J-10
11-02-2005, 11:15 AM
http://www.iht.com/articles/2005/11/02/news/china.t.php
Rural migrants to get more rights in China
Reuters
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 2, 2005
BEIJING China plans to abolish the legal division between urban and rural residents in 11 provinces to protect the rights of migrants needed for labor in booming cities, though a similar experiment failed four years ago, the official media said Wednesday.
The new policy would drop the decades-old "hukou," or residence permit, system that has denied millions of rural migrants in Chinese cities the same rights to health care, education and social security as granted to native city dwellers.
The China Daily newspaper said Wednesday that the police had warned that rapid changes to the residency permit system could cause an influx of rural migrants to cities, sparking chaos and crime, an argument questioned by the state-run China Youth Daily.
"In today's China, many urban ills are not results of opening residency restrictions, they come from migrants being treated unequally once they enter cities," the China Youth Daily said.
"With this system, city authorities can get all the cheap labor they need and do not have to pay any social benefits," it said, noting that China was one of three countries, along with North Korea and Benin, that still had strict residency rules.
The reforms would theoretically end the pattern of unfair treatment, including regular denial of payment to migrant workers, who have fueled much of the country's rapid economic development by providing the work force for its factories and its construction boom.
The moves could also help stem growing unrest over China's widening wealth gap, the great fear of Communist Party rulers who want to maintain stability in light of recent demonstrations.
Among the provinces considering canceling residency restrictions is booming Guangdong in the south, where migrants make up more than one-quarter of its population of 110 million.
Yet Guangdong needs more workers. The authorities have said they expected to be short one million migrant laborers this year.
In 2001, Zhengzhou, a city in Henan Province in central China, allowed anyone with relatives already living in the city to get a free residence permit.
"Increased pressure on transport, education, health care and a rise in crime forced the city to cancel the measure three years later," the China Daily quoted Bian Haihong of the Beijing Public Security Department as saying.
China had to solve some of its most serious social problems before it could safely lift residency restrictions, the Business Weekly said in a commentary.
"If urban-rural economic disparities are not closed, if economic differences between regions continue to grow, if there is no way to implement a unified system of social insurance, then the government basically has no choice but enforce some degree of residence management," it said.
Rural migrants to get more rights in China
Reuters
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 2, 2005
BEIJING China plans to abolish the legal division between urban and rural residents in 11 provinces to protect the rights of migrants needed for labor in booming cities, though a similar experiment failed four years ago, the official media said Wednesday.
The new policy would drop the decades-old "hukou," or residence permit, system that has denied millions of rural migrants in Chinese cities the same rights to health care, education and social security as granted to native city dwellers.
The China Daily newspaper said Wednesday that the police had warned that rapid changes to the residency permit system could cause an influx of rural migrants to cities, sparking chaos and crime, an argument questioned by the state-run China Youth Daily.
"In today's China, many urban ills are not results of opening residency restrictions, they come from migrants being treated unequally once they enter cities," the China Youth Daily said.
"With this system, city authorities can get all the cheap labor they need and do not have to pay any social benefits," it said, noting that China was one of three countries, along with North Korea and Benin, that still had strict residency rules.
The reforms would theoretically end the pattern of unfair treatment, including regular denial of payment to migrant workers, who have fueled much of the country's rapid economic development by providing the work force for its factories and its construction boom.
The moves could also help stem growing unrest over China's widening wealth gap, the great fear of Communist Party rulers who want to maintain stability in light of recent demonstrations.
Among the provinces considering canceling residency restrictions is booming Guangdong in the south, where migrants make up more than one-quarter of its population of 110 million.
Yet Guangdong needs more workers. The authorities have said they expected to be short one million migrant laborers this year.
In 2001, Zhengzhou, a city in Henan Province in central China, allowed anyone with relatives already living in the city to get a free residence permit.
"Increased pressure on transport, education, health care and a rise in crime forced the city to cancel the measure three years later," the China Daily quoted Bian Haihong of the Beijing Public Security Department as saying.
China had to solve some of its most serious social problems before it could safely lift residency restrictions, the Business Weekly said in a commentary.
"If urban-rural economic disparities are not closed, if economic differences between regions continue to grow, if there is no way to implement a unified system of social insurance, then the government basically has no choice but enforce some degree of residence management," it said.