Familie – Leben – Pandemie. Worte und Welten chinesischer Wanderarbeiterinnen
A project by Jing Y., edited by Antonie Angerer, Ryanne Flock, Michael Malzer, Elena Meyer-Clement with the Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung – 2023
State restrictions on mobility are part of everyday life for many people in China. For a long time, an official move from the village to the city was almost impossible. This experience still plays a major role for the authors in this volume, even though the tough migration restrictions have been softened in the meantime. Yet migrant workers usually only find low-paid jobs in urban factories, in construction and in the service industry. Authors of this volume work, for example, as nannies in middle and upper class households in the capital Beijing or stand at assembly lines in factories in the Shenzhen Special Economic Zone. At the same time, they have little access to public commodities and services: Thus, they do not obtain a place for their children in the public kindergartens and schools and have difficulties finding affordable housing. For many of them, this means leaving their offspring in the countryside with parents or relatives. Chinese artist Jing Y. has given women migrant workers the opportunity to find their own voice through writing and painting courses. The contributions in this book bear witness to this and give a unique insight into the current world of Chinese migrant women workers under pandemic conditions.