Li Junjun is one of a fading breed among China’s 145m migrant workers who come from rural areas to the Pearl River delta to find well-paid work. Mrs Li, who has worked as a cleaner in Shenzhen for 16 years and is now 45, is not only older than many of them, but more pragmatic.

　　在中国1.45亿从农村来到珠三角等地寻找高薪工作的农民工中，李军军（音译）这样的人越来越少了。她在深圳做了16年清洁工，现年45岁，不仅比其他大多数人年长，也更为务实。

　　“I have no education or special skills and if I don’t do a good job and work hard, I cannot improve my life,” she says. “When I am unable to work, I will go back to my home, but there are few opportunities there.”

　　“我没有上过学，也没有一技之长，如果我不好好工作，就没法改善自己的生活。将来要是干不动了，我就回老家去，但那里没什么机会。”

　　Mrs Li is speaking from the flat she shares with six young women, all of whom work in local restaurants. Most of those in her block are teenagers or in their 20s, and some have more ambition than to work in the city for a few years, save money to support their families and then return home.

　　李女士是在宿舍里讲这番话的，她和6名年轻女子住在一起。这些年轻人都在当地餐馆打工，大部分都是十七八、二十出头的年纪，其中一些人比李女士有野心，她们的梦想可不是在城市里打几年工，省钱养家，然后再回老家。

　　“My hope is that my children can live a better life than me. I think it will happen,” says Mrs Li, who is the family’s main breadwinner, earning Rmb1,900 ($297) a month. Her husband is in their village in Gansu province and tends their land. The couple has two children – a married daughter and a 23-year-old son in the army.

　　李女士说道：“我希望我的子女能过得比我好，我想这一定会实现。”她一个月挣1900元人民币（合297美元），是家里挣钱的主力。她丈夫留在甘肃老家务农。他们有两个孩子，女儿已经结婚，23岁的儿子在军队。

　　She represents the classic migrant worker of the first wave that came to the coastal cities in the 1980s. But the “new generation” – those born after 1985 – have bigger ambitions and are less dedicated to saving their wages for the family.

　　李女士代表着典型的第一代农民工，他们上世纪80年代来到沿海城市打工。而1985年后出生的“新生代”农民工野心更大，省钱养家的观念更为薄弱。

　　In some ways, the new generation of migrants is luckier and better off than the earlier one. They not only earn more, but they can spend more of it on themselves and their advancement since their parents are less likely to live in poverty – the original generation of migrants helped to ameliorate that.

　　从某些方面来说，新生代农民工比第一代农民工幸运，境遇也更好。他们不仅挣得更多，还能够把工资中更大一部分用在自身的生存和发展上，因为他们的父母已较少生活在贫困之中——这一定程度要归功于第一代农民工。

　　“The first generation left the village to make money and then come back to build a house,” says Liu Kaiming, head of the Institute for Contemporary Observation, which monitors workers’ conditions in Shenzhen. “Now, the family’s house is built and there are no jobs there. They go to the city for their future.”

　　当代社会观察研究所(Institute for Contemporary Observation)关注深圳打工者的处境，该所所长刘开明表示：“第一代农民工离乡背井出来赚钱，然后回老家盖房子。如今，家里的房子已经盖好了，老家也没什么工作机会。他们来到城市里为自己的前途打拼。”

　　As a result, they are less docile and harder to manage. Factories in the region commonly experience labour turnover of 10 to 15 per cent a month – or well in excess of 100 per cent a year. This generation does not find it so easy to settle.

　　所以他们不那么听话、不好管束。在珠三角地区，员工流动率通常保持在每月10%-15%，一年下来远在100%之上。新生代农民工不那么容易踏实下来。

　　“Our parents are too traditional. They think in a straight line. They would like to arrange a life for their children, but young people should enjoy the process of trying out many possibilities,” says one 23-year-old factory worker in Shenzhen.

　　“我们的父母太传统了，他们是直线思维，他们喜欢给子女安排好生活，可是年轻人就该享受尝试各种可能性的过程。”深圳一位23岁的打工仔表示。

　　Jane Cheng, a human resources executive for TTI, a power tools and electronics company based in Dongguan which owns US brands including Dirt Devil and Hoover, says the new migrants require careful handling.

　　创科集团(TTI)人力资源部高管程晓江表示，对待新生代农民工必须小心。这家电动工具及电子产品公司的主要生产基地在东莞，旗下拥有Dirt Devil和Hoover等美国品牌。

　　“Fifteen years ago, if it was the third day after the new year holiday and you went over to the dormitories and said: ‘We have a heavy order, come to work,’ they would all do it. The company was the most important thing. These days if you told them the same thing, they would say ‘no’.”

　　“15年前，假设过年后的第三天，你去员工宿舍说：‘来了一笔大订单，快来上工。’大家就都去上工了。公司是第一位的。现在，如果你再说同样的话，他们会说‘不去’。”

　　Ms Cheng says the younger workers are, as the Chinese saying has it, “riding a donkey and looking for a horse” – they work in factories for money but are looking for opportunities. TTI has implemented a programme of community events and sports to make its workers feel happier and more stable.

　　程晓江表示，年轻农民工就像老话说的“骑驴找马”，他们一边在工厂打工赚钱，一边在寻找机会。创科集团实施了一项计划，积极组织集体活动，并举行运动会，以增强员工的幸福感和稳定感。

　　Yet last year an outbreak of suicides at Foxconn, the electronics manufacturer, revealed the unhappiness among some of the new generation. Their greater ambition to do well for themselves causes its own difficulties – especially when the reality does not match the hope.

　　然而，去年电子产品制造商富士康(Foxconn)发生的多起自杀事件，暴露出了部分新生代农民工的苦痛。他们有着改善自身的更高抱负，可是这种抱负本身也造成了问题，特别是当现实满足不了他们的希望时。

　　Wage rates have been rising sharply across the delta following the deaths, but some of the underlying problems remain. Migrants are still bound by the hukou system of household registration, which excludes rural dwellers from education and social benefits in their adopted cities. It has also become very expensive to live outside factories that provide them with free dormitory accommodation and meals. Although they can see wealth and expensive property in the city, their opportunities are limited.

　　在发生这些自杀事件之后，整个珠三角地区的工资水平一直在大幅上涨，但是一些根本问题依然存在。“户口”制度仍然束缚着农民工，农村户口不能在城市里接受教育，也享受不了社会福利。此外，如果不是住在提供免费食宿的工厂宿舍，在外面住租金非常昂贵。他们在城市里看得到财富，看得到奢华的住宅，但他们自身的机会有限。

　　The government’s attempt to shift low-cost manufacturing into inland provinces is partly aimed at easing the problems of migrants. The idea is that they will be able to find work closer to home and not face the same isolation as in the coastal cities.

　　政府试图把低成本制造业转移到内陆省份，此举一定程度上也是为了缓解农民工问题。他们的想法是，这样农民工就能在离家近一些的地方找工作，不必再像在沿海城市那样孤单。

　　Yet young people will carry on coming to the Pearl River delta to seek not only money, but a better life. Unless factories or the government can fulfil those hopes, they will remain restless.

　　不过，年轻人仍将源源不断地涌入珠三角地区，不仅是为了挣钱，也为了过上更好的生活。除非工厂或政府能够实现他们的希望，否则他们仍将处于焦虑之中。