Growing urban populations a big challenge
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E-mail China Daily, November 20, 2012
"Cities shouldn't turn away migrants with the excuse of limited resources," she said. "It's not difficult for a government to afford investment, but in Latin America it's often bureaucracy that delays approval of that investment."
While Sao Paulo welcomes more migrants, Dakar, the capital of Senegal, is helping migrants return to their rural homes with promising business projects.
"Many people come to cities because they can't find jobs in rural areas," said Ousmane Sambe, president of the city's regional council, at the plenary session of the association. "So we have set up business incubators to help migrants develop feasible business projects with which they can make a decent living back in their rural hometowns."
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Passengers flood into a train at a subway station in Guangzhou. |
He Yanling, director of Sun Yat-sen University's Institute for Urban Governance and Development, said she does not think it is realistic for Chinese cities to keep adding investment for public services to meet the demands of newcomers.
"It will be too heavy a financial burden without the central government's help," she told China Daily. "There are many more people moving from rural areas to urban areas every year in China than in many other countries."
She said she prefers Dakar's approach, but has some concerns.
"People move from rural areas to cities not only for job opportunities but also for better education for their children, better medical care and more options for recreation," she said. "We have been concentrating on developing a few big cities. We need an even distribution of public resources among urban and rural areas and among big and small cities."
However, she pointed out that the hukou system is the fundamental cause behind unequal public services for native residents and migrants.
"The situation is, a person can access good public services in a city because he or she is an urban hukou holder, not because he or she is a citizen working and living in the city," she said.
"Migrant workers will feel wronged if they work and pay taxes but are unable to enjoy public services the same as urban hukou holders," she warned. "It can cause serious social problems if public services are disproportional to people's contributions."
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