Deng Weizhi, dean of Shanghai
University's Sociology Department, released a report to the
media on May 18 after a two-year investigation into the living
conditions of Three
Gorges Dam Project migrants who had been resettled in Shanghai.
Most migrants said they were satisfied with their lives, and the
degree of satisfaction did not appear to relate to the time they
had been resettled. Those in Songjiang District were among the most
recent arrivals, but their degrees of satisfaction were comparable
to those in Nanhui and Chongming districts who had been there for
two or three years.
Songjiang is the richest district of the three, and the
government arranged a job for each household, with help from the
Migration Office to find additional jobs.
Chongming is the least developed, and local businesses were
encouraged to employ migrants, but many of those employed left due
to low salaries. Those who stuck with their new jobs often found
themselves out of work anyway as factories closed down.
Perceptions of salary levels also caused problems, with migrants
often expecting higher wages than those that were average for
locals. According to Weng Dingjun, a Shanghai University associate
professor on the research team, the mandatory nature of the
migration had raised migrants' income expectations.
Dissatisfaction was usually connected with living expenses since
many had previously used local firewood and river water instead of
having to buy gas and tap water. Other costs, like schools and
medical expenses, were also much more expensive in Shanghai.
The investigation found that, although whole families and
villages had moved to the same areas, there was often a melancholy
and sense of loss over their old lives.
Adapting to local ways of life has been difficult?--
migrants to Chongming had to learn not to cut down trees for
firewood, something that had been a normal part of their lives
before. The pace of life in Shanghai was also faster and more
stressful.
Language was a barrier, especially at first, and after several
months most communicate with their new neighbors by speaking
Mandarin in their Chongqing accent. Mastering the local Shanghai
dialect is much harder, particularly for those aged over 30.
Migrants' economic success in their new homes has varied widely,
with young couples often able to cope better than older families
and those with children at school.
Nearly one million residents have been relocated to make way for
the Three Gorges Dam Project, the world's largest reservoir on the
middle reaches of the Yangtze
River.
According to Pu Haiqing, office manager of the Three Gorges Dam
Project Construction Committee, nearly 85 percent of migrants have
been from southwestern Chongqing
and the rest from neighboring Hubei
Province.
???
They have been moved to the booming coastal regions, including Zhejiang
and Jiangsu
provinces and Shanghai.
The areas where they used to live will be flooded after the
175-meter dam is completed in 2009.
(Nanfan Weekend, translated by Wang Qian for
China.org.cn May 24, 2005)