A new generation of optimistic and ambitious migrants

A study by the National Bureau of Statistics has recently focused on the younger generation of migrant workers in Shanghai, those born after 1980. The analysis of 1,187 questionnaires completed by migrants aged between 16 to 35 years old, working in Shanghai companies, has provided data to assess the evolution of customs and mindsets between the old and the new generation of migrants.

Today, moving to Shanghai for work depends more on a desire for social mobility than of pure survival. While the older generation of migrants considered itself as “excluded” from the city, the new generation shows more optimism.