GUANGZHOU is planning to build housing estates in the suburbs to improve the living conditions of its 3 million migrant population, the Yangcheng Evening News reported yesterday.

　　The plan has been formulated in response to recent suggestions proposed by a member of the Guangzhou Municipal People’s Political Consultative Conference (MPPCC).

　　Chen Xuze, the MPPCC member, also suggested using the term “temporary residents” to replace “migrant workers.” He said people who work, live and consume in the city should be regarded as locals.

　　It was biased and politically incorrect to call those coming from other places “migrant workers.”

　　So far, migrant labor has not been given equal treatment, such as in education, with the city’s permanent residents who own a hukou (permanent residency) in Guangzhou, Chen said.

　　He suggested the government build housing estates and offer cheap rents for temporary residents who generally lack good education and earn little money. That would help improve the city’s environment with the replacement of unlicensed shoddy cottages, he said. Guangdong Province has mapped out relevant regulations concerning migrant populations so that the children of migrants could have equal rights in education if the family had lived and worked in the city or town for five years.

　　A family could apply for permanent citizenship if they had been in the city for seven years, clear of criminal records.

　　(Zhang Zhiyong)