"To all these who have, more will be given, and they will have abundance; but from those who have nothing, even what they have will be taken away." This saying from the Bible is what the Matthew effect refers to. This is precisely what is now happening to the more than 200 million migrant workers in China.

Ministry of Health statistics show that almost 90 percent of those suffering from occupational diseases are migrant workers. Hazardous working conditions are taking away what many of these laborers rely on for a living - their health.

In one of the most well-known cases, of the more than 60 migrant workers from a county in southwestern Yunnan province who work in quartz sand plants in eastern Anhui province, about half have developed pneumoconiosis. Twelve have already died.