Teaching Comparative Government and Politics

Monday, August 22, 2011

Policy, discrimination, or corruption?

There is evidently a debate going on behind the scenes over the hukou, or household registration system in China. Citizens are only eligible for public services (like schools) in the place where their residency is registered.

There are tens of millions of migrant workers in China's cities. They are needed as labor in factories and on development projects. Most of them are technically illegal (unregistered) and ineligible for public services. What's a growing economy to do?

It might be that policy makers haven't decided what to do yet. It's also possible that the policy is to discourage dependents of the needed workers from leaving their home villages. Or perhaps, inadequate cash has greased the palms of hukou enforcement authorities.

Migrant schools closed in Chinese capital
Thousands of migrant workers' children in Beijing have been left with no school to attend after officials abruptly closed their schools.

State media said some 14,000 children in three districts of the Chinese capital had been hit.

Officials said the schools had not met safety standards or were unapproved…

State-run Xinhua news agency said 24 schools in Beijing's Haidian, Chaoyang and Daxing districts had been closed just before the start of the new term…

Zhang Zhiqiang, founder of aid group Migrant Workers' Friend, told AFP the move highlighted discrimination against migrant workers, and Xinhua news agency said the issue had sparked "wide public concerns over inequality in education"...

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