Migrants seek wives in Vietnam

Many marriage agencies are offering to hook up Chinese men and Vietnamese women. IC Photo

He said media reports describe Vietnamese women as gentle, sincere and virtuous, so he intends to try his luck there. “I have already saved 10,000 yuan. I think it will be enough to prepare for my wedding. I want to get married and start a family in my home town,” he said.

Hong‘s fellow workers were supportive. “If he managed to bring home a wife, then maybe we should follow his lead,” Song Yong, 26, one of Hong’s friends, said.

“The love and marriage problem for migrant workers is an important issue facing society,” said Wa Xinmei, a researcher at the Institute of Population and Labor Economics at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

“Migrant workers have a very limited social circle. They usually meet the opposite sex through friends, marriage agencies or by chance: all the options have abysmal success rates.”

The new generation of migrant workers are at the age for marriage. According to census data from the All-China Federation of Trade Unions in 2008, most migrant workers are 16 to 30 years old, while 23 percent of migrant workers are between the ages of 31 and 40. Most work in construction or manufacturing, a few are employed in restaurants, wholesale or retail work.

Further, the data shows how occupational restrictions and low income make it hard to find a partner. “[As many as] 80 percent of all construction workers are migrants. The job sites are dusty and hard, with low pay and high risk. It‘s not the life women are looking for,” Wang said.

Women working in clothing factories or as spinners don‘t have it any easier. “Most women migrant workers are not looking for a migrant as a mate. They want a man who grew up in the city,” she said.