Op-Ed Contributors

Social equity for youth

By Yu Jianrong (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-08-06 08:02

Problems facing both migrant workers and the urban wealthy call for sincere efforts in building fair social security systems

Following 30 years of reform and opening up, China's educated youth are split into two distinctive groups. Some of them, benefiting from the country's growing economic success, have become intellectual elites with dominant social status. Their less-fortunate peers, who missed these opportunities, are still struggling at the bottom rungs of society.

In such an unfavorable context, they will likely turn into so-called "angry youth", radically critical citizens furious over any malpractice by public powers, and thereby sowing the seeds of social inequity. This group, who defy mainstream values, will have profound and far-reaching impact on Chinese society.

The social underdogs are those who usually stay in cities after leaving school. They do not have stable jobs or local household registration.

This group mainly consists of three kinds: idle youth from urban families relying on their parents' income; unemployed college graduates from the rural areas swarming to cities looking for jobs or the so-called "ant tribe"; a new generation of migrant workers born after the 1980s who have had secondary education and who fight for their livelihoods in cities but are still identified as farmers.

Among the three, we should pay utmost attention to jobless college graduates from rural families, especially the new generation of migrant workers. The new generation of migrant workers accounts for 5 to 6 percent of the total population of 130 million migrant workers.

The difference between jobless urban and rural youth and the new generation migrant workers is that the rural laborers have no basic living guarantee in cities once they lose jobs. As city dwellers, their urban counterparts can however continue with their parasitic life, either relying on social welfare or on parents to get by.

Irrespective of the family backgrounds of these "angry youth", most of them attribute their miserable lives to unfair social systems, rather than themselves.

A typical ideology of this energetic group, labeled "angry youth consciousness" is taking shape gradually. Contrary to the mainstream social values, this ideology reflects a shared outlook among the underdogs.

Once this consciousness takes root, it will cause more social unrest at the grass-roots level. We can see this budding mentality at Internet forums where views opposing mainstream values are expressed with regard to political proposals or controversial social issues. These defiant opinions reflect the social underdogs' dissatisfaction and protest, and if not checked, will aggravate hatred against the bureaucracy.

Although the older unemployed migrant workers are also in a weak position in the social strata, survival is their most pressing problem, not political participation. Even if they cause social unrest, they usually blame it on their employers directly, rather than the local governments.

But the expectations of poor educated youth are different from common migrant workers. Most of the youngsters will probably think of corruption by officials first when they accuse the unfair social system for their personal troubles.

A simple comparison between their better-off classmates and themselves may easily direct their dissatisfaction to the system. Gradually, they will become apathetic to life and resent society, and become increasingly rebellious.

The problem of poor educated youth is closely related to the exclusive nature of our institutions formed after the reform and opening up.

The biggest characteristic of the exclusiveness is that huge obstacles exist which prevents members at the bottom rungs of society from climbing up the social ladder.

Children of the rich and powerful always have better opportunities and corner more social resources. The abuses of public power and financial resources are eating into the very foundation of social fairness and justice.

The monopoly of power and wealth by the elite few intensifies the "angry youth's" strong resistance to official homilies on social values. Breaking the monopoly of public power to provide upward flow on an equal footing is urgently needed now.

Decision-makers should get a keen glimpse of the underdogs' lives and try to understand their concerns and behavior. Political research should not only focus on elite intellectuals, but also reach the people at the grassroots to understand the dynamics of China's domestic governance system.

And, developing basic social identification among the youth is crucial to promoting their emotional attachment to society. Through building a fair social security system, governments at various levels should provide citizens with equal public services regardless of their backgrounds.

The author is director of Social Problem Research Center, Rural Development Institute of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

(China Daily 08/06/2010 page8)