|
No official statistics show how many workers were laid off during that period, but experts estimate the number could be tens of millions.
To avoid social unrest and help most of those workers find new jobs, the Chinese central government offered occupational trainings, small loans and preferential tax policies.
"Migrant worker"
China's reform and opening-up drive started in rural areas in 1978 with collectively-owned farmland contracted to individual families. This freed about 100 million peasants from farm work.
However, most of these people were tied to the countryside by a residence-based rationing system for virtually everything, including food. About 63 million of these former farmers were given jobs in village-run enterprises that mushroomed in those days.
A policy change in 1984 allowed them to find jobs in cities but the massive migration of rural laborers didn't start until after China decided to move to a market economy in 1992.
The rapid inflow of investors created many construction, factory and mining jobs, most of which urban dwellers consider too tiring or dirty.
The number of migrants grew from 60 million in 1992 to 120 million in 2003 and 210 million this year, according to central government figures.
The work of the migrant population has generated 21 percent of China's gross domestic product in the past 30 years, the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences has found. But migrant workers face various problems, including delayed pay schedules, no or low work-place injury compensation, lack of health care and little schooling for their children.
"It doesn't matter if a cat is black or white, so long as it catches mice."
|
