Immigration News: October, 2005 - Volume 12

China: Migrants, Economy

There are about 120 million internal rural-urban migrants in China, mostly young people from rural areas with junior middle school educations who move to cities. Most stay in urban areas for only a few years; an estimated six million new migrants arrive in urban areas each year.

China's population surpassed one billion in 1980, when the government concluded that unchecked population growth could undermine economic development. The government launched the one-child policy and enforced it strictly in urban areas. Local leaders often used forced abortions and compulsory sterilization to prevent births, but the resentment these methods aroused, especially in rural areas, led to experiments beginning in the mid-1990s to substitute education and contraceptive devices for coercion.

The government in 2002 adopted a law granting citizens the right to make an "informed choice" in family planning. The new system provides economic rewards for couples with only one child and assesses fines or fees for those with more. However, the careers of local officials are still linked to their achieving family planning targets, which means that coercive family planning methods persist in rural areas despite the new laws. An activist who traveled to Beijing to protest unlawful local government methods to restrict births was arrested in Beijing by police who traveled from his hometown to prevent him from presenting local grievances to central government officials.

China is developing what could become a dangerous imbalance between the sexes. There were 120 male children aged 0 to 4 in the 2000 Census for every 100 girls, far higher than the normal ratio of105 boys to 100 girls. In some rural areas, there are 140 or more boys for every 100 girls, which could add to international emigration pressures, since young men are most likely to go abroad.

China's GDP was $1.7 trillion in 2004, about the same as the GDP of California, giving the Chinese a GDP per capita of about $1,200. China has about 3.1 million college graduates each year, compared to 1.3 million in the US, but most are not considered able to work for multinationals because of poor English and lack of flexibility- most colleges teach and test for facts.

Economy. More Chinese are protesting injustices, especially in rural areas where 800 million or two-thirds of Chinese live. Corrupt local government officials and powerful property developers sometimes expropriate land from peasants, who can farm but not sell their land.

Zhou Yongkang, the public security minister, said there were 74,000 mass incidents, including demonstrations and riots, in 2004, up from 58,000 in 2003. Most protests do not rise to riot level, but the danger of escalation seems omnipresent. For example, there were demonstrations in Shanghai by restaurant workers in August 2005 who said they were replaced by lower-wage migrants.

The root of the problem is farm land, which can be farmed but not bought and sold. Local officials can legally seize farm land for commercial purposes, and usually enrich themselves in the process. The farmers who lose land normally receive minimal compensation, which leads to protests.

China allowed the value of its currency to rise against the US dollar in July 2005, which helped the currencies of other Asian countries to rise against the dollar as well. The US, which had been urging yuan re-valuation, hopes that more expensive Asian exports will reduce the US trade deficit, but the result could be more unemployment in and emigration from China.

Do China's growing economy and military power threaten the US? Analysts are divided, with some seeing closer economic ties that benefit both nations as a reason why conflict can be avoided, and others assuming that strategic conflict is inevitable. The US encouraged China to join the World Trade Organization in 2001 and buys so many Chinese goods that there was a $162 billion US trade deficit with China in 2004. China has $700 billion in foreign exchange reserves, mostly in dollars, and invests heavily in United States Treasury bonds, which helps to keep US interest rates low.

Taiwan. Some 100 Thai workers on August 21, 2005 protested their treatment near a construction site for the Kaohsiung MRT system. A third party manages the 1,700 Thai workers hired to build the transit project, and its strict rules on what was permitted in the workers' dorms prompted the clash. There were also festering complaints about underpayment for hours worked- the Thais were asked to work 100 hours of overtime a month, when rules say there should be a maximum 46 overtime hours.

Taiwanese leaders deplored the violations of labor laws that led to Thai workers' protest, saying that, even though migrants take 3k jobs-- kitsui (tiring), kitanai (dirty), and kikken (dangerous)- they should not be considered "cheap labor." The labor contractor that employed the Thais, Huapan Manpower Consultant & Management, was fired and its owners jailed. The investigation revealed that some government officials benefited from a web of subcontractors that allowed them to avoid taking responsibility for working conditions on the project.

The Council of Labor Affairs, in charge of Taiwan's guest worker programs, said it would step up its monitoring of the 700 firms that each have 100 or more guest workers. The 300,000 guest workers in Taiwan include 94,700 from Thailand (mostly in construction, where they typically earn about $450 a month), 85,000 from the Philippines and 82,500 from Vietnam. High broker fees, often paid in the migrants' countries of origin, prevent many migrants from being able to send money home for their first two years in Taiwan.

Two pro-democracy activists from China fled to Taiwan in 2004. Instead of welcoming the dissidents, Taiwan held them in a detention center for illegal Chinese for several months while authorities investigated and eventually confirmed that they were political activists. Most of the Chinese who slip into Taiwan are considered economic refugees. Taiwan has no refugee or asylum law and offers Chinese dissidents only temporary visas.

Mark Magnier and Tsai Ting, "Foreign Workers Heard in Taiwan," Los Angeles Times, September 29, 2005. Caroline Gluck, "Taiwan struggles with Chinese dissidents," BBC News, August 17, 2005.