The citizenization of farmers must be advanced steadily; never try to help the seedlings grow by pulling them up.

To advance the building of a new type of urbanization, the central government proposed further advancing reform of the household registration system and advancing in an orderly manner the citizenization of the agricultural population that has moved to cities. However, in recent years the author found in Xiangyang City in northwestern Hubei that although farmers yearn for urban life, most of them do not have a strong willingness to completely "leave farming," and many hover in an amphibious state of "both city and countryside, both worker and farmer." All localities should take account of actual conditions, carefully analyze the obstacles to farmer citizenization, respect farmers' wishes, avoid pulling up seedlings to help them grow, and refrain from forcibly pushing it forward by administrative means. The reason "agricultural to non-agricultural" conversion is difficult to make attractive to many farmers lies in the following: <p><P> To advance the building of a new type of urbanization, the central government proposed further advancing reform of the household registration system and advancing in an orderly manner the citizenization of the agricultural population that has moved to cities. However, in recent years the author found in Xiangyang City in northwestern Hubei that although farmers yearn for urban life, most of them do not have a strong willingness to completely "leave farming," and many hover in an amphibious state of "both city and countryside, both worker and farmer." All localities should take account of actual conditions, carefully analyze the obstacles to farmer citizenization, respect farmers' wishes, avoid pulling up seedlings to help them grow, and refrain from forcibly pushing it forward by administrative means. The reason "agricultural to non-agricultural" conversion is difficult to make attractive to many farmers lies in the following:</P><P> First, there are many worries about the future: the elasticity of urban-rural amphibiousness is great. The vast majority of migrant workers who enter cities lack technology and skills, cannot compete for good jobs, earn little throughout the year, feel uncertain about life in the city, and fear that after being laid off they will return to the countryside with no land to farm. Farmers worry most that after "agricultural to non-agricultural" conversion they will lose contracted land and homestead land. Many young and middle-aged people choose urban-rural amphibiousness, retreating to the countryside when going out is difficult and going out to seek opportunities whenever possible. Farmers say that although farming does not bring much income, at least there is food to eat and a house to live in, which is at least a form of security. The city may be good, but without a job one cannot live there.</P><P> Second, real pressure is great: the threshold for settling down in the city is high. In 2014, the average monthly income of migrant workers in the cities and counties of Xiangyang was about 2,000 yuan, and those with monthly wage income exceeding 3,000 yuan accounted for about 15 percent, while in the same period the average sales price of commercial housing in the cities and counties was 3,800 yuan per sq m. Commercial housing prices continued to rise, urban village redevelopment led to a reduction in rental housing supply, and rental housing rents also rose by 20% to 30%. Migrant workers find it difficult to rely on wage income to support a family in the city, pay for their children's schooling, let alone buy a house. A 26-year-old young man surnamed Huang from Wuzhen in Nanzhang County knows how to install water and electricity, so finding work is not difficult, but he can save only 20,000 to 30,000 yuan a year. At this income level, even if he neither ate nor drank, buying an apartment would take one or two decades. Among the several young migrant workers the author surveyed, when buying a house in the city was mentioned, their first reaction was "I wouldn't even dare to think about it." But they have eager expectations about buying a house; in their view, without a house they cannot put down roots in the city. Most of the new generation of migrant workers have a certain amount of education and skills. Unlike their parents' generation, they have a stronger willingness to stay in the city and more employment choices, but buying a house is often a high threshold they cannot cross.</P><P> Third, the imprint of previous experience is deep: "washing one's feet" and entering the city is full of setbacks. From the mid-1980s to the early 1990s, the policy of "selling household registration" was implemented successively in the cities and counties of Xiangyang. A farmer could convert from agricultural to non-agricultural status by spending 5,000 to 10,000 yuan, and those of working age could even be recruited into factories, which led many people to empty their family savings or even borrow money everywhere to "buy household registration." But within a few years, many people were laid off and unemployed before they had earned back the money they spent on buying household registration, and had no choice but to take a "non-agricultural household registration" paper back to the countryside to farm or go out to work. This situation is still fresh in many farmers' memories. Many farmers say, we have contracted land and self-built houses, and can also enjoy the new rural cooperative medical care and the new social security. Now rural water and electricity supply is normal, transportation conditions have improved, housing standards have risen, the living environment is good, and with more and more national beneficial policies for farmers, rural household registration is also very "precious."</P><P> Farmer citizenization involves too many issues and cannot be achieved overnight. Its implementation requires a fairly long process; haste makes waste. Before farmers can obtain a higher level of employment and social security, the process of farmer citizenization cannot be fast. This requires the government to do careful and meticulous work in theoretical argumentation, planning guidance, institutional improvement, and public opinion guidance, and even more requires the government to gradually eliminate farmers' distant worries and immediate anxieties in the process of farmer citizenization, so that farmer citizenization comes about naturally, and it must never transcend reality by using administrative force to pull up seedlings to help them grow.</P></p>