The southern Chinese city of Guangzhou may cap the number of migrant workers it allows in because of the “social problems” they bring, state media said.
Government officials told the China Daily that one possibility was to stop some industries employing migrants.
China’s economic boom has largely been driven by the cheap labour which migrants from poorer inland provinces bring to coastal areas like Guangzhou.
But Guangzhou residents blame migrants for crime and other social problems.
“Guangzhou has long suffered from a poor public security situation because of burglary, robbery, theft and many other crimes, many of them committed by the migrant population,” said Su Baoling, a local official who supports setting limits.
The story says 100 million internal migrants. That’s nearly 10% of the Chinese population. As posited in earlier posts, one of the signs of the collapse of the current regime will be revolts in the cities by these folks. Not yet… but who knows how soon?
