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Radical urban drive creates migrant poor
Source: Xinhua |
March 23, 2010, Tuesday
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A CHINESE scholar warned that radical urbanization might harm farmers' welfare and create "urban slums."
Professor He Xuefeng, a sociologist with Huazhong University of Science and Technology in Hubei Province, told Xinhua that if urbanization moves too fast the cities might not be ready to provide proper public service for newcomers, who have lost their farm lands in their hometowns.
"In this scenario, these newcomers in towns will be driven into urban slums. We have seen lots of such examples in some developing countries," He said.
China now has about 900 million rural residents and about 145 million of them have left their hometowns to work in cities. The country has adopted a system of residence permits, or hukou in Chinese, which divides its citizens into two groups, since 1958. It is not easy to change a rural hukou to an urban one.
Urban residents generally enjoy better health, medical care and educational services than their rural counterparts, but rural people have land for farming and housing, which city people cannot have. Although the system has long been blamed for widening the gap between cities and the countryside, He pointed out its positive impacts on farmers' life. "If rural residents do not find a good job and cannot afford the expensive life in cities, they can still go back home and farm. There is enough room for them to turn around."
Today, many rural families live on both wages in cities and incomes from farmland - young people work in cities to earn wages and the older generation stays at home to work on farms.
Rural residents now enjoy somewhat "free" choice between their rural hometowns and cities, He said. He doubted the feasibility of radical proposals by encouraging more farmers to settle in cities and transfer their land to economic entities for industrial projects or to other farmers.
The major barrier keeping farmers away from cities is money rather than hukou, he said. As the country's economy is still driven by manufacturing based on cheap labor cost, many rural people work as wage earners at factories and cannot possibly afford a decent life in cities.
Under such circumstance, if the country encourages farmers to move into cities but fails to provide them proper services, it will widen the gap within cities, he warned. "Worse, if they lose their land, these families will have no other choice but to become urban poor. This is as bad as a widening gap between urban and rural areas."
Professor He Xuefeng, a sociologist with Huazhong University of Science and Technology in Hubei Province, told Xinhua that if urbanization moves too fast the cities might not be ready to provide proper public service for newcomers, who have lost their farm lands in their hometowns.
"In this scenario, these newcomers in towns will be driven into urban slums. We have seen lots of such examples in some developing countries," He said.
China now has about 900 million rural residents and about 145 million of them have left their hometowns to work in cities. The country has adopted a system of residence permits, or hukou in Chinese, which divides its citizens into two groups, since 1958. It is not easy to change a rural hukou to an urban one.
Urban residents generally enjoy better health, medical care and educational services than their rural counterparts, but rural people have land for farming and housing, which city people cannot have. Although the system has long been blamed for widening the gap between cities and the countryside, He pointed out its positive impacts on farmers' life. "If rural residents do not find a good job and cannot afford the expensive life in cities, they can still go back home and farm. There is enough room for them to turn around."
Today, many rural families live on both wages in cities and incomes from farmland - young people work in cities to earn wages and the older generation stays at home to work on farms.
Rural residents now enjoy somewhat "free" choice between their rural hometowns and cities, He said. He doubted the feasibility of radical proposals by encouraging more farmers to settle in cities and transfer their land to economic entities for industrial projects or to other farmers.
The major barrier keeping farmers away from cities is money rather than hukou, he said. As the country's economy is still driven by manufacturing based on cheap labor cost, many rural people work as wage earners at factories and cannot possibly afford a decent life in cities.
Under such circumstance, if the country encourages farmers to move into cities but fails to provide them proper services, it will widen the gap within cities, he warned. "Worse, if they lose their land, these families will have no other choice but to become urban poor. This is as bad as a widening gap between urban and rural areas."
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