The nation¡¯s capital Beijing plans to abolish a 1995 regulation on the administration of non-permanent residents working there, aiming to remove restrictions in their job-hunting and exempt them from extra fees. As non-permanent residents also make up a large part of the work force in many major cities in China, including Shanghai, the news has aroused public interest.

New management

skills needed

An article by Feng Xuemei published in the Oriental Morning Post calls for more up-to-date management skills after the abolition of the regulation:

From the lifting of work restrictions for non-permanent residents to the final annulment of the entire regulation, the changes reflect the fact that the old coercive measures for managing the non-permanent population are losing their grip.

Against such a backdrop, the government¡¯s ability in public policy-making is put to the test as they are faced with the task to maintain the city¡¯s harmonious development.

There is no doubt that the influx of a large number of people will impose pressure on the city¡¯s social and environmental resources, which can lead to problems in employment, education and public security. Meanwhile, it is only natural that the city¡¯s administrators look for the simplest and most cost effective ways to achieve the best solution. However, the fact that a large population is confronted with limited resources is not only a problem we should face in urban development but also in the growth of the entire nation. Take a look at our resource-scarce neighbour Japan and we can see that restricting admission does not resolve this bottleneck in urbanization. On the contrary, the congregation of populations in major cities does not necessarily affect the cities?development.

The coercive managerial approach reveals the administrators?emphasis on the effectiveness of management rather than the balance between rights and obligations of the subjected people. Effective urban management is no easy task and new measures are needed.

City should embrace ?

outsiders?

An article by Pan Duola published in the Shanghai-based Youth Daily criticizes the regulation as discriminating against non-permanent residents and hails the abolition:

Non-permanent residents are workers, tax-payers and consumers just like the city¡¯s permanent residents. However, they have long been in a disadvantageous and vulnerable position due to their status and restrictive regulations. A city cannot just benefit from the hard work, tax collected and money spent in consumption from those coming from the other parts of the nation, but refuse to shoulder the pressure on the city they have brought in and decline to provide services for them.

Today, non-permanent residents have become a group a city cannot do away with. When a city stops treating non-permanent residents as ¡°outsiders? they are bound to love the city the way a permanent resident does and share happiness and woe together with the city.

For any city, their modernization process may also be one that gradually changes ¡°outsiders?to ¡°locals?