While income poverty in rural areas has been reduced by rural-urban migration, in urban areas, most
of the poor are recent migrants, who tend to be much worse off than other urban residents. For example,
Hussain (2003) found that the incidence of poverty among migrants was 50 per cent higher than among
non-migrant urban residents in 1998. Migrant workers typically experience high turnover of employment,
and also suffer from the disadvantages of being excluded from the formal labour market, public housing and
access to health services and schooling for children at low cost that urban residents are entitled to4
. In addition,
the urban poor who have urban resident status are also entitled to a subsistence allowance, the incidence
of which has spread in recent years. In the early 1980s, the official urban poverty rate was about 2 per cent
and the total urban poor population was 4 million. This decreased to about one million in 1989 according
to official estimates, though unofficial estimates are much higher. For example, according to a 1994 survey
by the Social Survey Centre of the People’s University, there were then about 50 million impoverished urban
residents (Hong Dayong, 1997). The number would be even larger if the estimate were to be based on the
actual place of residence of individuals, rather than their registered permanent residence. More recent estimates
(ILO 2006) also suggest much higher actual poverty in urban areas than indicated by official estimates.