Nearly one out of three people in Beijing belongs to the mobile
population, according to the capital's population and family
planning commission.
The municipality's mobile population reached 5.4 million in
October, accounting for nearly 30 percent of the total, the
commission's deputy director Li Yunli said.
More than 80 percent of the capital's mobile population belongs
to the China-unique category of rural migrant workers, Li told a
conference on population in Beijing on Monday. The remainder is
mostly made up of people visiting for less than a month.
She added that migrant workers would comprise the vast majority
of both the capital's and the nation's mobile population for a long
time to come. Currently, the national mobile population stands at
150 million.
The most recent influx of migrant workers boosted the capital's
population to about 17.4 million by October, signaling Beijing's
population would likely exceed its threshold of 18 million earlier
than previous forecasts, Li said.
The total population would continue to grow in Beijing over the
next five or 10 years, Li said, and "that would further strain
scarce resources, including land, water and energy".
Previous research has suggested that accommodating more than 14
million residents would exceed Beijing's food- and water-supply
capacities.
More than 130,000 people were born in Beijing in 2007 as of
October, and more than one-third of them were born to migrant
families, Li said. And according to her, there would be even more
births next year.
This year, most of the capital's unplanned births were to
migrant families, Li said.
"Family planning among migrant workers is crucial to China's
overall family planning, and the construction of a new socialist
countryside and a harmonious society," deputy director of the State
Population and Family Planning Commission Wang Guoqing was quoted
as saying by Xinhua news agency earlier.
In addition, most of the migrant workers in Beijing work
labor-intensive jobs in fields such as manufacturing, home
furnishing, catering, cleaning and domestic services.
Most migrant workers received little education, with 60 percent
of them dropping out after junior middle school mainly because of
financial problems, Li explained.
More than half of them earn less than 1,200 yuan ($160) per
month and live in poorly equipped rental rooms, Li added.
Researcher with China Foundation for International and Strategic
Studies Qin Xiaoying said that if migrant workers remain
economically and socially marginalized, mental anguish could
flourish among the demographic and threaten social stability.
The commission urged governments at all levels to improve public
services for the migrant population, protect their legal rights and
interests, and reduce discrimination against them.
(China Daily December 5, 2007)