Chinese cities are facing major unrest as tensions rise between locals and millions of migrant workers over job losses caused by the economic downturn.
By Malcolm Moore in Nanqiao
There are more than 200m migrants, people who have moved from the countryside in search of the fast-evaporating Chinese dream, in the country and the global financial crisis is expected to hit half of Shanghai's population.
The latest figures from the National Population and Family Planning Commission show that 8.6 million people in Shanghai are registered elsewhere, mostly in the adjacent provinces of Anhui, Jiangsu and Zhejiang.
Migrant workers came to Shanghai from the countryside to seek their fortune, usually accepting minimum wages to toil in factories or on construction sites. In total, there are thought to be 200 million migrants across China.
However, they pose an increasing threat to the authorities as the economy starts to slow. In the past two months, factory closures and withheld wages have sparked flashes of violence. In the southern city of Dongguan, a series of riots about layoffs led this week to police cars being flipped over and buildings wrecked.
Migrants are also growing angry at the alienation they face. A new report from China Labour Bulletin, a Hong Kong-based non-governmental organisation promoting workers' rights, suggested that the children of migrant workers are routinely denied basic health care and education because of the added cost to local government.
"Even if migrant children can get into urban state schools, they are not treated as integral members of the school. They cannot take part in extra-curricular activities, social organisations, and cannot be nominated as 'outstanding students'," said Aris Chan, the author of the report. She noted that Chinese university students from the city outnumber rural students by 282 to one.
Hongxiang Primary School in Nanqiao, a migrant enclave on the outskirts of Shanghai, is a special private school for migrant children. "Their parents work at the construction sites nearby or in small businesses," said the deputy headmaster, who would only reveal his name as Mr Bao. "The school was founded by a businessman from Anhui to cater for the kids who could not get into public schools," he added.
Since August, the school has been free to its students. The fees it previously charged are now subsidised by the government as the authorities try to alleviate the burdens that migrants face and quell any unrest.
Shanghai has announced that all migrants will receive free schooling by 2010, a major step forward among Chinese cities.
Nevertheless, migrants are failing to integrate with local communities.
Websites have sprung up with slogans condemning "wai di wren", or migrants, saying that they "pollute Shanghai's image and environment". Blogs are filled with messages extolling pride in Shanghainese culture.
Shanghai must first satisfy Shanghainese people's requirements. This is what a government should safeguard. But so many wai di wren simply have not understood that they are guests and not Shanghai's masters," wrote one anonymous blogger on Tianya, a major internet forum.
China Labour Bulletin points out that many migrant children have turned to crime and drugs because of their exclusion from society. Between 2000 and 2005, the proportion of crimes committed by juvenile migrants grew from 40 per cent to 70 per cent.
In response to the threat of migrant unrest, the authorities are planning enormous public works programmes, especially in the countryside, to lure migrant workers back. Yesterday (tours), Yang Zhongmin, the head of planning at the Railways ministry, told the media that six million jobs would be created next year as railway construction was stepped up.