Cai Yingbo

RESIDENCE cards were urged to be publicized among workers in Shenzhen to improve the management of migrant workers, according to a panel discussion during the annual session of the local CPPCC yesterday.

Members of the local CPPCC discussed a series of social problems caused by the large floating population.

“The city’s social management systems for hukou (permanent residence permits) holders and migrant workers are different, which marginalizes employment opportunities and social welfare benefits for migrant workers,” said Fang Dongtao, vice director of the social and legal affairs committee of the Shenzhen municipal committee of the CPPCC.

Yang Yiping, director of the Beijing Hualian Law Firm, Shenzhen Branch, said many migrant workers, such as taxi drivers and temporary teachers, who had been working and living in Shenzhen for more than 10 years, still didn’t hold Shenzhen hukou. He encouraged government to provide them with a more stable and better living environment so as to raise their sense of belonging in the city.

Yang said one of the ways to solve the problem was to provide migrant workers with residence cards on the condition that they have had legal employment and stable salary in Shenzhen for some years. He suggested these people could apply for Shenzhen hukou after three to five years and benefit from the same social welfare as hukou holders.

“Around 70 percent of residents in Shenzhen have no hukou,” said Li Decheng, chairman of the local CPPCC, at a conference Tuesday.

Fang suggested communities play a significant role in relieving migrant workers’ difficulties, such as medicare, education and security. She said it was necessary to construct more public cultural facilities in communities so that migrant workers could read, surf the Internet and entertain themselves after work.

The city government would offer professional skills training for a total of 160,000 migrant workers to improve their competitiveness this year, according to a plan released by the municipal labor and social security bureau.