Recent articles have helped me better understand how Chinese migrant workers can work twelve to fourteen hour shifts, seven days a week at the four construction sites within 15 minute’s walk of where I live: they’re sexually repressed, according to Zhang Feng, director of Guangdong provincial commission of population and family planning. Guangdong recently announced through a survey it had performed on the sexual habits and reproductive health of migrant workers that 36 percent hadn’t had sex in a very long time. Meanwhile, another 30% hire prostitutes, while yet another third said they have many sexual partners.

China’s residence permit laws make it near impossible for a migrant worker’s entire family to follow him or her to a new city. City administrations do not provide social services such as healthcare and education to the out-of-towners. Migrant workers are also amongst the first to be forced out of cities during high-visibility events like the Beijing Olympics and the PRC’s birthday.

Though the national government is considering a liberalization of the residence permit laws, and some cities, like Shanghai, have recently made it easier for migrants to change their residence permit, most men and women who leave their hometowns for work in larger cities will still find the going tough without their families. Perhaps the 100 million condoms the Guangdong government will dispense to workers will help relieve a bit of their anxiety.

Further reading: Reuters, China Daily