Xinjiang migrant-labor plan combats poverty
- Source: Global Times
- [07:57 July 20 2009]
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A Uygur woman smiles to the camera on Pingding Hill in Urumqi, capital of northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, July 14, 2009. Photo: Xinhua
By Qiu Wei in Urumqi
A rural migrant-worker program in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region aims to alleviate poverty and benefit the ethnic minorities culturally, as part of a broader employment stimulus plan in the region, government officials have told the Global Times.
The program in the country’s northwestern region is well underway, with demand for migrant workers remaining high, officials said, despite the bloody riots of July 5.
A brawl between Han and Uygur workers at a toy factory in Shaoguan, Guangdong Province, on June 26, was used as an excuse by overseas separatists to start the riot in Urumqi that left 197 people dead and more than 1,600 injured.
“Labor service export is a correct policy for Xinjiang. It has functioned as a major means of poverty reduction. Through the program, migrant workers have opportunities to access new ideas,” said Huang Yu, deputy director of the Xinjiang Department of Human Resources and Social Security, in an interview with the Global Times.
More than 96,000 people from Kashgar, Hotan and the Kizilsu Kyrgyz Autonomous Prefecture in southern Xinjiang, most of whom are Uygurs, participated in the program during the first half of 2009 and were offered jobs at factories in the coastal areas, according to a copy of the bureau’s statement obtained by the Global Times.
The average minimum income in Xinjiang is around 540 yuan per month, with Kashgar and Hotan among the least developed areas in the region, official data shows.
“For those Uygurs who leave their homeland for coastal regions, they can find better-paying jobs to enrich their lifestyles,” said Xiong Kunxin, a professor of ethnic policy studies at Minzu University of China.
“What’s more, their communications with various ethnic groups in other regions can make them more open-minded, which is definitely good for their personal development,” he said.
Some Uygurs, however, hesitated at first when authorities activated the program in 2002. Linguistic and religious differences are the most-cited reasons why many cast doubt on whether the Turkic-speaking youths would be able to handle life in places such as Guangdong, Zhejiang and Shandong provinces, thousands of miles away from home.
Tutitur, 57, a father of three children and a villager from Jiashi county, southern Xinjiang, was among those who were doubtful but later made an attitude shift.
One hundred female Uygur workers from Jiashi county went to work in a toy factory in Zhengjiang in March 2006, the first dispatch of female workers from Xinjiang.