Largest Human Migration Highlights Migrant Labor Issues

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We've been telling you about the flood of travel that happens every year around Chinese New Year. One major cause of that congestion is the issue of migrant workers--people who live and work in cities but can't register as residents there. That means they have to leave their families behind in the countryside. And for many, it's a long trip home.

Every year, at about this time, the world's largest human migration begins. It's a few days before the Chinese New Year, as marked by the traditional lunar calendar. This year it falls on January 23, kicking off a 15-day long celebration. It's an occasion to spend time with the family.

[Yu Guoxin, Construction Supplies Salesman]:
"Going home is to reunite with the whole family. The family spends the Chinese New Year together and issues in a happy New Year. My parents are still back at home. So I must go home."

But for many, it marks the start of an arduous journey home.

Over the next 40 days there will be an unprecedented 3.1 billion passenger trips throughout China, according to state-run Xinhua. It's putting a strain on an already overtaxed transit system.

At the center of the migration are millions of migrant workers. According to China's National Bureau of Statistics, over half of the population now lives in cities.

[Zhou Xiaozheng, Sociologist at Renmin University]:
"Last year the urban population exceeded the rural population, but there is a problem. Before, when China was a closed society it had two social groups: urban and rural residents. But now we have several hundred million migrant workers -- a third group, who live in the city but they can't get a residence permit, so they all go home for the Chinese New Year. So our urbanization is incomplete."