By Brendan Sweeney
China’s spectacular growth rates during the last three decades were achieved with the help of at least 100 million migrants from the countryside, the greatest movement of people since World War Two.
Many of these workers who moved to booming urban centres in search of work lack access to proper healthcare, have their pay withheld for months or have to work long hours in dangerous or unhealthy conditions.
However, the global downturn has also affected China, and an estimated 20 million migrants have returned to their home villages where they now face a very difficult time earning a reasonable income.
Since last year, DIHR has supported a legal aid centre for migrant workers, based in Beijing and with small offices in the provinces to assist migrant workers. The lawyers in the centre help migrants who experience problems such as getting paid salary arrears or receiving compensation for work injuries.
The lawyers at the centre have also produced a booklet, supported by DIHR and financed by the Danish International Development Assistance (DANIDA), which is being distributed to migrants in Beijing and provincial cities.
The new publication informs migrants of their rights and also enables legal aid lawyers to improve their handling of the numerous complaints and questions they encounter.
Hatla Thelle, DIHR’s leading expert on China, believes that the publication of the booklet is timely and will meet the needs of migrant workers:
“The problems raised in this publication are fairly typical of the conditions being met by peasant-workers when they arrive in the cities and try to get a job. One basic problem is the Chinese household registration system which confers a different legal status on migrants from the countryside than on townspeople. Another problem is that they are at the bottom of the hierarchy of workers and are hit in a disproportionate way by violations of labour rights in China in general,” she said.
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