China says "no" to bias against migrant workers
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2005-09-24 19:56

Yu Gang, a 32-year-old migrant farmer worker in southwest China's Chongqing Municipality, has been in a good mood these days, for the mayor of Chongqing had called for citizens not to discriminate against migrants but show them respect.

Yu has been working as a porter, called "Bang Bang" in the local dialect, for over a decade in the mountain city of Chongqing. "Bang Bang," a somewhat discriminatory term, actually refers to the pole that a porter uses to carry things for citizens.

The "Army of Bang Bang," which comes from rural areas, can be seen almost everywhere in Chongqing. When a local resident cannot carry his or her heavy belongings in street, he or she just needs to cry for "Bang Bang," then a "Bang Bang" will come on for business.

As a "Bang Bang," Yu said he does not care about how tiring, hard and dirty the job is. He is most afraid of "being looked down upon."

Each year, more than six million farmers leave villages in the locality for cities for jobs in transportation, construction or cleaning, Chongqing itself absorbs 400,000 new migrant farmer workers annually.

A sample survey by the Chongqing Municipal Agricultural Bureau shows that 92 percent of migrant farmer workers say they feel biased by urbanites, which not only hurts their feelings but also may easily trigger social conflict.

Reports said a string of violence has occurred recently in someChinese cities due to discrimination against the migrant farmer workers.

Wang Hongju, mayor of Chongqing, has urged citizens to change the derogatory term of "Bang Bang."

"Urbanites call the migrant farmer workers 'Bang Bang' and unintentionally hurt their feelings. Such a call, with a tinge of bias, should be altered," he told a municipal working conference on improving service and management for migrant farmer workers on Sept. 14.

The mayor's appeal aroused strong reactions from the migrant farmer workers and citizens.

"The mayor spoke out what we have in mind. We expect an equal respect from citizens," Yu said. "Now, I feel my back straighter than before when I walk in the street."

Hundreds of citizens have called the hotline of the Chongqing Municipal Agricultural Bureau to offer their ideas about a new address for "Bang Bang," such as "friend," "buddy" and "porter."

"We will pick one appropriate address from among these candidates and announce it to the public later," said Tang Jibang of the bureau.

In other cities in the country, local governments have also adopted similar practices and taught their citizens not to discriminate against migrant farmer workers.

In Beijing, students of primary and secondary schools were required not to treat migrants and their kids with "colored glasses," not to discriminate against or insult them, not to make fun of their accents or costumes, or not to play mischievous jokeson them, according to the newly-published regulations for studentsconducts issued by the local education authorities.

Statistics of the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Statistics show that the city has now approximately four million migrants, or one quarter of the total population, including 2.72 million farmer workers.

While the total population of migrant farmer workers nationwide has reached 140 million, there are still at least 150 million surplus labor forces in the countryside that need to be transferred, according to China's Ministry of Agriculture.

While applauding the efforts made by the Chinese government to remove the "status bias" against migrant farmer workers, experts on social studies said the efforts were far from enough and not fundamental solutions.

"The most crucial thing for the city administrators is to enact favorable policies and create a favorable environment for the migrant farmer workers with the view to enable them to enjoy a real living space in cities," said Xia Xueluan, a professor of Sociology at Peking University.

He proposed the welfare treatments enjoyed by citizens be gradually expanded to include migrant workers, who should be treated the same as urbanites.

"In addition, the government should help them upgrade their education level and help change their ideas, behavior and living style in a bid to enable them to confide in themselves as being nodifferent than citizens," he said.

Actually, the Chinese government and city administrators have already taken moves to step by step remove various unreasonable restrictions imposed on migrant farmer workers in recent years.

Since Sept. 1 last year, Beijing has decided to include, for the first time, the migrant farmer workers into the social insurance system of the city.

So far, 475,000 migrant farmer workers in the city have been covered by the industrial injury insurance, and 420,000 have been covered by medical insurance, statistics of the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Labor and Social Security show.

In March this year, Beijing revoked a decade-long statute on the management of migrant business people and farmer workers in the city, which removed restrictions in various fields for the migrants, such as employment, business, house renting and health.

In Chongqing, a new statute on safeguarding the rights and interests of migrant farmer workers took effect starting June 13, the first of its kind in China.

According to the statute, migrant farmer workers may get free employment counseling, legal aid and their kids may get free immunization.

Zhou Xiaozheng, a Sociology professor at the Renmin (People's) University of China, said bias against migrant farmer workers comes fundamentally from political discrimination.

"Currently in China, approximately 960,000 farmers have one deputy in people's congress on average, while 240,000 citizens have one deputy," he said.

The People's congress, at a local level or national level, is China's legislative body and a deputy to people's congress is a lawmaker.

Therefore, he said, to remove "status discrimination" can merely alleviate the "symptoms" of an illness, but cannot effect a"permanent cure," which he thinks should be political reform.

In fact, some cities are striving to change the situation. Shenzhen, an economic powerhouse in south China's Guangdong Province, has allocated 10 seats in the municipal people's congress for migrant farmer workers. Likewise, Yiwu, a booming city in eastern Zhejiang Province, has been granted 12 new seats for migrant farmer workers in the local people's congress.

However, Zhou said the government should "take bigger strides in political reform."

"Only by actively and safely pressing ahead with political reform, can we root out the discrimination against these farmer workers and enhance their status," he said.

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