The government of Guangdong appoints a young migrant from Sichuan to the National People's Congress, and the state media celebrate the government's work to improve conditions for migrants. But meanwhile, in Shanghai the closing of 240 schools for migrant children has been announced. Experts: their rights to residency must be recognised.

Beijing (AsiaNews/Agencies) - For the first time ever, a migrant worker has a seat in the National People's Congress (NPC), the Chinese parliament, and the state media are emphasising the desire to improve living conditions for the tens of millions of migrants. The same day, the government of Shanghai announced a programme to close, by 2010, about 240 schools for the children of migrants.

Hu Xiaoyan, a 34-year-old Sichuan native, worked for five years in a ceramics factory in Guangdong, a province where about 20 million migrants live. The province's parliament chose her as a member of the plenary assembly of the NPC, which meets once a year, generally in March. Members of parliament and the state media celebrated the appointment as a demonstration that the government wants to improve the situation of migrants.

The newly appointed deputy says that it will be a priority for her to improve the education system for the children of migrants, who do not have the right to attend the free state schools in the city, where their parents work but do not have residency. Every citizen has a certificate of residency (hukou) that is either "urban" or "rural". Those who have "urban" residency have access to services like schooling and health care that are provided by the municipal authorities, but they lose their rights over the land and homes that they left in the country. For this reason, many prefer not to register, and their children stay with relatives in the family's village of origin, or they attend private schools for migrants, which are unauthorised but affordable.

Meanwhile, Yin Houqing, vice director of the Shanghai Education Commission, has announced that by 2010 more than 240 unauthorised schools for migrant children will be closed, to integrate the children into the public education system. More than three million migrants live and work in Shanghai, and the government has been accused of a lack of interest toward the education and health situation of their children.

Now, Yin says that the government allocated 30 million yuan per year (about 4 million dollars) to improve the schools for migrants, and that 57% of the children of migrants already attend public schools, but without indicating the source of these figures.

Analysts observe that the good will of municipal authorities is not enough to resolve the problems of migrants, and that their rights connected to residency status in the places where they work must be recognised.

In 2006, the Beijing government closed 239 schools attended by about 95,000 migrant children. In Shanghai in 2007, a school attended by 2,000 migrant children was closed for demolition so that room could be made for new building projects on the property. According to data from the state council, in 2005 1.56 million children of migrants went to school in Guangdong, but it is estimated that the 40 million migrant workers in the region of the Pearl River Delta need structures for 3.56 million more children. But many prefer to keep their children in their rural villages precisely because of the cost of compulsory schooling that they would be forced to pay in the city. (PB)

• China
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• migrant
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• education
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• Shanghai