Starting to consider going home to find a job, Anhui Fuyang Renmin City | Fuyang | with 3.5 million migrant workers

Some time ago, the reporter met two people from Fuyang, Anhui who worked in other places. They talked about many Fuyang people returning to their hometown to start their own businesses. They were surprised, and even questioned the authenticity of the news: it's easy to return to go home, can you find a job?

Fuyang is a populous city in northern Anhui, with a registered residence population of more than 10 million. Fuyang is also a major labor export city, with more than 3 million migrant workers every year, especially in Shanghai, Jiangsu and Zhejiang. In the 1990s, Fuyang had a train station and an airport.

Have the people of Fuyang, who have always been going out, really started to turn around and return to their hometowns? Journalists seeking multiple verifications——

Wang Peiyi, Director of the Employment Service Center of Fuyang City, said that the number of migrant workers in Fuyang has remained stable at around 3.5 million in the past five years: "In the past, it has been continuously increasing, at least the trend of population outflow has been suppressed."

The Anhui Migrant Workers Research Center is located in Fuyang, and Associate Professor Wang Ping from Fuyang Normal University is involved in the research center's project. She has been concerned about the situation of migrant workers returning to their hometowns for entrepreneurship in recent years: "According to tracking data, as of the end of 2019, there were approximately 28000 migrant workers returning to their hometowns to start businesses in Fuyang."

On February 4th of this year, Fuyang City held a breakfast party for entrepreneurs. Sun Zhengdong, Secretary of the Fuyang Municipal Party Committee, and Liu Yujie, Mayor, invited five entrepreneurs who had returned to their hometowns to start businesses to have breakfast. Public data at the time showed that Fuyang had guided a total of 63500 people to return to their hometowns to start businesses and established 37800 economic entities of various types.

Not only in Fuyang, many traditional impression labor force exporting cities have begun to experience population return. For example, in Anqing, Anhui, 35 entrepreneurship parks for returning migrant workers were built last year, attracting more than 6200 job opportunities for returning migrant workers; For example, in Bengbu, Anhui Province, the "Pick You Home, Dream City" event was held earlier this year to assist migrant workers in returning to their hometowns for employment. According to statistics, last year, the permanent population of Anhui increased by 140000, with a net inflow of about 240000 college students and migrant workers returning to about 1.2 million people. Similar phenomena of population return have also occurred in cities such as Yancheng, Nantong, and Suqian in Jiangsu Province.

Compared to the outflow of millions, the number of tens of thousands of people returning to their hometowns may still be small. Coupled with the background of a population base of millions, such numbers are not very prominent in various regions. However, the trend has already emerged. Specifically for individuals, this means that some people who go out want to go home, can go home, and live and work in peace and contentment.

The reporter found a group of Fuyang people who had returned to their hometown and told stories about choices. In addition to hometown attachment, children going to school, and supporting their parents, they hope to have suitable job opportunities in their hometown and value the vast career development space more. Fortunately, their hometown is also giving back their expectations.

go out

Qiu Fengxian, an associate professor at Anhui Normal University, was born in a rural area in northern Anhui. In 1994, she attended high school and took advantage of the summer vacation to work in Shengze Town, Suzhou, Jiangsu Province, which was considered an experience of life. She first stopped a bus with her classmates on the village road, but unexpectedly turned in the opposite direction and sent them back home. The next day, they set off again and took a train to the city. After getting off the train, they took a bus and saw the boundary marker in Jiaxing, Zhejiang. It was only then that they realized they had missed the station and walked back to Suzhou. In Shengze, Suzhou, Qiu Fengxian went door-to-door to look for a job and directly asked, "Do you have anyone in your family?"? The classmates who came together knocked on the door for four days looking for a job, but found nothing. They had to spend all their money again and had to go home.

Qiu Fengxian had better luck and settled in a noodle shop in Shengze to help with the work. The boss's wife treated her very well and brought her to live in her own house. "There is a small truck carrying goods at the noodle shop, and the boss's wife lives in a two-story small building. The villagers all look quite wealthy." Qiu Fengxian worked for a month, earning a salary of 200 yuan. If she could work for a full year, the monthly salary would be 300 yuan. The old boss promised to make her a floral dress for the Chinese New Year. Back then, for people from Fuyang who went out, this was a decent income. Years have passed, and Qiu Fengxian still has a deep impression of Shengze Town, where he used to work. "Almost everyone who had some money had to open factories, and even those who didn't have money had to open small restaurants, and some people pulled tricycles to do transportation business." Qiu Fengxian said, "It's really an industrial town, with factories everywhere and large factories that recruited hundreds of people." Later, after consulting information, Qiu Fengxian found that the GDP of Shengze Town back then was even similar to that of a prefecture level city in Anhui. For many years, Fuyang has been dominated by agricultural economy and a large population. Fuyang people have gone to other places to earn money, and during the Chinese New Year, they tie the money around their waist and take it home, becoming the main source of family income.

The people from Fuyang who go out first stand firm, while those who go out later rely on their fellow villagers to help them find jobs. In the 1990s, Wang Peiyi served as a soldier in Shanghai. In those years, his classmates and relatives all went to Shanghai to work, and friends introduced them. Recruitment information spread among acquaintances. Many educated youth from the rural areas of Fuyang have come to Shanghai and southern Jiangsu. Some of these educated youth later became owners of township enterprises. Fuyang people dug up the addresses and phone numbers left in their early years, reconnected, and could also help introduce work.

In the mid to late 1990s, the situation changed. "A considerable part of labor export was organized by government departments. In order to meet the labor demand for urban industrial development, the indicators of labor export were delegated to various counties and cities in Fuyang." Wang Ping said that a group of large-scale female migrant workers who were initiated by the government in Fuyang were sent to Shanghai towel factories for labor export. At that time, Fuyang positioned its development path as "labor export economy" and its development policy was to "orderly organize labor export".

In those years, many people in Fuyang relied on physical labor to make a living. Construction workers on construction sites and assembly line workers in factories were the two most common professions, engaged in relatively basic work. The first group of people to go out are often talented people from rural areas who dare to venture and fight. Despite their hard work, after a long accumulation, some people in Fuyang prioritize mastering one or several skills and grow into managers, even business owners.

Speaking of Wang Peiyi, Mr. Cao, the CEO of Leopard Head Clothing, went to work at Wenzhou Clothing Factory in his twenties and went through every process, from a general worker to a skilled worker, and then to a workshop director. After mastering his own skills, he started his own business and built a factory in Wenzhou. He started making clothing parts, gradually developed into ready to wear production, and later returned to Fuyang to take root.

Wang Ping also mentioned, "I interviewed a logistics company owner who went to Guangdong to work in 1991 and only had 50 yuan in his pocket. He slept in a hard seat seat and gradually accumulated assets of several billion yuan after arriving in Guangdong. There is also another owner of a sanitary ware brand who first worked in Foshan, Guangdong. Due to his flexible mind and hard work, he was promoted to the management level. He was optimistic about the industry prospects and returned to Fuyang to start a business. He also drove a group of people back to produce faucets, sewer pipes, bathtub showerheads, etc., each with their own strengths, forming a street in the local sanitary ware and bathroom industry."

A similar myth of wealth creation is not uncommon in Fuyang, and everyone has gradually formed a consensus that "there are more opportunities outside" and "it is better to go out to the factory than to farm at home.". In this way, more people from Fuyang are going out to work.

"On our side, we don't call going out to work a job, we call it going out." Wang Ping said, "Usually when we go for research, we don't ask 'where to work', but ask 'can we go out this year', which makes it sound comfortable." Wang Ping started conducting related research in 2012, and in the first few years, she usually received a decisive answer, "If you go out, you will definitely go out." In rural Fuyang, taking advantage of your youth to go out and explore was once a common idea among people.

At the "Pick You Home" event in Fuyang.

Returning Home

Qiu Fengxian has been paying attention to the mobility of migrant workers since 2015. The questionnaire survey started in December 2018 and collected over 2500 responses until the end of 2022. The interviewees are distributed throughout the country. There is a question on the questionnaire, if there are job opportunities in your hometown, would you be willing to go back? The vast majority of respondents checked "yes".

In recent years, Wang Ping has raised questions about "being able to go out" during research, causing many people to hesitate: whether to go out or stay? The descriptions of "hometown is difficult to leave" and "hometown complex" have appeared many times. Hometowns have parents, relatives, and friends, and a network of relationships that has been woven since childhood. Working in other places is like drifting, and living back home is truly rooted.

There are also practical considerations. One day, many elderly people suddenly appeared in the community where Qiu Fengxian lived, taking care of the greenery. Qiu Fengxian chatted with them. These elderly people came from nearby rural areas and went to the city to find work. They paid 80 yuan per day on weekdays. They coordinate with the labor service company and take them to the urban community every morning at 8 o'clock, and then drive them back to their respective homes in the village at night. Qiu Fengxian asked them, don't you need to take care of your grandson at home? "When my grandson grows up, he can't take care of himself after entering junior high school," the elderly said. "My grandson has to use his phone and computer for class and homework, and they can't understand what the teacher is saying.". My parents have also returned from out of town, watching my grandson's homework

The younger sister of Qiu Fengxian's family married to Fuyang and went to Shenzhen with her husband to work. She was very hardworking. At first, she worked as a worker on the factory assembly line. Later, she worked as a clerk in the office. The couple saved money every month to send it home and built a house. My son is in his hometown, raised by my grandparents. It's almost time to go to high school, and my grades are not very good. My youngest daughter is also going to start school. Now, for the sake of children's education, the couple have returned home from go home together.

In earlier years, education was one of the primary factors for migrant workers returning home. During Wang Ping's research, it was found that young and middle-aged male labor force is the main force for migrant workers. In other places, earning money is the most important thing, and men often cannot support their families. With the merger of their hometown's village primary school into the central primary school in the town, parents who attach more importance to education are worried about their children's development. Many people even want to send their children to the county to study, and renting a house to accompany them in other places is a task that grandparents cannot undertake. Balancing the two, the time for children's education is often a node for many migrant workers to return home.

In recent years, when asked about returning home again, everyone's reasons for choosing to return home are somewhat different, with employment opportunities taken into consideration. In recent years, labor-intensive manufacturing in the eastern coastal areas has shifted to the central and western regions. As a populous city in central China, Fuyang's advantages in development factors and industrial layout have gradually become prominent.

In 2021, Fuxing Technology's monocrystalline silicon wafer project landed in Fuyang. At that time, the procurement supervisor of the company, Liu Zijing, had just returned from Shanghai to work in her hometown. "When I graduated from college, I looked for a job in Fuyang and tried for six months, but found that there was really no suitable job to do." Liu Zijing said, as she majored in environmental protection in college and was in her hometown. At that time, the best employment prospects were only taking the civil service exam or working in public institutions. In 2020, because her parents were getting older, she and her husband sold their house in Shanghai and brought their children back to Fuyang. "When we searched on job websites, we found that there were several large companies coming to Fuyang, which could provide a lot more job opportunities."

Also in 2021, Ma Jingjing moved his machinery manufacturing factory from Wuxi to his hometown, Fuyang. "On April 18th, a friend in charge of investment promotion in the district asked me to take a look. I visited three times and then moved the factory. There were dedicated personnel to handle the procedures, so we could focus on producing orders with peace of mind." Ma Jingjing said, "On the first trip, he came to the industrial park to check the environment, on the second trip to confirm the site, and on the third trip, he directly brought the equipment to settle in.". The factory in Wuxi is relatively small, and the price is three or four times higher. Fuyang can provide a more spacious and affordable production site. Another unexpected joy is that the market environment in Wuxi is moving rapidly with frequent personnel turnover. However, Ma Jingjing's industry is technically conservative and has a certain threshold. Workers can only start working after half a year of training. After coming to Fuyang, 32 workers have been recruited, and only one has left within 2 years. A more stable environment is conducive to technological breakthroughs. In October 2022, after countless failures, Ma Jingjing's mechanical production process achieved a breakthrough, greatly improving the stability of precision control. After the technological improvement, the factory's orders have been fully booked throughout the year, and workers are working overtime every day. In May of this year, Ma Jingjing rented a new factory building, and the power lines have been installed, ready to continue expanding production scale.

The technical personnel in the crystal drawing workshop of Anhui Fuxing New Energy Technology Co., Ltd. are busy.

attract

The reporter interviewed around Fuyang and almost immediately asked anyone if they were from Fuyang? The answers received were surprisingly consistent - the probability of encountering locals in Fuyang is 89%. Looking at it from a different perspective, the attractiveness of Fuyang to external talents may still be limited.

For the former labor force exporting city, it used to consider how to "send out", but now it is even more important to think about how to "take home". This has become a pressing and urgent question to answer.

In 2022, Zhongke Haina built the world's first GWh sodium ion battery production line in Fuyang. The product was launched in November, and the equipment engineer of this production line, Wang Fumin, was "poached" and started working at the end of last year. After graduating from university, he worked in Changzhou, Jiangsu for 7 years and accumulated a lot of experience in related fields. "Now I want to return to my hometown and stabilize myself." The project was launched, and Fuyang's talent reserve is insufficient, so I have to constantly recruit people from other places. Qiao Long'e, the manager of the company's comprehensive department, is an employee of "001" in Fuyang, and she has been worried about talent introduction. "We usually recruit people with registered residence around Fuyang. If we are a little farther away, it is difficult to get along with them." Qiao Long'e said, "The salary is not high, and they are not close to home. Why do others want to work in Fuyang?"

It must be admitted that the industrial layout of Fuyang is not yet complete, and the industrial scale and industrial chain construction are not yet mature. For example, Ma Jingjing's mechanical manufacturing industry requires outsourced processing as a supporting industry, but local facilities are not complete and there is a lack of relatively large industrial mother machines. The relevant process links still need to be located in Wuxi.

Wang Ping has interviewed some big growers who have leased land in Suzhou, many of whom are from Fuyang. She finds it strange that the land rent in Fuyang is much cheaper than in Suzhou. Why not rent land in their hometown? "The road here is well repaired, and the seeds and fertilizers are directly transported to the fields. After the grains and vegetables are planted, they wait on the ground and someone specifically comes to collect them." The other party replied.

Zhang Feng founded a factory in Fuyang that produces safety seats, mainly accepting overseas orders and doing export business. He started in Ningbo, and before that, it was very convenient for goods to sail from Ningbo Port. After the factory moves back to its go home, the goods should be loaded into semi trailer trucks, transported to the warehouse in Shanghai by road, loaded into containers and shipped on board. After two times of cargo transfer, the goods will be shipped from Shanghai port.

"Whether they come or not, it's not just about using your words to attract investment," Wang Peiyi said. The relevant government departments in Fuyang have been attracting investment everywhere and are very clear about their own shortcomings. "Whether the industrial foundation in Fuyang can provide supporting facilities for enterprises is more crucial. This is a market law."

Fuyang is very sincere. Since 2008, every Spring Festival, Fuyang has been continuously "picking you up" and has set up 19 workstations in Shanghai, Ningbo and other places. They provide free pick-up services for Fuyang residents who go out to work through buses, train services, and charter flights. From the 23rd day of the twelfth lunar month to the 7th day of the first lunar month, Fuyang Railway Station was bustling with activity. The government sent people and vehicles to the station square for free shuttle back to the county, and took advantage of the situation to hold a job fair. At the same time, various units in Fuyang provide recruitment channels for local enterprises through symposiums, promotion meetings, job fairs, etc., and also provide employment opportunities at the doorstep for returning travelers.

In order to better achieve the transformation of the results of the "Pick You Home" project, Fuyang City has actively promoted the construction of the "Pick You Home" entrepreneurship park since 2020. Both Ma Jingjing and Zhang Feng's factories are located in the entrepreneurship park. Among the enterprises settled in the park, the textile industry accounts for 70%, with a park occupancy rate of 97%. The annual output value is over 10 billion yuan, driving employment for about 1800 people.

Returning personnel who return to their hometowns to start businesses in Fu can directly contact the Entrepreneurship Park, which provides a solution channel if they encounter difficulties in areas such as financing, land use, and approval, and do not know who to look for, who to handle, and how to do it. The entrepreneurship park has promised Ma Jingjing to provide rental discounts and refund certain taxes to reduce production costs. Under the guidance of the Fuyang Bureau of Commerce, Zhang Feng connected with the sea rail intermodal transportation channel. The Chengnan Freight Station directly dispatched containers to the factory, transported them by railway to Ningbo Port, and then went out to sea. The trouble of unloading and loading containers on the way was saved, and there were also some freight subsidies.

At the same time, in order to fill the gaps, Fuyang actively provides basic industrial support. The story of a "PPT" between Funan County and a leading automotive enterprise is widely circulated in the local area.

Last August, BYD came to Funan to inspect the site selection for factory construction. Wen Chaogong, Director of the Economic and Trade Development Bureau of Funan Economic and Technological Development Zone, is still excited: "We heard on the afternoon of August 3rd that BYD inspectors were coming to Funan. At that time, many people couldn't believe that BYD could invest in Funan. They didn't dare to hold high hopes because Funan was just one of the many places that BYD inspected. However, if customers were to come, we had to show sincerity and enthusiasm to receive them."

The Economic Development Zone Management Committee quickly organized personnel from the Planning and Construction Bureau, Economic Development Group, Economic and Trade Development Bureau, and other departments to specially produce a PPT overnight to showcase the advantages of resource elements that match the BYD project. The next day, when BYD inspectors saw the carefully crafted PPT at the management committee, they were extremely surprised. In the PPT, it is clear what BYD may need and what Funan can provide. Last September, Funan signed an investment cooperation agreement with BYD. BYD plans to invest 10 billion yuan to build a production line for new energy passenger vehicle components such as vehicle harnesses, precision machining centers, precision injection molded motor parts, wheel speed lines, wheel hub bearings, and seat covers in the Funan Economic Development Zone. It is expected to solve the employment problem of over 20000 people.

The ideal life of leaving one's hometown without leaving the land, entering a factory without entering the city, and finding employment at one's doorstep may gradually become a reality.

Zhongke Haina Fuyang's first GWh grade sodium ion battery has been taken offline.