City Slums as a Recognition of Migrants’ Rights

Abstract

Qin Hui, an influential public intellectual and historian from Tsinghua University, proposes allowing the formation of slums (pinmin ku) to accommodate the millions of migrants in Chinese cities. This seemingly absurd suggestion has attracted much public attention and discussion. Slums are often regarded as a symbol of urban deterioration, a source of social problems, or even as one of the sins of capitalism. Chinese officials are very proud that the rapid economic development of the past three decades has not produced the types of problems that can be found in other developing countries. However, Qin insists that the absence of slums is even worse than their presence. Chinese cities have been exempted from this natural phenomenon, which usually accompanies rapid urbanisation, simply because government policy has prohibited slums from emerging. Using the Haussmannisation of Paris and apartheid in South Africa as analogies, Qin explores the institutional discrimination against Chinese migrants, and advocates the recognition of migrants' rights to end this injustice. This rights-based perspective is in contrast to the utilitarian-based state policy that treats migrants as a necessary yet alienated labour force. Provoking this tension in the political spectrum, Qin's proposal dragged people of different positions, willing or not, into the deliberation on migrants' rights.