What are the reasons for migrant workers' low willingness to become urban residents?

Preview of the Central Economic Work Conference

How to advance in an orderly manner the citizenization of the population transferred from agriculture, and resolve the low enthusiasm of local governments and the agricultural transfer population, is a difficult problem that needs to be solved in advancing urbanization.

On the eve of the Central Economic Work Conference, the National Development and Reform Commission's year-end economic research work has been fully launched, among which the construction of new-type urbanization is a key topic. How to advance in an orderly manner the citizenization of the population transferred from agriculture, and resolve the low enthusiasm of local governments and the agricultural transfer population, is a difficult problem that needs to be solved in advancing urbanization.

Is an urban household registration needed?

Many migrant workers answer: No. In fact, according to research by multiple departments, migrant workers have a relatively low willingness to convert to urban household registration.

What exactly has led to this situation? After investigation, a 21st Century Business Herald reporter found that the value of urban household registration has already greatly declined.

This makes it somewhat difficult to achieve the goal of having about 100 million people transferred from agriculture and other permanent residents settle in cities and towns. And if the goal is that by 2020 the urbanization rate of permanent residents reaches 60% and the urbanization rate of household registration population reaches 45%, efforts from multiple sides will be needed.

Jin Xiaoyi, a professor at Xi'an Jiaotong University who specializes in research on the topic of peasant citizenization, believes that the construction of new-type rural areas and small towns can be accelerated to absorb and take in surplus rural labor on the spot. "This can enable farmers to become citizens living in rural areas, thereby ultimately and comprehensively eliminating the gap between rural and urban areas," she said.

Migrant workers' willingness to become urban residents is low

Wuhan household registration has little significance for Zhang Dong (pseudonym), who has worked in Wuhan, Hubei for many years. He is now in his 40s, and his household registration is still in rural Hubei.

"In Wuhan, as long as a student's grades are good, not to mention rural students from Hubei, even students from other provinces can attend the best schools," Zhang Dong said.

It is understood that for many years, many high schools in Hubei have adopted an enrollment system based on student grades. Many good high schools recruit students from across the country and the whole province, and do not necessarily require Wuhan household registration.

Such policies have led Zhang Dong not to be in a hurry to convert his household registration to urban. In addition, he still has several mu of farmland in the countryside, looked after by his parents who live there, but with mechanized farming, his parents are not very tired.

In addition, Zhang Dong's household registration is in the countryside, and his medical insurance is also rural. A family only needs one card, paying about 150 yuan per person per year, and the whole family can see a doctor, with inpatient reimbursement reaching 90%. As for old-age support, Zhang Dong has urban pension insurance, and in the future after retirement he will also have retirement income.

Zhang Dong believes that the only benefit of having Wuhan household registration is being able to buy one more home in Wuhan. But Wuhan housing prices are generally around 10,000 yuan per sq m, and for migrant workers, buying more homes is not very meaningful.

"As long as you work within a province, the difference between urban household registration and rural household registration is not great," Zhang Dong said.

There are still many migrant workers who think like Zhang Dong. Previously, whether the Ministry of Agriculture, the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, or the research group of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, among multiple departments, all found through surveys that migrant workers have relatively low willingness to obtain urban household registration.

For example, Han Changfu, Minister of Agriculture, pointed out at a recent press conference that on the issue of farmers withdrawing from contracted land, only a small number of farmers currently have this willingness. For farmers who enter cities to withdraw from contracted land, there must be a sufficiently long historical process and sufficient historical patience.

The research group of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference also found in a survey in Tongling, Anhui in September this year that migrant workers do not have a strong willingness to transfer household registration.

This is because in 2011 the city's floating population could enjoy rights to urban employment, education, social security, and so on. Migrant workers entering the city could even apply for indemnificatory housing. The city's floating population is more than 100,000, with 80,000 migrant workers, but from 2011 to 2015, only 9,005 people had their rural household registration converted to urban household registration.

Liao Hongle, a researcher at the Rural Economy Research Center of the Ministry of Agriculture, said that farmers are unwilling to transfer household registration because working in the city is the same without migrating household registration. In addition, migrant workers also worry that rural contracted land will be lost because of urban household registration.

Recently, the General Office of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the General Office of the State Council issued the "Opinions on Improving the Measures for Separating Rural Land Ownership Rights, Contract Rights, and Management Rights," proposing requirements for separating rural land ownership rights, contract rights, and management rights, namely that rural land is collectively owned, but contract rights and management rights can be transferred. At the same time, farmers can buy homes and settle in cities, but farmers can still retain land contract rights.

Developing small towns is a new direction

In addition, in response to this situation in which farmers are unwilling to settle in cities but willing to work and live in cities, many experts believe that the new-type urbanization approach of simply requiring farmers to transfer household registration should be changed.

Jin Xiaoyi believes that while focusing on urbanization construction, the state should also focus on new rural construction, accelerate the construction of new-type rural areas and small towns, and absorb and take in surplus rural labor on the spot; promote the transformation of farmers' ways of life and work, and promote the modernization of farmers' ideology, ways of thinking, lifestyles, behavioral patterns, and social participation.

At present, farmers still face pressure in surviving in cities, so contracted land should be retained in rural areas. "In this way, migrant workers can 'advance' to work in cities and 'retreat' to return home to farm, minimizing the impact and risks that urbanization may bring to the livelihoods of individuals and families," she said.

The reality is that migrant workers in various places widely experience the situation of leaving the land but not the village, and entering the factory but not the city.

For example, many migrant workers work in factories in small towns, live and eat at home, or buy or rent housing nearby. In this way, many migrant workers can, on the one hand, take care of the elderly and children, and on the other hand, also attend to the contracted land at home, and at the same time not delay going to work and earning money.

But if farmers really enter the city and convert rural household registration to urban household registration, and correspondingly convert farmers' medical insurance and old-age support to urban social security, many local governments may not be able to bear it.

For example, Xie Yongming, deputy director of the Tongling Municipal Development and Reform Commission in Anhui, once pointed out to the media that in Tongling, each citizenization of a person transferred from agriculture requires a fiscal input of 73,500 yuan. If the provision of jobs after entering the city is added, such input would be much higher, and the city would find it very difficult to bear.

Yang Chongguang, a researcher at the Institute for Urban and Environmental Studies of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, pointed out that regarding how farmers enter cities and how they become urban residents, there should be no one-size-fits-all approach. "Even if buying a home in the city and obtaining household registration is counted as citizenization, it still needs to be treated differently according to place and different circumstances. In some places the countryside is similar to the city, and the state's medical conditions, social security, and other aspects are being extended to rural areas, so some people are willing to register their household registration in rural areas.

However, he pointed out that some rural areas are still very backward, even if farmers are willing to settle in cities. But urban housing prices are very expensive, which also suppresses farmers' demand to enter cities. "Farmers do have demand for settling in cities. The problem is that even after settling in the city, despite many ** policies, some farmers still cannot afford housing."