Now the policy is more relaxed, giving us peasants an opportunity to become city man. We all know that key to a good city life is to receive good education. Although it takes a lot of money, I will try my best.
Back at home, migrant platform workers faced no less pressure in securing quality education for their children. The challenges came mainly from the school district policy, which stipulated that to attend public schools, one needs to hold ownership or tenancy of commercial housing within the school district. Local governments across China have in recent years actively embraced this policy to boost land finance and the real estate market. Zhan transferred their agricultural hukou to Fancheng, a small county in He’nan in 2015 to prepare his two children for middle school. In 2016, the local government launched the school district policy. Previously he had no plans to buy a flat, but it took only two months for the price to double after the policy was released. He finally decided to mortgage from the bank. Now he had to save 3.000 yuan each month to repay it:
It is loads of stress … some chose to buy a position from corrupt officials. But I do not want to commit a crime. What can I do? Nothing but work, work, work …
8 MIGRATION, PRECARITY AND SOLIDARITY AMONG
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