1. Policy background and main content In 2014, China's economy entered a "new normal" state, governments deepened the reform and opening-up and promoted innovation.
In the"new normal," China's economy grew steadily, and the employment rate maintained stable. More migrant workers were employed, and the developing trend was good. In order to provide better services for migrant workers, addressed prominent issues, and promote the citizenization of migrant workers, the General Office of the State Council released a document on improving services for migrant workers, which was the second guiding document on migrant workers issued by the State Council. The document would lay the foundation for helping migrant worker to integrate into urban areas and achieving the goal of the citizenization of migrant workers. The following five requirements were listed in the document.
(1) Migrant workers' employment rate should be steadily increased.
Skills development programs for migrant workers should be conducted, and different levels of skill trainings should be offered for middle school graduates in rural areas, employed migrant workers, and intermediate technical migrant workers, in order to build a lifelong skill training system for migrant workers. The development of technical education in rural areas should be accelerated. Efforts should be taken to let rural graduates, who were not able to enter high school or college, to participate in technical education. Tuition exemption policies and subsidy policies for rural technical school students should be carried out. The cultivation of technical teachers should be enhanced and the quality of technical education should be improved. A double-certificate system should be developed to grant both school certificate and vocational certificate to graduates. Policies should be enacted to promote migrant workers，employment and entrepreneurship, guide migrant workers to transfer jobs, and support migrant workers to start business in their hometown. Discriminatory rules such as household registration restrictions should be abolished to ensure the equality of employment rights. Public employment services should be improved to provide policy consultation, career guidance and job search consultation.
(2) Migrant workers，labor rights should be protected.
Governments should regulate the employment of migrant workers and require employers to provide legal work contracts. Migrant workers，right to wage should be protected. In the construction industry and other industries that are more likely to have the issue of wage arrears, a salary guarantee fund system should be promoted, and the establishment of emergency revolving fund systems should be explored in cities and counties where conditions allow. The income equality between migrant workers and urban resident workers should be ensured. More migrant workers should be covered by social insurance. Endowment insurance policies and medical insurance policies should be improved to cover migrant workers. The coverage of employment injury insurance should be expanded, and those who are not insured should have other forms of guarantees. The equality of unemployment insurance and maternity insurance between migrant workers and urban residents should be improved. Efforts should be taken to enhance job safety. Job safety training should be provided for migrant workers who have higher health risks at work. Safety issues in mines and the construction industry should be dealt with. Programs on preventing and treating occupational diseases should be conducted. Migrant workers should have better access to protect their rights. The labor dispute arbitration system should be improved, and legal aid services for migrant workers should be enhanced.
(3) Efforts should be taken to ensure migrant workers have equal access to public services and allow them to register as urban households.
The institutional reform of basic public service system should be deepened. The coverage of urban public services should be expanded from registered households to permanent residents, in order to cover migrant workers and their accompanying family members, and ensure their citizen rights. Service platforms that integrate various public services should be built to provide convenient, high quality and "one-stop" services for migrant workers. The education of migrant workers' children should be included in the local education development program. More funding should be provided for improving the public school system, so as to ensure the educational rights of migrant workers' children. Preschool education demands of migrant workers' children should be better satisfied. Medical services and family planning services should be improved. Migrant workers5 children should equally receive vaccination services. The policy to give HIV carriers and AIDS patients free medical treatments should be better implemented. The community health and family planning service network should include migrant workers. Certain regions should be encouraged to include migrant workers and their accompanying family members in the local medical assistance system. Migrant workers' living conditions should be improved. Overall plans should be made for housing construction for permanent residents, and migrant workers' housing issues should be included in the local housing development program. The supply of small and medium-sized apartments should be increased, and the renting market should be regulated. More supports should be provided for migrant workers to purchase or rent apartments and they should be qualified for tax preferential policies. Qualified migrant workers should be included in the housing guarantee system. For the migrant workers who are employed in urban areas for the long term, they should be included in the housing provident fund system. The settlement of migrant workers in urban areas should be advanced. The reform of the household registration system should be enhanced. Differential policies of household registration should be enacted, which encourage migrant workers, who are employed for the long term and are willing to settle down, to register their households in urban areas. Migrant workers' rural land contracted right, right to the use of homestead, and rural collective income distribution right should be guaranteed. Registration and certification should be carried out for migrant workers' rural land contracted right and right to the use of homestead. The rural collective property right reform should be deepened and new types of rural collective business should be developed. At the present stage, the household registration of migrant workers in urban areas should not be on the premise of giving up their rural land contracted right, right to the use of homestead, and rural collective income distribution right.
(4) Migrant workers should be encouraged to integrate into new environments.
Migrant workers' political rights should be protected. New CPC Party members should be cultivated among migrant workers and the party division construction should be enhanced. Party member education and management system coordinating urban and rural party divisions should be developed. Excellent migrant worker party members should be recommended to be CPC National Congress representatives, People's Congress representatives, or CPPCC members. They should be treated equally in the selection of model workers and outstanding workers, and in the civil servant application. Migrant workers， cultural life should be enriched. They should be included in the public cultural service system and have free access to libraries, museums and other public facilities. They should have better access to newspaper, television and the Internet. Humanistic concern for migrant workers should be improved. They should be encouraged to study core socialist values. Care systems should be built for migrant workers' left-behind family members. The preschool education program was carried on for left-behind children to improve rural preschool education and to help the children enter kindergartens. Education conditions in poverty areas should be improved. Subsidy policies should be enacted for boarding students with financial difficulties during their compulsory education. The urban-rural endowment insurance system should be developed to improve social welfare and social assistance for rural senior citizens. Comprehensive service stations should be developed in rural areas to provide services for migrant workers' left-behind family members.
(5) The guidance for carrying out programs on migrant workers should be enhanced.
The work coordination system should be improved. Migrant worker programs should be included in socio-economic development programs of governments at different levels, and in the government evaluation system. More funding should be provided for public services for migrant workers. The public finance systemic reform should be deepened. Two systems should be developed, one is the cost sharing system among governments, companies and individuals for the citizenization of migrant workers, and another is the system integrating financial transfer payment and the citizenization. Financial departments of all levels should include funding for migrant worker programs into public expenditure. Trade Unions, the Communist Youth League, and the women's federations should enhance and innovate their services for migrant workers. The union should innovate their admission methods to attract more migrant worker members. New Youth League members should be cultivated among young migrant workers. These three organizations should better protect migrant workers' rights and organize more volunteer activities to serve migrant workers and their family members. Social organizations should be encouraged to provide services for migrant workers. Based on the principle of attaching equal importance to cultivation and supervision, governments should guide and support social organizations to provide services for migrant workers, by taking measures such as providing service trainings, encouraging communication between organizations, and purchasing services. A solid base should be set for migrant worker programs. Governments should develop a statistic monitoring system that would integrate urban and rural areas, combine comprehensive statistics and departmental statistics, and with unified standards and information sharing mechanism, in order to monitor the citizenization process of migrant workers. A better social environment should be created for migrant workers. Outstanding migrant worker groups and individuals should be honored and awarded. Other citizens should be encouraged to respect migrant workers and treat them fairly.
2. Policy implementation In 2014, the scale of rural labor force transfer was increased.
The number of rural workers reached 273.95 million, 5.01 million people more than previous year, up 1.9 percent. Among them, the number of migrant rural workers reached 168.21 million, 2.11 million people more than that of previous year, up 1.3 percent; the number of local rural workers was 105.74 million, 2.9 million people more than previous year, up 2.8 percent.
(1) Skill training and job search services were enhanced.
In 2014, the program on migrant workers5 employment was carried on. The Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, the All-China Federation of Trade Unions, and the All-China Women's Federation jointly built a supply and demand platform to promote rural labor force transfer. A program to cultivate new rural workers was initiated, which planned to offer free skill trainings for 7 million people annually, with the goal of at least 90 percent of training pass rate and at least 80 percent of employment rate. It was the second large-scale program on rural labor force transfer since the "Sunshine Project." It was carried out in all major labor force flow-out provinces.
(2) Migrant workers' wages were on the rise, and the wage arrear issue was alleviated.
In 2014, 19 provinces adjusted the minimum wage, up 14.1 percent on average. According to statistics, migrant workers' average monthly income was 2,864 yuan, with a 9.8 percent increase of 225 yuan from previous year. Eight ministries jointly carried out national inspections on the income payment situations of migrant workers. The ratio of migrant workers with wage arrears decreased to 0.8 percent, down by 0.2 percentage point from previous year.
(3)Basic public services were improved step by step.
By the end of 2014, 80 percent of migrant workers' accompanying children were enrolled in public schools, and the number of academic degrees paid by governments in private schools reached 1.25 million. In Sichuan province, a program was initiated on guaranteeing migrant workers' housing, which allocated 30 percent of public rental housing for migrant workers. In Shandong province, the equality of health and family planning services were promoted. Standard health records were created for migrant workers who had lived in the province for over six months. In 2014, more rural workers participated in the "five insurances and one fund" program, the participation proportion and growth rates were as follows: 26.2 percent of rural workers participated in the employment injury insurance, up 1.2 percentage points year-on-year; 17.6 percent participated in the medical insurance, up 0.5 percentage point; 16.7 percent participated in the endowment insurance, up 0.5 percentage point; 10.5 percent participated in the unemployment insurance, up 0.7 percentage point; 7.8 percent participated in the maternity insurance, up 0.6 percentage point; 5.5 percent participated in the housing provident fund, up 0.5 percentage point. The participation proportion of all rural workers in the "five insurances and one fund" program was increased. The participation rates of migrant workers were higher than local rural workers in employment injury insurance, medical insurance and housing provident fund, while participation rates in endowment insurance, unemployment insurance and maternity insurance were lower than that of the local rural workers.
