For many years the free movement of people was seen as a net good (which it is). Locals in Texas would rather do nothing than pick melons and the ‘Polish plumber’ in the U.K. was for a long time a role model of migrant can-do spirit, contributing to the local economy and their own lot in fair measure.
Er, and then, populist politicians ‘discovered’ these groups to be responsible for all manner of problems and a net burden on social welfare infrastructure [Poisonous tosh, but there have always been votes in demagoguery].
China has its own problems with immigrants but in it’s case these are (mostly) ethnically similar Han Chinese moving from the countryside to the cities. Ethnically similar the newcomers may be but from very different educational and socioeconomic backgrounds and integrate easily they do not.
In the (somewhat rambling but some nuggets nonetheless) paper highlighted this week researchers Rongwei Chu from Fudan University, Jie Fowler Gao from Valdosta State University together with James W. Gentry and Xin Zhao from the University of Nebraska talked to 34 adult migrants in Shanghai to put a human face to some of the issues this group faces.
Old China watchers will find little new here but it’s still worth being reminded what a colossal migration has taken place. So far it’s estimated 270-million souls have made the rural-urban switch. As the researchers point out there are only two countries in the world (excluding China) with total populations larger; and tens of millions more are expected to make the move in the decade ahead.
The new arrivals though are usually less well educated and of course worse off economically. They are therefore an instant and likely to endure underclass wherever they turn up. Gated communities are one of the more visible responses but less visible are the consequences such as children (estimated at 60m) and parents left behind in the countryside.
The economic benefits of this migration are manifest but the authors of the paper suggest the true long-term social costs of this rip, few if any good, may only just be beginning to be fully appreciated.
The paper in full can be accessed via this link The Plight of Rural Migrant Workers in Urban China
Happy Sunday.