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China's Second Class Citizens

The migrant workers who have flocked from China's rural interior to its big cities still lack the same rights as their urban peers, thanks to the country's "hukou" system.

The migrant workers who have flocked from China's rural interior to its big cities still lack the same rights as their urban peers, thanks to the country's "hukou" system.

Ed Butler reports from Shanghai and Beijing on an increasingly divided country, where millions of Chinese citizens have limited access to housing, healthcare, education for their kids, and even marital prospects. The programme includes an interviews with George Magnus of Oxford University's China Centre, and with the author Zhang Lijia.

Producer: Laurence Knight

(Picture: A man in the Heiqiaocun migrant village in Beijing; Credit: Nicolas Asfouri/AFP/Getty Images)

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18 minutes

Last on

Wed 18 Oct 2017 07:32GMT

Broadcast

  • Wed 18 Oct 2017 07:32GMT

Podcast