About 70 percent of the migrant workers consider their life as merely acceptable, with many of the younger generation feeling no happiness, Beijing News reported.

The survey conducted by an organization under Beijing Municipal Bureau of Civil Affairs polled 403 migrant workers in three major industrial areas, the Yangtze River Delta, Pearl River Delta and Beijing-Tianjin-Shanxi area. About 60 percent are aged from 18 to 30, and 45.9 percent received senior school and higher education.

Family was voted to be the most important factor that decides the level of happiness, followed by love life, career and income.

The three main reasons that have undermined the workers’ happiness are low income, little time to spend with family and dim career prospects.

Compared with a similar survey done in 2004, the survey shows the new generation of migrant workers received higher levels of education with 89.1 percent having a junior school and higher education. But like the old generation, they still work as construction workers and assembly line operators.

The lack of public service and social welfare is also considered as one of the reasons for migrant workers’ mentality, the paper said.