Guangdong is rolling out a series of measures to improve its control of the province's large migrant worker community, as its top leaders worry that conflicts among various social groups might cause severe social unrest.
Many of the new measures - announced after the closing of a plenum of the Guangdong provincial Communist Party committee on Thursday - point to a new tactic of recruiting migrant workers to help manage the sprawling migrant community.
The government also wants to make use of grass-roots organisations - especially the associations migrants from various regions set up to represent their fellow natives - to improve its 'social management' of migrant workers from different areas.
Guangdong is home to more than 17 million migrant workers from outside the province, the largest such population in China.
Deputy provincial party secretary Zhu Mingguo said more migrant workers would be selected to join lower-level authorities including local party committees, people's congresses and branches of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, or be recruited by local governments, The Southern Metropolis News reported yesterday.
Guangdong recruited 50 migrant workers as public servants for the first time last year. The provincial labour authorities say the number will be increased to 120 this year, while 130 Guangdong farmers or workers will also be chosen as public servants to work in county-level governments.
The new measures follow the worst riots in Guangdong in decades. Many migrant workers in Xintang township in Zengcheng and Guxiang township in Chaozhou demonstrated on the streets last month, smashing cars and torching government buildings in protest at perceived injustices.
