The permanent residency system is the reason why about 41.9 percent of migrant workers choose to return home - another 33.4 percent said the reason they returned home was because of unstable employment, according to the survey by the State Development Research Center.

The permanent residency system, created to manage the population, prevents migrants from enjoying the same social security, education or other public services as those born in the cities.

Factory jobs

Wang Zhengxiu, 38, and her husband plan to return home to Chongqing from Guangzhou, capital of Guangdong Province.

The couple gave up their factory jobs in February when their boss could only pay minimum wages because of the financial crisis. It meant they could have a living, but they had no money to support any other family members.

"No factory will hire us in our 50s, so we have to plan for our future. Returning to our rural home is our ultimate choice. If we succeed in running a small business raising chickens or pigs, we may be able to earn some money when we are old," Wang said. "We are hesitating ... and want to get jobs first at chicken or pig farms to get experience. Anyway, we don't want to squander the money we earned through years of toiling in factories."

Though not easy, some migrants have fulfilled their rags to riches dreams.

"You have to venture," said bespectacled Lu Jialou as he walked through his family workshop with eight workers in Dongguan, Guangdong Province. He opened the business after six years of migrant work.

Talking about the global financial crisis, Lu feels the pressure: "I'd planned to turn my workshop into a real factory this year, but I have to put this off and wait for the worst times to pass."

(Xinhua News Agency April 13, 2009)