The northeastern city of Dalian issued residential cards to 200 migrant workers on Friday, as the city officially abolished the controversial temporary residence permits.

Holding the card, 48-year-old Li Yan'an said with a sigh that he had waited for 16 years.

"I felt discriminated when I was given a temporary residence permit," said the migrant worker from a village in Liaoning Province, who came to Dalian some 20 years ago.

The city began to issue temporary residence permits to migrants, who were usually farmers, in 1993, and each permit charged 35 yuan (US$5.1). The new residential cards are free.

"The residential card makes me feel that I am gradually accepted by the city," Li said.

As "temporary residents," the migrant farmer workers had to pay an additional 2,000-3,000 yuan (about US$294 to US$441) a year to have their children admitted by primary and middle schools in the city.

The new card means not only the exemption of extra education fees for children of the migrant workers, but also equal rights as local citizens in employment, vocational training, application for driving license and vehicle registering for migrant farmers like Li.

The card also brings more benefits on medical care, old-age pension and others.

"It (the residential card) is a milestone event for the city's nearly one million migrant workers," said Zhou Zhou, deputy secretary general of the Dalian government.

The number of permanent residents is 5.83 million in the city.

With the rapid economic development and urbanization, Chinese farmers swarmed into cities to become migrant workers. Official statistics showed that China currently has about 130 million farmers working in cities.

"The migrant workers made great contribution to the city's development," said Ning Min, deputy head of the Public Security Bureau of Dalian City. "But they also brought problems in social security, family planning and job-hunting."

The temporary residence permit system, since it came into effect in the 1980s, has limited rights of migrant workers in employment, education and medical care in cities and was always seen as prejudice against the group.

Public outcry to abolish the system reached the peak in 2003, when Sun Zhigang, a 27-year-old college graduate working away from home in Guangzhou, was put into custody for not carrying his temporary residence permit and was beaten to death.

Many other migrant workers had similar bitter experiences of being questioned, taken into custody and fined.

Sun Heng, a migrant worker who came to Beijing more than 10 years ago, said he had more than 10 temporary residency permits.

"We would be fined if we didn't carry the permits with us during police inspection or failed to renew the permits timely," he said.

Many Chinese cities are or consider abolishing the temporary residency permits.

In August, 2008, the boomtown Shenzhen took the lead to change the temporary residency permits which had been in use for 24 years to residential cards. Other cities in the migrant-rich Guangdong province then followed suit.

Taiyuan, capital city of north China's Shanxi Province, abolished temporary residency permits this past August, while Beijing has announced to adopt residential cards next year.

Wang Zizheng, a professor with the Law School of Dongbei University of Finance & Economics, hailed the change as reflecting social progress.

"Deletion of the word 'temporary' showed China's attitude to remove obstacles for migrant workers, improve their conditions and give them more recognition," he said.

However, the move does not mean any change to the fundamental Hukou (permanent residency) system for the migrant farmer workers.

"If the governments didn't change their mindset and take concrete measures, the residential card reform would be superficial," he said.

A cab driver surnamed Huang in Dalian welcomed the new policy with worries. "Who can promise that the residential card won't become temporary residency permit ultimately?" he asked.

"More problems of this new card shall emerge and tasks for social management could be arduous," said Wang Zizheng. "But undoubtedly, a reform to China's population management system is taking place, and more could be done."

(Xinhua News Agency December 26, 2009)