After a fire killed 19 people at an apartment building housing mostly low-income migrant workers, the city of Beijing launched a 40-day campaign to clear out tenants living in buildings deemed to be unsafe. Sweeping evictions have forced many migrant workers out of their homes with often just a few hours’ notice, with nowhere else to go. Most of the tenants living in these buildings in the city’s outskirts are factory workers, physical laborers, drivers, cleaners, delivery people, or hairdressers who moved from other parts of China. These workers are critical to supporting the growing demands of the capital city, but critics say that government policies are systematically driving them out in an attempt to reduce population.
See "Beijing evicts Chinese migrants in droves, prompting outcry", Emily Wang and Yi-Ling Liu, The San Diego Union-Tribune, November 28, 2017