ABSTRACT
Economic growth since the late 1970s is largely responsible for Beijing’s physical expansion and transformation. The adoption of market reforms, shifting from a command economy to market-driven one, has created an unparallel movement of people from China’s rural to urban areas in search of employment. Prior to economic reforms, the household registration system or hukou1 governed and restricted the movement of people across the country. Despite the relative relaxation2 of the hukou, large cities such as Beijing3 continue to use the system to prevent migrants from entering a large range of professions and accessing various social services. Thus, migrants are constrained not only in employment choices (a range of professional jobs are reserved for Beijing residents only), but as most social benefits including access to health or housing are tied to the urban hukou, migrants are left at the lowest end of the social scale (see Wu 2002). Nonetheless, migrants from China’s countryside have made a significant impact on and contribution to all aspects of everyday Beijing. They have become intrinsically linked with the changes to China’s urban landscape: they are the backbone of the construction industry and have filled gaps in the service sector by taking on jobs shunned by wealthier urban residents, such as manual work. Within this context, migrant workers across the urban centres are an essential part of China’s economic growth and modernisation drive. Yet, they are often regarded as a necessary evil by local authorities and urban residents. Migrants are perceived as major contributing factors to all things negative in their new urban environments, from rising crime rates to stress on infrastructure. Without legal status, the needs of migrants and their families, including the health and education of their children, are largely left unmet. With government inaction to resolve these issues, a number of migrant-initiated civil society organisations (CSOs)4 have emerged. Some of these migrant CSOs are also attempting to redress the current state-society relationship within accepted boundaries through engagement strategies with the state.
