Although the pace of the demolition has slowed for now, many of the city’s poorer residents fear they will be frozen out in future
Zhang Jun was lucky. Evicted from his rented hut in the east of Beijing, the electrician from Anhui province managed to find a flat in the same village in Chaoyang district.
Like many others – tens of thousands of mostly poorer migrant workers – he was forced to move out after the electricity and water was cut off on December 1, in freezing temperatures, amid a 40-day safety blitz by Beijing to rid the city of “illegal structures”. The campaign was launched after 19 people were killed in a fire in the city’s Daxing district on November 18.
Zhang now has a new home in the same area, at an affordable rent of 1,000 yuan (US$150) a month.
But for Zhou Xiaoyun, who has sold steamed buns, fruit and vegetables for the past 10 years in Daxing, finding a new place for her family to live, and for her to work, has not been so easy – her husband is still looking. She said they had been evicted along with all of her neighbours in the village of Haizijiao.
“Our electricity has been cut off and we haven’t had any running water for a week,” Zhou, who has three young children, said. “I’m too upset to sleep or eat properly. I cry whenever I think about it. This is my home and for all I know it will soon be gone.”
Evictions waken Beijing middle class to plight of migrant workers
The authorities moved swiftly after the blaze ripped through a three-storey block of flats packed with migrants last month. Many of the city’s neighbourhoods where migrant workers live have already been cleared as part of the safety crackdown. Xinjian, for example, another village in Daxing, was reduced to rubble within a week, and any illegal buildings deemed unsafe were cleared and sealed off.
The migrant workers who used to live in them suddenly found themselves out on the street. Those who can still make a better living in Beijing than their hometowns have stayed, taking a risk that they will find somewhere else they can afford to rent. But those who cannot are having to leave the capital, even though it has been home for years in some cases.
Economists are expecting an exodus of migrant workers from Beijing in the coming months, and say the campaign will have a broader impact on the cost of living in the city.
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Zhang, the electrician, has worked in the capital for almost seven years. He decided to stay because his skills installing and repairing air conditioners are in demand. He was prepared to pay more rent for a smaller room – that 1,000 yuan gets him 8 square metres. He has a bunk bed, a table and access to a toilet on the ground floor via a narrow ladder, while his small collection of clothes hang outside in the corridor.
It is a bit more cramped for now because the friend who helped him move in, another migrant worker, has yet to find a new place of his own so he is staying with Zhang temporarily.
Rents have gone up since the evictions began, and that is making it even harder to find a place. Another migrant worker from Anhui, who declined to give her name, said many people from her neighbourhood were struggling to find somewhere affordable to rent.
“One building said they would only rent flats to white-collar workers or artists,” she said.
