The BBC is the latest to look at the impact of the financial crisis on China’s migrant workers, who are now mostly at home for the New Year holiday:
The global economic slump has hit China’s manufacturing sector, which means many migrant workers have no jobs to go back to.
This makes the government nervous. Officials believe unemployed rural people could become restless and lobby for political change.
They fear 2009 could be a year of increased social unrest in China – and they are bracing themselves to deal with it.
