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)
