This picture shows you that not all migrant workers are man: a light weight girl dangling on a rope! She and her husband both assigned for a job on the construction site, so that they could be together.
Millions of Chinese people are migrating. Millions of people do not live any longer at the location they are registered. Life of a migrant worker is not easy, we can read that in the poems of what has become a new genre in China: Migrant worker's poetry.
In 2008 the Chongqing government installed a 'Migrant Worker's Day' to recognize the contribution of migrant workers to the building of the area. The People's Daily reports that three migrant workers have made it to the top. For what it is worth - 3 people out of millions is not much - these things show the concern of the government.
What is maybe more important is the solidarity between people. Wei Wei, himself a migrant worker, is one of the people who engages in the rights of migrant workers. A few years ago he established an organization Xiao Xiao Niao, meaning 'little bird' to help migrants to overcome there difficulties. They take action is case of non-payment, maltreatment or abuse. Contract conditions of migrant workers are studied by several organizations like for instance SACOM (students and scholars against corporate misbehavior).
Many films are made about the difficult situations of migrant workers in China. Two I like very much are Guo Xiaolu's 'The Concrete Revolution' telling the story of changing China, and David Redmon's 'Mardi Gras. Made in China' contrasting the production of beads in China with the consumation of these beads in the USA at the carnival festival. A shocking eye-opener this last one is as it strongly shows the ignorance of a consumer society.
It is absolutely impressing what China has realized over the past decades in the field of architecture. The tens of thousands of new buildings erected in China were mainly built by migrant workers, people from the countryside moving to the developed areas to work. Once they find a job they work day and night, every single day of the week. They usually live on the construction site until the job is finished. When the job is done they return home or move on to another job. It is quite normal in China these days that people only see their relatives once a year around the Chinese New Year when everyone returns home.
In 2007 a friend from Beijing took me to the gigantic construction site of the South Station in Beijing, where his university schoolmate worked as an engineer. This will be the biggest station in Asia. It absolutely impressed me in many ways.