The citizenization of rural migrant population is an important mechanism of vertical social mobility
Recently, the State Council issued the "Opinions on Further Advancing the Reform of the Household Registration System," and made arrangements to do a good job in serving migrant workers and to advance in an orderly manner the citizenization of the rural migrant population. This is a key policy for advancing the integrated development of urban and rural areas in our country, and it will have a far-reaching impact.
A society has vitality when it possesses a mechanism for vertical mobility between social strata
How to transform from a dual structure into a unitary structure is a core link in realizing the Chinese Dream. In this process, the transformation of people from a “dual structure” into a “unitary structure” is crucial. It can be seen that the citizenization of the rural migrant population is one of the key issues in our country's economic and social transformation at present and for a fairly long period to come. The key precondition for solving this issue lies in clearly recognizing what the essence of the citizenization of the rural migrant population is.
Whether an economy and society have vitality depends crucially on whether their resources possess mobility. When they move, they are full of vitality; when they stagnate, they are a stagnant pool of dead water. Mobility itself is the process of economic structural adjustment. The mobility of resources includes not only material flows and capital flows, but also the mobility of population. More importantly, population mobility is the result of rational expectations and rational choices, and is the most direct reflection of changes in economic activity.
The citizenization of the rural migrant population has as its background the urban-rural development gap, has as its goal the integration of urban and rural development, and has as its process a mechanism of vertical social mobility. When a society possesses a mechanism for vertical mobility between social strata, the bottom of society has hope, has vitality, and has a self-correcting mechanism for social development, and can to a certain extent avoid the phenomenon of resource “misallocation.”
Ensuring that those with secure property have perseverance is the key to the citizenization of the rural migrant population
For the citizenization of the rural migrant population to truly become a mechanism of vertical social mobility, it is necessary for those who have become urban citizens to feel: those with secure property have perseverance.
Since the reform and opening up, the relationship between the rural migrant population (commonly known as migrant workers) and the cities has been one of “surging in and surging out.” This is a state of “those without secure property have no perseverance.” The builders of the cities, the makers of products, and the providers of services are nonetheless isolated from urban civilization and unable to enjoy the fruits of modern civilization's development. In this state, migrant workers' employment decisions will be full of uncertainty depending on the time and place; making a living becomes the primary goal, development becomes idle talk, and upward mobility is an even lower-probability event. The American economist Schultz pointed out in his classic work "Transforming Traditional Agriculture" that it is a misunderstanding to think that farmers have narrow understanding; farmers are rational. The duck knows first when the spring river water warms. Migrant workers will make the choice most beneficial to themselves.
Ensuring that those with secure property have perseverance is the key to the citizenization of the rural migrant population. Citizenization is a process of dynamic adjustment between the current welfare and future welfare of the rural migrant population. Maximizing expected welfare is an important part of the citizenization of the rural migrant population.
Education replaces raising children for old-age support. For the citizenization of the rural migrant population, the most important thing is integration into the modern education system. Education is the most important pathway for vertical social mobility and is an intangible path of intergenerational transmission. Investment in human capital is the key to seeking to maximize intergenerational returns and is the key to realizing intergenerational fairness. Hoping one's son will become a dragon is not following the crowd, but a rational choice. If the next generation can obtain fair educational opportunities, this will be a secure property, an intangible secure property, a secure property full of hope, and a feasible path for “a poor family producing a noble son.” Achieving broad coverage of the education system is the primary link in the citizenization of the rural migrant population and is the greatest project benefiting the people.
Social security replaces land security. For the citizenization of the rural migrant population, social security needs to gradually provide a safety net. So-called safety net means forming stable expectations, so that life has something to rely on. So-called gradual means proceeding according to the government's fiscal capacity and the ability of social security funds to increase revenue. More importantly, the citizenization of the rural migrant population is the result of going with the flow of economic development and industrial structural adjustment, rather than a simple “land for household registration.” In rural areas, land has an economic function and a security function. For the rural migrant population after citizenization, the bottom line of life needs something to rely on, and the elderly need support. In the conversion and connection of the two security systems, no vacuum zone should be formed.
Employment replaces living subsidies. Wages are the discounted returns on a person's labor capacity and are the most important guarantee for forming stable expectations. How the rural migrant population after citizenization obtains employment is crucial. Relying only on low-income living subsidies makes it difficult to form stable expectations. In addition to the local industrial absorptive capacity, an important pathway is to encourage migrant workers with entrepreneurial spirit to start businesses in the places where they work; at this time, the equal opportunities provided by the government are very important.
Resource mobility replaces stagnation. The citizenization of the rural migrant population is about achieving urban-rural integration, which requires relying on the free flow of resources. The process of resource flow is the process of diversifying sources of income. For the rural migrant population after citizenization, part of their material property may still be in the countryside; whether this part of the property can achieve mobility through channels such as leasing, shareholding, guarantees, and mortgages, and realize returns on property rights, is very important. On the one hand, the flow of this part of resources is crucial for the rural economy to achieve scale development; on the other hand, it can realize the connection between the rural capital market and the urban capital market. Capital crosses time and space, does not distinguish between urban and rural, and only looks at whether there is profit or not. Capital flow is the process of urban-rural integration and also the process of diversifying income.
In short, those with secure property have perseverance; the core is the right to survival and the right to development, a positive and upward positive energy, and the foundation for the sustainability of the citizenization of the rural migrant population.