The focus of this report is the legal status of internal migrants in four of China's major cities, Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen. It describes the discriminatory laws and policies that make internal migrants second class citizens, essentially leaving 10 to 20 percent of the poorest residents of these cities virtually without rights. Since the poorest and most vulnerable among the rural-to-urban migrants are least able to circumvent the mechanisms of control, due to their lack of money and influence, and are most likely to be subject to official and popular discrimination, their experience is the report's principal subject matter.
The focus of this report is the legal status of internal migrants in four of China's major cities, Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen. It describes the discriminatory laws and policies that make internal migrants second class citizens, essentially leaving 10 to 20 percent of the poorest residents of these cities virtually without rights. Since the poorest and most vulnerable among the rural-to-urban migrants are least able to circumvent the mechanisms of control, due to their lack of money and influence, and are most likely to be subject to official and popular discrimination, their experience is the report's principal subject matter.
Based on firsthand accounts and previously undisclosed Communist Party of China and government documents, this report unveils for the first time the complex architecture of law, regulation, and policy in Xinjiang that denies Uighurs religious freedom, and by extension freedom of association, assembly, and expression. The report also shows how China is using the events of September 11, 2001 and the subsequent "war on terror" as a cover for targeting Uighurs.
Based on firsthand accounts and previously undisclosed Communist Party of China and government documents, this report unveils for the first time the complex architecture of law, regulation, and policy in Xinjiang that denies Uighurs religious freedom, and by extension freedom of association, assembly, and expression. The report also shows how China is using the events of September 11, 2001 and the subsequent "war on terror" as a cover for targeting Uighurs.
