長時間享受着農民工帶來的便利，已經習以爲常。現在大批農民工返鄉，使城市居民更多地看到了農民工存在的價值。

They are finding their favorite breakfast stands closed, and coal for home heating now unavailable. And they are facing fewer choices and rising prices for those services still available.

他們發現他們最喜歡的早飯攤關門了，家用取暖的炭買不到了。他們花更多錢，而且選擇的餘地變小了。

Particularly under strain are the country's couriers, which have to cope with the Spring Festival peak season with only a small fraction of their normal manpower.

而用工特別緊張的要數快遞員了，他們在春節這個快遞高峯期只能處理平時快遞量的一小部分。

The effects are evident. Many vendors on , a popular online-shopping website, stop selling during the festival and put up notices telling netizens that goods cannot be delivered during the holidays.

許多淘寶的賣家在春節期間停止出售貨物，並在網頁上張貼告示，表示春節期間貨物無法發送。

Zheng Yongcai, director of the Beijing branch of Yunda Express said the volume of express services is expected to double during the Spring Festival as 80 percent of the company's employees are returning home. Most of Yunda's staff members are migrant workers from all parts of the country.

韻達快遞的領導鄭永才（音）說，春節期間的快遞量是平時的2倍。80%的韻達公司員工都回家過年了而他們絕大多數是農民工。

Zheng said employees staying at their posts will have to work harder and assume responsibilities usually taken by several people.

鄭永才說那些留下來的員工必須更加拼命工作，一個人幹幾個人的活。

"We are under the dual pressure of extra volume and increasing customer demands for timely and safe delivery," Zheng said.

“我們一方面我們要承擔額外的快遞量，另一方面越來越多的顧客需要我們將貨物及時安全地送到，我們爲此承受了雙倍的壓力。”

Those who stay for the holiday will receive double or triple pay as compensation for their overtime, according to Zheng.

據鄭永才表示，那些留下來工作的員工會得到是平時工資雙倍甚至是三倍的加班工資。

The mass departure of migrant workers at the end of the year is a longstanding problem that has increasingly greater effects on urban residents' daily lives, said Lu Huilin, a sociologist at Peking University.

“農民工年末的大批返鄉是一個長期存在的問題，這個問題對城市居民生活的影響越來越大。”北京大學的社會學家盧惠玲（音）這樣說道。

Although they usually take up menial jobs such as milk or newspaper delivery, their work is an important part of urban life.

儘管他們從事的是卑微的工作，比如送奶員、送報員等，但他們的工作是城市生活重要的一部分。

"It is a sad fact that people only notice their existence and contribution by the absence of the services they provide," Lu said.

“人們在農民工大批返鄉時纔會注意到他們的存在以及他們的勞動對社會所作出的貢獻。”

The problem exists because migrant workers cannot enjoy normal family life in their host cities. And job instability caused by their annual mass departure will hurt their own interests, according to Lu.

這個問題長期存在是由於農民工在他們老家不能享受正常的家庭生活。他們每年大量地返鄉又導致了工作的不穩定，損害了他們自己的利益。

"The urbanization we talk about in China today is an inflated concept. Only when migrant workers can live in affordable apartments and send their children to school in their host cities, instead of leading a split life, can we talk about urbanization in the real sense," Lu said.

“今天我們所說的中國城市化是一個被誇大了的概念。只有當農民工在他們所居住的城市住得起房，能送孩子進學校，而不是過着兩地分居的生活的時候，我們才能真正地去談論城市化這個問題。”