The "Third Revolution"
Migrant Workers In Changing China
The Amity Foundation is presently providing support to schools for children of migrant workers. It also supports the re-training of retrenched women workers in Nanjing and Wuxi, Jiangsu Province. Katrin Fiedler attended the Amity-sponsored conference on "Migrant Workers: Phenomenon, Tendencies and Policies" in Beijing in March 2002 and provides a brief summary of conference proceedings below.
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Children of migrant workers at a school supported by Amity in Nanjing |
"We make them study objects of our field research - but do we really know what they feel?" In his opening address, Li Shenming, Vice President of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS), reminded his audience of the difficulties of understanding the life of China's migrant workers. On March 21-22, 2002, an Amity-sponsored conference on "Migrant Workers: Phenomenon, Tendencies And Policies" was held in Beijing. The meeting, co-organized by Amity and the Institute of Sociology of CASS, brought together around thirty Chinese scholars for an asessment of the situation of China's migrant population. It is estimated that around 100 million peasants have left their villages in search of jobs in cities. As new residents, and without official urban household registration, they lack access to basic facilities such as medical care, education, social insurance and housing.
Why did Amity initiate this conference? In his opening remarks, Zhang Liwei, Assistant to the General Secretary, explained Amity's interest in expanding those projects serving and relating to China's migrant population. Amity's work over the past seventeen years has closely mirrored China's development. When the economy in China's eastern provinces started to take off, Amity moved west in its project work. Now, following the tide of migrant workers in search of jobs in the cities, Amity needs to address this new form of urban poverty. Making a living from menial tasks rejected by ordinary urban residents, but without access to basic services, many migrants feel discriminated against. On a more personal note, Zhang told the audience about essays written by migrant workers' children. "When I read some of these stories, full of reproach about the neglect the children had suffered, I realized the seeds of hatred have already been sown."
Despite the potentially unsettling force of this social situation, the government has been slow in responding to migrants' needs. On the other hand, more and more NGOs and volunteers seem to be stepping in, a trend that is difficult to quantify but not to be overlooked.
Seventeen papers were presented in just two days--ample evidence of the increasing attention China's migrant population is receiving from scholars. Presentations covered a wide range of topics, from theoretical discussions over motivations for migration to individual case studies of migrant communities in the cities. While schooling for migrant children has received increasing attention over the past years, migrants' access to medical care remains an underresearched area.
The phenomenon of migration is a manifold one, and participants pointed out the need for terminological precision: apart from migrants of rural origins, workers and professionals are now job-hopping between cities. As such, not all migrants are poor and in need of support. For Amity, workers of peasant origin who lack urban household registration, are of particular interest.
Most papers delivered were of a descriptive nature and presented an array of new facts and interesting observations. For example, urban communities of migrant workers mirror their former village life in many ways, such as in decision-making processes or ancestor veneration. Regarding the origins of those who decide to migrate to the cities, it is important to note that they do not constitute the poorest of the poor. In general, inhabitants from China's most poverty-stricken areas would be unable to finance a trip to the city. Also, in recent years, more and more women are leaving their villages. Another new development is the increasing number of migrants who bring their families to the cities and who do not intend to return to the countryside.
The policy implications of these findings remained somewhat vague. Should migrants be encouraged to return to their villages? How can housing and other services be provided in China's rapidly changing urban landscape? Should city planners segregate migrants according to their ethnic background? There are also effects of migration that are hard to measure: What is the social cost of deserted villages and disrupted families? How does one evaluate the changes in traditional family structures and gender roles that result from migration?
What is happening is indeed a "third revolution in the village" (after the land reform of the 1950s and the introduction of the household responsibility system in the 1980s) and we are only beginning to understand its implications. For policy decisions regarding Amity's work, more follow-up needs to be done based on research presented at the conference. Finding solutions will not be easy. "How do we solve these problems?" Li Lulu from Beijing People's University asked rhetorically at the conference. "I don't know" he concluded.
