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RUEKJCS/DIA WASHDC 0070

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 GUANGZHOU 000054 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
STATE FOR EAP/CM, DRL 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: ELAB PGOV CH
SUBJECT: What to do with Migrant Workers: Guangxi Government and NGO 
Plan to Keep 'Em Down on the Farm 
 
This cable is sensitive but unclassified.  Please handle 
accordingly. 
 
¶1. (SBU) Summary: Authorities and NGOs don't know how many migrant 
workers will remain in Guangxi after the Chinese New Year, but 
they're getting ready for them.  Local governments in the Guangxi 
Zhuang Autonomous Region are currently encouraging workers who 
choose to remain in the autonomous region rather than venture to 
other provinces in search of jobs to start their own business or 
return to farming.  One officially registered NGO, partnering with 
the Guangxi Civil Affairs Department, believes that workers who 
remain behind will be a force for strengthening familial and social 
ties within their Guangxi communities.  End summary. 
 
Still No Hard Data on Migrant Numbers 
------------------------------------- 
 
¶2. (SBU) Though the Guangxi Labor and Social Security Department 
shows 4.1 million migrant workers working outside Guangxi, with 
635,000 having returned by the end of December 2008, authorities and 
NGOs alike remain uncertain how many will choose to stay in the 
Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region following the late-January Chinese 
New Year holiday season.  World Vision Assistant Program Officer 
Vivian Pang said that her NGO was currently in the process of 
visiting families in project villages to collect data, but she noted 
that preliminary findings show large numbers of men, especially, 
returning to their families from work in other regions of China. 
The government still lacks data on how many migrants plan to stay 
after the Chinese New Year, according to Guangxi Civil Affairs 
Department Deputy Director Yang Guoyi. 
 
Welcome Back! Please Start a Business or Do Some Farming. 
------------- ------------------------------------------- 
 
¶3. (SBU) In addition to Guangxi's preexisting policy of providing a 
minimum income safety net for residents living in extreme poverty, 
local government is currently encouraging returning migrant workers 
to start their own business in their home town or develop their land 
for farming, said Yang, who claimed that small-scale farming remains 
an economically viable option in Guangxi.  In a recent media 
interview, Guangxi Labor and Social Security Department Director 
General Jiang Minghong said that in 2009 a total of RMB 240 million 
(approximately USD 35.1 million) -- RMB 80 million from the Guangxi 
Financial Bureau, RMB 80 million from county-level financial bureaus 
in Guangxi and RMB 80 million from the central government -- would 
be spent on vocational training and farming training programs for 
returning migrant workers.  Jiang went on to say that Guangxi would 
also take RMB 150 million (almost USD 22 million) from its 
unemployment insurance fund and use the money for the training of 
laid-off workers. 
 
¶4. (U) At least three other areas of Guangxi known for exporting 
labor have recently touted their plans to reintegrate returning 
workers.  Tianyang County, which dispatched more than 78,000 migrant 
workers to other provinces last year, said on a government website 
that of the first 2,468 workers to return for the Chinese New Year, 
1,826 had found jobs locally with the help of the county government. 
 In Guigang city, the government said that vocational training and 
job fairs would be held free of charge to returning migrants.  The 
city government also subsidizes local enterprises that employ 
returned workers at the rate of RMB 100 to RMB 350 (USD 15-50) for 
each worker.  In Guiping City, where tens of thousands of migrant 
workers had already returned even before the official start of the 
New Year holidays, the local Rural Credit Cooperative had granted 
returned migrants small business development loans totaling RMB 23.6 
million (USD 3,450,000) by December 2008.  The cooperative 
simplified loan application procedures and offered discounted 
interest rates for the returned workers, according to media reports. 
 
 
Economic Downturn Potentially a Chance to Build Families 
----------------------------- -------------------------- 
 
¶5. (SBU) Cooperation with local government is important to ensure 
that NGO efforts to help migrant workers are sustainable, said Pang. 
 Pang cited existing programs in some middle schools where teachers 
and older students help younger students to cope with parental 
absence as examples of successful government-NGO cooperation.  This 
Chinese New Year, World Vision hopes to convince returning migrant 
 
GUANGZHOU 00000054  002 OF 002 
 
 
parents to remain with their families in Guangxi and build more 
normal family relationships, according to Pang, who said that many 
left-behind children (liu shou er tong) suffer from "psychological 
loneliness" and other issues only partially addressed through public 
services. 
 
¶6. (U) This cable is a cooperative effort between Consulate General 
Guangzhou and Embassy Beijing. 
 
GOLDBERG