China sees soaring migrant population
(Xinhua) Updated: 2006-10-29 11:40 SHANGHAI - China's migrant
population has reached 150 million, 11.5 percent of the total, according to the
State Population and Family Planning Commission.
China has been experiencing the world's largest population flow, with the
number of migrants doubled in the past 10 years, said Wang Guoqiang, deputy
director of the commission.
More than 80 percent of migrants are rural people seeking jobs in cities,
Wang told a national conference, noting that migrant workers would remain the
majority of floating population for a long time.
Last year, China's migrant women of child-bearing age totaled 31.9 million.
About 83 percent of newborn migrant babies registered in their hometown and were
given birth certificates.
In Shanghai, where the conference on family planning for migrant population
was held, one third of the total population or 5.81 million were from other
places, according to statistics for last year.
Migrant workers eased Shanghai's shortage of labor force and the pressure of
aging population, but meanwhile posed challenges to the city's public
administration and services, especially birth control, said officials.
According to official figures, last year one third of Shanghai's newborns
were in migrant families. Babies of migrant workers out of family planning
accounted for 88 percent of the city's total unplanned births.
Birth control and other issues concerning migrant workers are crucial to
China's overall family planning and the building of a new socialist countryside
and a harmonious society, said Wang.
The commission has urged local governments to ensure funding and personnel
for family planning and improve services for migrants, and cover the family
planning of migrants in future urban public administration and service
system.
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