The US used to have worker dorms (actually, more like company towns) back in the day. They often forced people to shop in company stores and otherwise exploited them. I don't know if that's happening in China--I have yet to read allegations of that--but it's one thing I wonder about, given the historical precedent. With long shifts like that, it's not surprising that they want to keep workers close. So it could be a good thing or a bad thing depending on whether and how they're taking advantage of the arrangement.
It isn't like that. Chinese factory workers are very mobile, as evidenced by the 20% year-on-year wages growth.
I recall an article on FoxConn that said they couldn't find enough local suppliers to produce enough eggs for their employees (Wikipedia said 800,000) that they started their own farms.
The reason people lived in dorms is not very different to why I lived in dorms when I worked on a mine site in Australia. A minesite needs to be where the ore is. Similarly, the FoxxConn factory needs to be close to where all the other manufacturers are.
The workers are usually from out of town. America already employs alot of people who live away from their families too. You run into them every day. They are the maids, the cleaners, the people who work in restaurants, the fruit pickers. Some of them only see their wifes/husbands/children once a year.
