Shanghai relaxes residency policies for migrants(2)

Change is never easy.

Lu Ming, a professor with Shanghai Jiaotong University, said that policy makers of major cities need to balance carefully between allowing more migrants to enjoy the same level of welfare as local residents and the very limited capacity of the city.

Sun said the points-oriented residency permit system in Shanghai represents a good start in population management reform. This system allows people to obtain new points by improving themselves in education background, professional skills as well as making more social contributions.

After it goes into effect on July 1, this policy will benefit migrant workers as they obtain the 120 points required by having a strong education background or professional skills, or doing jobs in fields that are urgently needed by the city.

Education counts for a great deal of points, with a doctor's degree worth 110 alone. Yet with excellent professional skills, migrant workers can obtain as much as 140 points if they are qualified for senior professional and technical positions.

For non-local Shanghai residents, holding a residence card means their children can access the same educational resources as locals, as well as stand on equal footing with locals in terms of obtaining social welfare.

He Hui, a white-collar worker at a foreign-funded firm in Shanghai, is among the beneficiaries.

"The new regulation will save me the trouble of changing my household registration from Hangzhou to Shanghai in exchange for my child's education in Shanghai," said He, a native of Hangzhou in east China's Zhejiang Province.

She said her rural household enables her to keep allocated farmland back in her hometown. With the new regulation, she can keep her land while securing urban benefits in Shanghai.

"If I can work long enough in Shanghai, my child can live with us and get the same education opportunities as other kids in Shanghai. It will all be worth it for the toil that my wife and I have had in the city," said Chen Dongfang, who works at an assembly line in an industrial park in Shanghai's Songjiang District. Chen left the farmland of north China's Henan Province and worked for seven years as a migrant worker in Shanghai.

Applicants also need to keep a clean nose, as the regulation also specifies points deduction clauses.

For example, falsified records, once detected in an applicant's documentation, can result in the loss of 150 points. A criminal record can cost a loss of 150 points.