China will grant young migrant workers more social service benefits and help them rent or buy homes in smaller cities, a government adviser said yesterday.
For decades, China has restrained migration by linking access to low-cost public services like health care and education to a person’s registered place of residence. The system means rural migrants in Shanghai, Beijing and other big cities are deprived of many essential benefits and services.
Han Jun (韓俊), a senior research fellow at the Development Research Center, a think tank that advises China’s Cabinet, said a policy paper released last month made it clear that the government is “striving for substantial reform of the household registration system” to allow migrants, especially younger ones, to register in cities.
However, the reform plan aims to get migrants registered in cities and townships close to their home villages — not expensive places like Beijing or Shanghai where migrants flock for construction and service sector jobs.
“A farmer would have to live several lifetimes before he could afford an apartment in Beijing,” Han said. “This reform will be mainly focused on moving rural migrants into smaller cities and townships.”
The government will expand infrastructure in those smaller cities so migrants can obtain schooling for their children, employment opportunities, social security aid and home ownership rights, Han said.
Han said priority would be given to younger migrants but didn’t elaborate and said the changes would be gradual.
China has about 240 million rural migrant workers, including about 150 million that work in big cities.
Han also said that the government is considering reforms to its election law to increase the number of rural representatives that can be elected to the legislature. Han said the current ratio — one deputy for every 960,000 rural residents and for every 240,000 urban residents — is unfair and discriminatory.
A proposal to allow more rural deputies has already been passed by the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress, Han said. The committee’s stamp of approval indicates it will likely be passed when delegates gather for their annual legislative session early next month.
“I believe this is an important and positive development,” Han said.
China’s leaders are worried about lagging rural areas, where thousands of protests a year over living conditions and perceived government indifference threaten to undermine social stability.
The central government announced at the end of last month that it would significantly boost its budget for rural areas though an official figure has yet to be disclosed. Last year, the government spent 764.1 billion yuan (US$111.8 billion ) — a 120 billion yuan increase from the previous year.
Kehinde Sanni spends his days smoothing out dents and repainting scratched bumpers in a modest autobody shop in Lagos. He has never left Nigeria, yet he speaks glowingly of Burkina Faso military leader Ibrahim Traore. “Nigeria needs someone like Ibrahim Traore of Burkina Faso. He is doing well for his country,” Sanni said. His admiration is shaped by a steady stream of viral videos, memes and social media posts — many misleading or outright false — portraying Traore as a fearless reformer who defied Western powers and reclaimed his country’s dignity. The Burkinabe strongman swept into power following a coup in September 2022
‘FRAGMENTING’: British politics have for a long time been dominated by the Labor Party and the Tories, but polls suggest that Reform now poses a significant challenge Hard-right upstarts Reform UK snatched a parliamentary seat from British Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s Labor Party yesterday in local elections that dealt a blow to the UK’s two establishment parties. Reform, led by anti-immigrant firebrand Nigel Farage, won the by-election in Runcorn and Helsby in northwest England by just six votes, as it picked up gains in other localities, including one mayoralty. The group’s strong showing continues momentum it built up at last year’s general election and appears to confirm a trend that the UK is entering an era of multi-party politics. “For the movement, for the party it’s a very, very big
A new online voting system aimed at boosting turnout among the Philippines’ millions of overseas workers ahead of Monday’s mid-term elections has been marked by confusion and fears of disenfranchisement. Thousands of overseas Filipino workers have already cast their ballots in the race dominated by a bitter feud between President Ferdinand Marcos Jr and his impeached vice president, Sara Duterte. While official turnout figures are not yet publicly available, data from the Philippine Commission on Elections (COMELEC) showed that at least 134,000 of the 1.22 million registered overseas voters have signed up for the new online system, which opened on April 13. However,
ENTERTAINMENT: Rio officials have a history of organizing massive concerts on Copacabana Beach, with Madonna’s show drawing about 1.6 million fans last year Lady Gaga on Saturday night gave a free concert in front of 2 million fans who poured onto Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro for the biggest show of her career. “Tonight, we’re making history... Thank you for making history with me,” Lady Gaga told a screaming crowd. The Mother Monster, as she is known, started the show at about 10:10pm local time with her 2011 song Bloody Mary. Cries of joy rose from the tightly packed fans who sang and danced shoulder-to-shoulder on the vast stretch of sand. Concert organizers said 2.1 million people attended the show. Lady Gaga
RSS