Better treatment for migrants the "only way" to lessen criminality
This is the view of Xiao Qingping, associate professor at the East China University of Law and Politics. "Migrants commit crimes because society has first committed a crime against them."
Beijing (AsiaNews/SCMP) A Chinese criminology export yesterday called for "better treatment of migrant workers", maintaining that this was the only way which "could help to reduce the country's criminal rate".
Xiao Qingping, associate professor at the East China University of Law and Politics (based in Shanghai), said migrants, hailing mostly from rural areas of the country, are involved in 70 to 80% of urban crimes.
"The way migrant workers react to society is a result of how we treat them," said Professor Xiao. "They commit crimes in cities because they are not treated fairly in cities." The professor said the economic benefits enjoyed by Chinese society in recent years "had not reached most of the rural population".
"First it's society which commits crimes against them and then they react in return to society," he added. "It is only by rebuilding national morality that the crime rate can be reduced, in the wake of the dramatic changes wrought in Chinese society by economic reforms."
There are around 150 million migrant workers in China who move to urban centres to work because of extreme poverty in rural areas. Migrants are forced to work for very low salaries, even by Chinese standards, and for inhuman working hours: they have become the main workforce in construction and manufacturing sectors.
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11/08/2017 20:05
