The seven-year-long preparations for the current Olympics added 2.1 million permanent residents to Beijing's population, taking it to more than 15 million. And the increase, of course, includes the migrant workers who have contributed to the success of the ongoing sporting event.
It would have been impossible for the host city Beijing to have built so many new sports venues, including the landmark ones such as the Bird's Nest and the Water Cube, in such a short time had it not been for the hard work of so many construction workers mostly from other parts of the country.
As the host city of the Games, Beijing has proved to be an open city not only to athletes and sports fans from all over the world, but also to rural migrant workers who aspired to have their urban dream come true in the capital city in the past decades.
In the process of settling down in Beijing, migrant workers have become part of the city by making their own contributions in many ways. Their presence in such roles as construction workers, utility maintenance and sanitation workers, vegetable sellers and transporters, baby sitters and domestic workers has made them an inseparable part of Beijing's life.
Beijing has done a great deal in recent years to improve the living standards of its new settlers from rural areas by providing the same education to the children of migrant workers, providing them with professional training and gradually granting them the social welfare that used to be enjoyed only by those with local household registrations.
Migrant workers who have participated in the construction of sports venues for the current Olympic Games earned an average income of 2500 yuan ($382) a month and were provided with such facilities as night school, library, canteens, cinema, supermarket and even Internet cafes.
This suggests that the municipal decision-makers have come to realize that migrant workers who are contributing to this city should get the pay and services they deserve. Repeated calls for the protection of rights and interests of this group of people and the revision of municipal policies to that effect point to the increased awareness that this disadvantaged social group is entitled to justice and respect as their urban counterparts.
As an international metropolis, Beijing needs to always remember what the new permanent residents have contributed to its development. Further progress of the city still needs their contributions.