From apartheid to semi-citizenship: Chinese migrant workers and their challenge to social policy

In this chapter, I shall review the passage of migrant rights attainment in citizenship, with focus on social rights and the actual gaps in acquiring the promised social treatment. In this section, the institutional marginalization of migrant workers is set in context. Next, I shall draw so parallelw with the system of apartheid in South Africa, highlighting the similarities and differences. Third, the origin and transformation of the household registration system are examined. This is followed by a review of the sundry measures aimed at extending the rights of migrants. Finally I shall discuss research findings and new empiricial data on the social status of urban migrants. It is argued that the scope and pace of insitutional modifications represent a paradigm shift from apartheid-like exclusion to enhanced protection, but still a far cry from full citizenship. If migrants are to win the war for the latter, the most critical battle is the acquisition of social rights. This is teh are that attracts the strongest resistance from host communities who dread the controllable human influx and the huge costs that will follow.