Mingong
Mingong ( Chinese 民工 ) are migrant workers who have moved from rural areas in the People's Republic of China to the major centers of the country and the surrounding area in search of work since the last decades of the 20th century.
history
The question of migrant workers is closely linked to the system of hukou in the People's Republic of China, with which the government seeks to limit the development of the population. The hukou system uses resident registration , which gives the person concerned a right of residence and an ID, which in turn enables them to visit schools, hospitals and other public services. On the other hand, this system prevents a person from settling there without a permit from the receiving municipality or city. No public services can be used at the intended new place of residence without presentation of the ID.
With the political and economic opening of the People's Republic in the mid-1970s, the need for workers in and around the metropolitan areas increased. Unskilled workers were needed in factories, in the private construction industry and in large-scale infrastructure measures such as railway construction, road and motorway construction and to build large dams, which resulted in the influx of workers from rural areas. However, due to the Hukou system, they could not register at the workplace and officially settle down. In addition, the families stayed in the countryside, where they still had a piece of land to live on and which they could use for agriculture. The secret workers were created because of the unchanged registration system.
Number and social conditions of migrant workers
The word Minggong is formed from the two Chinese words min = people or masses and dong = henchman / worker. As this mass of workers is not registered, the number of this type of worker is not known. According to the National Bureau of Statistics of China (NBS), the number of Mingong was 269 million at the end of 2013.
The hopes of the migrant workers are based on the assumption that, after an initial period, they will be able to work and live in modern apartments, in simple but healthy conditions that are definitely better than those in the country. In most cases, however, the Mindong live in slums and are without permanent employment. The growing number of migrant workers have to be content with exploitative wages, without employment contracts and on very vague terms. If they become unemployed, this means returning home or looking for a new job in another metropolitan area. These workers hardly have a chance to qualify themselves professionally or to create a new home.
Future of the system
A reform of the hukou system is planned, but it is not yet in sight. In the meantime, China's economic development is benefiting from the ability to have a flexible and mobile workforce at low cost. This fact, along with the undervaluation of the yuan , is one of the foundations of the growth and rapid development of the economy of the People's Republic of China.
literature
- Behzad Yaghmaian: The Accidental Capitalist: a People's Story of the New China . Pluto Press, London 2012, ISBN 978-0-7453-3230-7 .
- Ling He: Migrant workers in Beijing: Spatial, social and economic aspects of a current migration problem in China . University Library of the University of Potsdam, Potsdam 2012, electronic resource.
- Wolfgang Müller: Mingong. The search for happiness . Vice-Versa-Verlag, Berlin 2012, ISBN 978-3-932809-70-5 .
- Bettina Gransow: Migrants and Health . LIT-Verlag, Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-643-10912-5 .
- Hans-Christian Schnack: School education for migrant children: between state exclusion and private initiatives . LIT-Verlag, Münster 2010, ISBN 978-3-643-10769-5 .
- Antje König: China's migratory masses: the around 200 million migrant workers and their reasons for migration . Tectum-Verlag, Marburg 2009, ISBN 978-3-8288-2139-2 .
Exhibitions
- 2010: Museum of Art and Culture of Migrant Workers , Beijing: Mingong .
- 2010/2011: IG Metall-Haus Berlin , Berlin-Kreuzberg: China's new working class .