Category Archives: Migration

Call for papers: Conference on the Socio-Economic Transition of China

Conference on the Socio-Economic Transition of China : Opportunities and threats

Dates

April 3 – 6, 2014

Conference venue

The Art Centre (Konvikt), Palacký University, Olomouc, Czech Republic

Organizers

  • EU project CHINET
  • Department of Asian Studies, Palacký University, Olomouc, Czech Republic
  • Australian National University, Canberra, Australia

Keynote speaker

Professor Jonathan Unger, Australian National University, Canberra, Australia

Conference theme

In recent decades, the world has witnessed the enormous economic, social, cultural and political development of China. As the most populous country in the world, China’s transition process influences directly one fifth of the world’s population and indirectly almost all the rest of the world. Chinese economic activities cover the whole globe, Chinese living overseas constitute the largest diaspora, and China’s political and economic influence is significant. On the other hand, China and its government face many challenges, as Chinese society as well as the environment are affected by these massive processes. The conference theme is focused on the opportunities and potential threats China faces or will face in the near future.

We are seeking research presentations (20-30 minutes’ duration) or session proposals, which relate to these broad themes.

Deadline

For sessions and paper abstracts: 31st January 2014

More information on the conference website

Central urbanisation work conference

The Central urbanisation work conference was held in Beijing from December 12 to 13.  The two-day meeting counted with the presence of President Xi Jinping, Premier Li Keqiang, and the other members of the Politburo Standing Committee Zhang Dejiang, Yu Zhengsheng, Liu Yunshan, Wang Qishan, and Zhang Gaoli.

The leaders stressed the importance of promoting a human-centered urbanisation (yirenweixin – 以人为心). The meeting focused on the reforms on the hukou system, the importance of a green and low-carbon economic development, and the need for a more efficient utilisation of urban construction land.

The statement called for a realistic and practical approach to urbanisation, warning officials that urbanisation should not be the result of administrative decrees. It emphasised the need to preserve the country’s arable land.

For more information click here : http://news.xinhuanet.com/

 

The prospect for health care rights in China

Cao, Lijing, (2012), The prospect for health care rights in China, 72 p. Ph.D. thesis, University of Toronto. (accessed 18 december 2013)

The 2009 reform of China’s health care system attempts to lower the burden of medical costs and provide universal access to health care. This thesis focuses on a particular access and equity gap within the health care system that faced by internal migrants, and explores the potential value of a legally enforceable and justiciable right to health care in the Chinese context to address such gaps. Despite recent advances in the health care reform, lack of a framework of health care rights could be a limiting factor to current health care initiatives which are falling short of their promises of universality in some way. In the long run, establishment of such framework could be a direction that deserves further research.

Full text available on line https://tspace.library.utoronto.ca/bitstream/1807/33715/1/Cao_Lijing_201211_LLM_thesis.pdf

Mobile phone use among migrant factory workers in South China

Peng, Yinni  and Choi, Susanne Y. P. (2013). Mobile phone use among migrant factory workers in South China: technologies of power and resistance. The China Quarterly, 215, pp 553-571. doi:10.1017/S0305741013000738.

Abstract

Comparing ethnographic and interview data in three contrasting production arrangements in a labour-intensive factory in South China, this article argues that while the mobile phone constitutes a new contested terrain on the shop floor and facilitates control and resistance between capital and labour simultaneously, the dynamics of control and resistance is contingent upon the exact arrangements of production. While the management strictly prohibit line operators in the assembly line department from using their mobile phones, they turn a blind eye towards mobile phone use among workers in the hardware department, and mandate mobile workers who are not fixed at work stations in both departments to use mobile phones. Diverse managerial control tactics have generated different patterns of worker resistance. Workers in the assembly line department employ strategies to evade managerial surveillance and continue to use mobile phones at work covertly. They also contest the double standards of mobile phone use displayed by the management. Workers in the hardware department challenge the boundaries of legitimate mobile phone use, and mobile workers use tactics to escape being tracked down by the management via their mobile phones. Mobile phones also facilitate the strategy of resistance through exit among all workers.

Read full text on Cambridge Journals online (restricted access or purchase option)

About the authors

  1. Peng Yinni (彭铟旎) is Assistant Professor at the Department of Sociology, Hong Kong Baptist University
  2. Susanne Y. P. Choi (蔡玉萍) is Associate Professor at the Department of Sociology, The Chinese University of Hong Kong

 

 

Disparities in healthcare utilization in China

Jessie Fan, Ming Wen, Lei Jin, Guixin Wang, (2013), Disparities in healthcare utilization in China: do gender and migration status matter?, Journal of Family and Economic Issues, p.52-53.

Using a multi-stage cluster sampling approach, we collected healthcare and demographic data from 531 migrants and 529 local urban residents aged 16–64 in Shanghai, China. Logistic regressions were used to analyze the relationship between gender-migration status and healthcare utilization while controlling for predisposing, enabling and needs factors. Other things equal, female migrants and male locals had significantly lower actual healthcare utilization rates, compared to female locals. Female migrants were more likely to report “no money” as a reason for not seeking care, while male locals were more likely to report “self-medication” as a reason. Considering established gender differences in healthcare utilization, we conclude that female migrants as a group face the most healthcare access barriers among all groups.

Full text available on line : http://ideas.repec.org/a/kap/jfamec/v34y2013i1p52-63.html (accessed 10 december 2013)

Beijing’s low-wage migrants: hikers in the urbanisation and growth process

Liu, R., Wong, T.-C. and Liu, S. (2013), Low-wage migrants in northwestern Beijing, China: The hikers in the urbanisation and growth process. Asia Pacific Viewpoint, 54:3, pp. 352–371. doi: 10.1111/apv.12029

Abstract

In the post-Mao era from the 1980s, market reforms have seen profit-led neoliberal forces being introduced into China’s urban spatial movements. In supporting such movements, labour mobility is allowed but the hukou system has been retained to prevent urban informality and slum formation and to control municipal public expenses. Without residency permits granted by the host cities, low-wage rural migrants enjoy little ‘right to the city’ and are deprived of local welfare and benefits. They often become ‘drifting tenants’, frequently driven by urban renewal, rising rentals and change of jobs. This study examines the spatial effect of causes (residency system) and consequences (frequent shifts in residence) experienced by low-skilled and low-wage migrants. A survey was conducted from February to mid-April 2011 in northwestern Beijing’s Great Zhongguancun area which shows and the marginalised state of displaced migrant tenants. This includes their adaptations to change, the pattern, causes and history of their intra-city mobility.

 

Plain

Plain, Elosua Miguel

A Qiang farmer in Wenchuan county, Sichuan (March, 2013). The Qiang ethnic group (qiangzu – 羌族), is one of the 56 officially recognised ethnic groups in China. There are about 200,000 Qiang people living in Northern Sichuan, secluded between Tibetan and Han territories. They usually live up in the mountains in fortress villages, but many young people have migrated to the cities during the last few decades of rapid economic growth. The violent earthquake that struck Sichuan in 2008 claimed numerous victims within this ethnic group and destroyed many traditional buildings. The Qiang people, whose history spans more than 3000 years, may be facing extinction. The transmission of their intangible cultural heritage is no longer guaranteed since they have no written texts but rely on oral communication. Many of the elderly who spoke the language died in the earthquake and young people living in the cities are growing increasingly removed from their culture.

Migrants and health in urban China

Bettina Gransow, Zhou Daming, Eds, (2013), Migrants and health in urban China, Berlin, Berliner China Hefte.Bd. 38, 2010, 192 S., br., ISBN 978-3-643-10912-5

The double-edged policy pursued by the Chinese government has created serious challenges for public health strategies implemented at national and local levels. As a result, the challenges created new research opportunities for Chinese and Western scholars, and this volume is a compilation of their work. The papers are organized within three main topics: health risks, health services, and health insurance for rural migrants in Chinese cities. The volume also includes two documentary contributions on migration regulations and civil society services for migrants suffering from occupational diseases and work-related injuries.

From “floating population” to “guest Beijinger”

Li Wei (2013),From “Floating Population” to “Guest Beijinger”:Identity Formation of Migrant Workers in Beijing, CiNii Scholarly and Academic Information Navigator.

This study analyzes how floating migrant workers settle in the suburban area of Beijing and pays special attention to factors affecting their identity formation as “guest Beijingers”. Firstly, it examines the Chinese “hukou” policy and reveals the institutional restrictions on gaining the Beijing “hukou”.

Secondly, it attempts to show how migrant workers settle down and strive to construct the place identity through the place affiliation and social networks. Specifically, it links the existence of pace identities in the social context of migrant settlement with the varied factors that contribute to these identities. In other words, how migrants construct a sense of being On the one hand, migrants are not granted urban citizenship, since “hukou” restrictions largely prerent them from becoming future Beijing citizens. On the other hand, place identity grows with regard to the expansion and intensification of migrant networks in the receiving society, some of the migrants are not floating anymore and grow strong ambitions for permanent residence in Beijing.

Full text available on line : https://qir.kyushu-u.ac.jp/dspace/bitstream/2324/26017/1/p091.pdf (accessed 21 November 2013)

Constraints on health and health services access of rural-to-urban migrants in China: a case of Dengcun village of Beijing

Li, Yan (2010), Constraints on health and health services access of rural-to-urban migrants in China: a case of Dengcun village of Beijing. PhD thesis, University of Nottingham.  (accessed 28 October 2013)

China is experiencing a dramatically increasing process of rural-urban migration, which is almost parallel with the phenomenal economic growth and development in China in the last decades. Given the massive scale of rural-urban migration in China, the health services access and health constraints not only matter to rural-urban migrants but also have important implications for broad public health concerns. However, this issue has not been paid enough attention in academic research.
This study focuses on the multifaceted reality of health constraints and health services access among migrants by originally exploring the social strata, social networks, and the understanding of health and health services among migrants. The research questions are stated as follows: What constraints and difficulties do migrants face with respect to their health and health services access? Is there a hierarchical structure in health services access and medical treatment access among migrants? When there is a shortage of financial resources, do they resort to informal social support (such as informal social networks/ guanxi) to obtain help and why? What are their understanding and experience of health and why?
Furthermore, this study investigates the health constraints and health services access of rural-urban migrants in the absence of equal social protection by the government. By conducting 36 qualitative interviews in Dengcun Village, a migrant community in Beijing, China, this paper:

  1. Investigates issues concerning environmental health risks of migrants, their health seeking behaviours, and the constraints they encountered in accessing health services with respect to the social strata among migrants. It argues that the main obstacles to access health services are not only the shortage of financial resources among rural-urban migrants, but also lie in the institutional blindness regarding health security provision, rural-urban dualism and the household registration system in China.
  2. Highlights the key function that social networks play in health and health services access among migrants in China, which has rarely been discussed in previous studies. Examines the range of social networks among migrants, from which they can acquire support, including financial and spiritual, when they are dealing with health problems. The study argues that social networks resemble a double-edged sword to rural-urban migrants in terms of health care access. The fact that migrants lack savings may not be the sole and essential reason for their extreme vulnerability in times of illness. Some migrants, who are in financial difficulties though, may have some assistance, including financial support and emotional support from their social networks. However, on the other hand, the assistance from social networks on their health and heath care access is limited, not only because their social networks is limited, but because the social networks should not bear the responsibility to support health services access of migrants, similar to or more than the state and migrants’ employers.
  3. Discusses the understanding of health among migrants, and further analyses that although many migrants have not formed proper understanding of the connotation of health and have limited knowledge of health, prime responsibility should not be put on the migrants because their poor understanding of health mainly results from their rural perspective while health and health services access depend on the social-economic environment in which they live and work.

Full text available on line : http://etheses.nottingham.ac.uk/3135/1/537813.pdf

Other publication by Li, Yan

“Understanding Health Constraints Among Rural-to-Urban Migrants in China.” Qualitative health research 23.11 (2013): 1459-1469.

 

Who Am I (II)

 

Ecole

Crédit : Miguel Elosua

Following a spate of demolitions of migrant children schools in Beijing in 2011, Bao Caolin (报曹林), a journalist of the China Youth Daily commented:

“Beijing has shut down some 30 private schools for migrant children. In contrast, nearly all the officials’ offspring have access to top quality kindergartens, primary and middle schools. They probably will never understand the predicament of the migrant workers’ children after their schools were closed. Why are all the affordable and accessible schools for migrant workers’ children illegal? Why are all the legal ones unaffordable and inaccessible?”

When the Ministry of Education announced a plan this year to allow migrant students to take the national university entrance examination (gaokao – 高考) in the city they reside, it sparked a heated debate.1 At the moment, most migrant children have to return to their hometowns to take the test. Very few are able to take the entrance exam in the city they live in as they need to meet strict criteria. Parents of children with local hukou oppose the plan fiercely and fight to maintain the status quo. They argue that opening the exam to rural children would put more of a strain on local education resources (according to the national census approximately 7 million migrant workers live in Beijing, accounting for more than 35% of all residents).

The exam has already been criticised for its bias in favour of urban children (chengshi qingxiangxing – 城市倾向性). Students who take the exam in Beijing and Shanghai can qualify for entrance with lower scores than those who take it in other places. In 2010, rural students represented just 17% of total students at Tsinghua University. The proportion of rural students gaining admission to Tsinghua and Pekin University oscillated between 15 and 22% on average during the 1990s.2

The Constitution guarantees primary education for all citizens (article 19 and article 46). Article 9 of the Education Law establishes that “citizens shall enjoy equal opportunity of education regardless of their nationality, race, sex, occupation, property or religious belief, etc.” Whatever the law says the reality is that migrant children suffer institutional and non-institutional discrimination. If the aim of the central leadership is to promote urbanisation of migrant workers, then it seems essential to facilitate migration of the family as a whole. Children left behind in the village often lack emotional support and care from their parents. They only have the chance to reunite once or twice a year. Migrant workers integration and identification with the host city would be easier if their children travelled with them. In order for that to happen, migrant children need to be given the same opportunities for education as their urban peers.

 

  1. http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/201212/07/content_15993891.htm []
  2. Karita Kan – La nouvelle “generation perdue” – Perspectives Chinoises 2013/2 []

A road map for reforming China’s hukou system

By Prof. Kam Wing Chan (University of Washington)

  • Date: Monday, 18 November @ 7pm
  • Venue: Room Segalen, 25/F, Admiralty Centre, Tower 2, 18 Harcourt Road, Hong Kong (Admiralty MTR station, exit A)
  • Reservation & Contact: Miriam Yang
  • cefc@cefc.com.hk / tel: 2876 6910

Abstract
China’s new leadership has called for the realization of “Chinese dream” of reviving the national strength and glory. As the country enters the urban age, a critical part of the Chinese dream is the “urban dream” – the promotion of urbanization to generate household consumption to put the economy on a sustainable footing. Yet a third of the 700 million Chinese urban dwellers today are not truly “urbanized”. They are the migrant population, who do not have an urban hukou, or household registration. To accomplish real urbanization, migrant workers need to become full urban residents. That requires offering them an urban hukou with the aim of ultimately abolishing the hukou system altogether. In this talk, Prof. Kam Wing Chan outlines a proposal to phase out the hukou system in 15 years.

This seminar will be held in English.
Sebastian Veg, Director of the CEFC, will chair the session.

More information about the conference

Who Am I (I)

 

秦继杰 (Qin Jijie)《我是谁》 Who Am I12
要问我是谁 If you asked me who I am
过去我总羞于回答 before I was ashamed to answer
因为我怕 because I was afraid,
我怕城里的孩子笑话 I was afraid city kids would make fun of me.
他们的爸爸妈妈 Their parents
送他们上学 drive them to school
不是开着本田 in Hondas
就是开着捷达 and Jettas,
而我坐的三轮大板车 while I go to school on a tricycle,
甚至没有装马达 that doesn’t even have an engine
要问我是谁 If you asked me who I am,
过去我总羞于回答 before I was ashamed to answer
因为我怕 because I was afraid,
我怕城里的孩子笑话 I was afraid city kids would make fun of me.
他们的教室宽敞明亮 Their classrooms are bright and spacious,
大操场上有跑道,还有足球和鞍马 the playground has a running track, a football field, a pommel horse,
而我低矮昏暗的教室 yet mine is small and dark
像鸟笼,困住我自由活泼的心灵 like a birdcage, trapping our free and lively minds.
要问我是谁 If you asked me who I am,
过去我总羞于回答 before I was ashamed to answer
因为我怕 because I was afraid,
我怕城里的孩子笑话 I was afraid city kids would make fun of me.
他们渴望的二零零八 They are eager for 2008,
被音乐老师谱成了歌 their music teacher even wrote it into music,
被英语老师译成“very good” their English teacher translated it as “very good”
而我只能用加减法 yet I can only add and subtract
算出自己还没到十八 to calculate that I won’t be 18 by then.
要问我是谁 If you asked me who I am
现在我可以回答 now I can answer (proudly),
因为爸爸盖的高楼很高 because my father builds very high buildings
妈妈扫的马路很宽大 and my mother sweeps very large avenues.
刚刚开过的人代会 The just opened NPC
要把我们的教育写进宪法 wants the Constitution to guarantee education.
老师说,打工子弟和城里小朋友 The teacher says migrant workers and urban kids
都是祖国的花 we are all our motherland’s blossoms,
中国的娃 we are all China’s children,
都生活在城市的屋檐下 we all live under the same urban roof.

Many things have changed since Qin Jijie wrote this poem in 2004, notably the expensive cars that many urban parents drive. The school for migrant workers’ children (nongmingong zidi – 农民工子弟) he opened in Beijing in 2000 now has more than a thousand children enrolled. Local governments have introduced some policies to guarantee better access to compulsory primary education for migrant children. However, the hukou system continues to act as a stumbling block for access to public schools in cities, as well as a social stigma that thwarts migrant’s urban integration.

Since the children of migrant workers don’t have a local hukou, they are not taken into account by the local government when calculating the education budget. Therefore, public schools continue charging additional fees to migrant parents. On top of the temporary student fees (jiedu fei – 借读费),3 migrant parents have to deal with extra fees such as the “school selection fee” (zexiao fei – 择校费) that for some popular schools can be as high as 230,000 yuans.4 Although not exclusive to migrant parents, it puts a lot financial pressure on low income households. The zexiao fei is still widely used by public schools to increase revenues. It refers to activities parents undertake to gain entrance for their children to the school of their choice.

Moreover, migrant parents have to produce some official documents such as work permits, proof of residence, temporary residence permit, or household registration booklets, a requirement that effectively leaves many migrant children excluded from public schooling. Since many parents are self-employed, it is very difficult for them to obtain a work permit. In some places, a tax certificate can replace it, making this hurdle easier to overcome. Apart from the difficulties in getting access to public schooling, the discriminatory hukou represents a social stigma. According to a survey in 2012, among the approximate 2500 migrant children who responded, 86% of them said they did not mingle with local children5.

Those migrant children left out of the public school system have to attend private schools. Private schools are affordable but lack proper facilities and even the necessary licence. According to a report carried out in Beijing from 2011, out of 300 schools surveyed, only 63 had a licence.6. The demolition of unlicensed schools has been commonplace during the last few years. Sometimes it is carried out without prior notice and migrant children find themselves without a place to learn from one day to the next. Many children end up enrolling at private schools located far from where they live or are sent back to their hometowns.

  1. This is the original version of the poem, not the edited version recited during the broadcast of the Chunwan(春晚)of 2007 []
  2. Author’s own translation []
  3. Although this fee has been banned by the central government, some local governments continue to charge it to migrant parents under a different label. []
  4. The Children of Migrant Workers in China. China Labour Bulletin. May 8, 2009. http://www.clb.org.hk/en/content/children-migrant-workers-china-0. Last accessed November 4, 2013. []
  5. Zhuanjia cheng lianghao jichu jiaoyu shi liudong ertong jiankang chengzhang de guanjian – 专家称良好基础教育是流动儿童健康成长的关键. http://www.chinanews.com/edu/2012/12-18/4418208.shtml. Last accessed November 4, 2013 []
  6. Migrant Workers and their Children. China Labour Bulletin. June 26, 2013. http://www.clb.org.hk/en/content/migrant-workers-and-their-children. Last accessed November 4, 2013 []

Chinese social policy in a time of transition

Besharov, Douglas and Baehler, Karen, eds. (2013). Chinese social policy in a time of transition. Oxford University Press. 368 p. ISBN 978-0-19-999031-3

The story of China’s spectacular economic growth is well known. Less well known is the country’s equally dramatic, though not always equally successful, social policy transition. Between the mid- 1990s and mid-2000s—-the focal period for this book—-China’s central government went a long way toward consolidating the social policy framework that had gradually emerged in piecemeal fashion during the initial phases of economic liberalization. Major policy decisions during the focal period included adopting a single national pension plan for urban areas, standardizing unemployment insurance, (re)establishing nationwide rural health care coverage, opening urban education systems to children of rural migrants, introducing trilingual education policies in ethnic minority regions, expanding college enrolment, addressing the challenge of HIV/AIDS more comprehensively, and equalizing social welfare spending across provinces, among others. Unresolved is the direction of policy in the face of longer-term industrial and demographic trends—-and the possibility of a chronically weak global economy. Chinese Social Policy in a Time of Transition offers a foundation from which to explore those issues based on a composite snapshot of Chinese social policy at its point of greatest maturation prior to the 2007 global crisis.

Lost Wisdom

Traditional Chinese pharmacy in Hanwang (Deyang, Sichuan)., Elosua Miguel

This photo was taken in the town of Hanwang (汉旺镇), Sichuan province, in March 2013. This is the last Chinese medicine pharmacy that remains in the village. All over the country, pharmacy chain stores, hospital pharmacies and even electronic commerce are taking over what was once a family trade (shidai xingyi – 世代行医). One of the reasons behind this trend is that many Chinese herbs are now sold in formulas. Hundreds of plants are used for medicinal concoctions, some of them handpicked in the nearby mountains. Herbal formulas may contain up to 12 different ingredients, taken in the form of teas, powders, pills, or syrups. The practitioner makes a diagnosis by examining the patient’s symptoms and checking her heart rate and pulse. He prepares the prescription accordingly in the workshop. This man’s wisdom will not be handed down to the next generation, for his only son moved to the city to study business, finding a white-collar job upon graduation.

Traditional Chinese pharmacy, Elosua Miguel