About the poor and desperate Chinese “second class” citizens

The Chinese have benefited immensely from the boom of the past decades. However, relatively more wealth has ended up with the large State-owned enterprises than among the citizens. It was primarily the lowest stratum of Chinese society that made the economic boom possible.

The 300 million migrant workers have fallen out of the spotlight in recent years. In cities like Shanghai, they make up almost half of the population, with ten million of them. Behind these numbers lie numerous tragedies: their children are not allowed to attend the city’s schools, which is why most of them stay with their grandparents in the countryside. Millions of Chinese children only see their parents once or twice a year during national holidays.

Migrant workers have limited access to the city’s health and pension systems. Migrant workers are considered “second-class citizens” unless they return to their home province. The Hukou system is to blame for this – people are registered in their birth district and it is difficult to change this later in life.

There has been much resistance to changing this system for years. By loosening the system, millions of migrant workers would have more security, but to date nothing has changed and the migrant workers are still in a miserable, desperate situation.