30 million migrants attracted to boom province

More than 30 million migrants have settled in Guangdong, latest statistics reveal.

The new arrivals now made up 40 per cent of the province's official population of about 75 million, according to figures released as the week-long Labour Day holiday began.

About 14.6 million, or 49 per cent, of the migrant population is composed of Guangdong natives who had left their homes to work elsewhere in the province, Guangdong Statistical Bureau vice-director Ye Jianfu was quoted as saying in Guangzhou newspapers yesterday.

An estimated 11.7 million migrants, or 39 per cent of the total, hail from outside Guangdong and have been living in the province for at least six months. A further three million migrants from other provinces have arrived only within the past six months, bringing the total to about 30 million.

Migrant workers play a key role in Guangdong's economy. They do the jobs that the Guangdong residents do not want: hauling rubbish, working on construction sites, waiting on tables and driving taxis. Migrants also man the assembly lines in factories that have made the province an export powerhouse, accounting in recent years for as much as 40 per cent of China's total exports.

Yet despite the fact that Guangdong's economy could not function without them, so-called outsiders are frequently discriminated against and blamed for prostitution, crime and other social ills. The current Strike Hard campaign across the country will probably have an impact on a number of migrants.